Developing the Muscle-up Transition

[Mark Weaver]

Gymmie,

Maybe you could adjust the level of difficulty on your rows. Try rows standing more and more vertical until you find a place that is challenging on the false grip, but where you can still do your desired reps.

mark

[gymmie]

Thanks for the reply So I should start doing my rows in a more vertical position and move towards horizontal? How many reps would u suggest I get before increasing the difficulty? Regarding the false grip I like to know if I'm doing right, it's just the bottom part of the wrist that is hooked over the ring right?

[Mark Weaver]

I'm probably not the best person to answer. As far as the actual grip a quick google image search gives a nice visual.

For reps, I go off my understanding from Coach's book, 2-3 sets of 3-5 reps. If that isn't challenging enough, try the next progression. In this case, move from vertical to more horizontal.

Maybe you could do static work as well, such as just hanging in the false grip, adjusting the angle of your body and keeping your feet on the floor, to find a challenging level, and working for time.

[gymmie]

yupz just tried the static hang, ain't easy man, guess i'm still not used to the false grip.

[Castleclimber]

Hi everyone,

I've written a brief blog entry as a tutorial for the Muscle Up and developing the requisite strength to perform it. If anyone's interested, it can be found here:

http://super-human-strength.blogspot.com/

I'd welcome comments from advanced athletes who can already Muscle Up just as much as beginners who are struggling with it. One of the things I didn't cover in the article was developing the strength to false grip. If you have the time to take up a new sport, Rock climbing will quickly give you the flexor strength to hold the false grip with relative ease. Failing that, any forearm flexor dependent exercise -even gripmasters like Ironminds Captains of Crush- will help.

Ensure that you also train your forearm extensors to prevent unwanted tendonitis.

Good luck!

[gymmie]

Hi guys, I was just training my false grip pull up and I thought of just going up, by chance I got my first MU. It's still sloppy, will work on em, prob is I got excited after the first and tried a few, not sure is it bad form but now my right shoulder sorta hurting. Should I lay off practicing em or should I continue maybe with just the pull up?

[sasquatch]

Today I was practicing the muscle up and I found I can do it as slow as I want, and can even stop in any part of the transition. after that I tried to see if I could do it without leaning forward in the transition, I couldn't do it at all. Then I tried to do it with a wide grip and failed at that too. I was wondering what I should focus on now that I have a strong transition, should I work on doing it without leaning forward, or a wider grip or weighted?

[Blairbob]

Without leaning forward.

Try the pullup first and see if it aggravates the shoulder.

[jl5555]

.....after that I tried to see if I could do it without leaning forward in the transition, I couldn't do it at all. Then I tried to do it with a wide grip and failed at that too. I was wondering what I should focus on now that I have a strong transition, should I work on doing it without leaning forward, or a wider grip or weighted?

Well, you might get a 5 page dissertation from him but I think recently slizzardman pretty much nailed this through his various workouts and rube goldberg machines there in his garage of tricks. I hope he might give you some insight that I could benefit from as well since I definately lean over to get through the transition now as well. My guess is he'll suggest doing weighted dips or something like that...

[Joshua Naterman]

You don't have a strong transition if you can't do it without a good amount of forward lean. Honestly, this is where tricep strength comes in, because the straighter you are the more you are using your triceps. SLOW chest to bar pull ups help with this, and so do slow russian dips. Weighted dips honestly aren't as good for this I don't think, though they will certainly help a little bit. I think the time is best spent with slow push up progressions from CC, for elbow prehab and joint strengthening, along with the russian dips. You simply have to develop the tricep strength and shoulder mobility to do the russian dips slowly without much of a body lean. This is just a matter of being patient, just like with planche. It's possible for anyone to accomplish.

[sasquatch]

So I should just start trying to pull and push as high as I can without leaning forward at all? Maybe practicing it while gradually reducing the forward lean would be good too? I've started doing push-ups variations that target the triceps also.

[Joshua Naterman]

I know I didn't mention this, but the wrists are important too. They don't seem to be your limiting factor, so I didn't mention them earlier. The RUssian dips help develop the wrist strength you'll need.

You COULD try and remove the lean gradually, but in the end you'll "grease your groove" with the wrong neural patterns if you do it too much. Make sure you are spending most of your time with the russian dips and the false grip pull ups. You're not going to magically lose the muscle up just because you don't train the whole movement!

If you can, perfect spotted muscle ups would be a fantastic idea. That way you can get good neural learning, and spend the rest of your time developing both sides of the transition with the russian dips and false grip pull ups.

[sasquatch]

Thanks for the ideas. Don't you need tall parallel bars for russian dips?

[Joshua Naterman]

Not really, mine are 5 feet tall but I did a lot of work on them at the gym on the dip bars. As long as your knees don't hit the ground at the bottom of the dip you should be fine, because you can work them with bent legs if that's what the available bars require.

[Patrick McNamara]

Hi guys. I figured out a great way to work your transition on a muscle-up, in addition to what has already been posted.

When I was younger, I was a competitive swimmer...so I still enjoy swimming as a means for aerobic fitness. Well, while resting the other day between sets, I figured a muscle-up transition could be assisted from the buoyancy of the water...significantly decreasing the amount of actual force needed. If you have access to a pool with a depth of around 6' that works best. However, a shorter depth will do..just keep the knees bent. Jump in the pool. Place the palms flat on the deck/edge of the pool....a false grip of sorts. Then simply go through your pull-up into transition and finish extended if you desire. I find it is an excellent way to work very slow "negatives" of the transition due to the assist. Hope this helps!

[dnj23]

I apologize if this was ever mentioned, but an awesome assistance exercise to the muscle up is doing standing pull downs with a lat pulldown machine. Take an overhand grip on a straight bar and bring the bar down all the way to the hang position. Start light and work the weight up. That helped me tremendously. You could do them with bands too if you don't have acccess to one, as long as there is challenging resistance. One hand variations are also good. Really helps with the transition part. good luck.

[ScottyDugans]

Somebody should make a rings lat pull down machine

[Joshua Naterman]

Somebody should make a rings lat pull down machine

They do, look up freemotion machines.

[Daniel Burnham]

Somebody should make a rings lat pull down machine

They do, look up freemotion machines.

At my last gym I connected some cheaper pair of rings up to the freemotion machine and practiced a lot of elements with the false grip. Love these things.