Notorious

Review and perform both the Shoulder Prep and Hip Prep

Three rounds for time of:

12 Muscle-ups

75 Squats

Austin Malleolo 7:40, Kristan Clever 9:31

The muscle up is infamous in the CrossFit community.  One of my goals is to take that mystique away from the movement and make it accessible to every athlete. The parts of the movement that we can break down and work on include: grip, the pull, transition, and the dip. There are variations in style for the muscle up as well: kipping, strict, false grip, non false grip, straight bar, rings, etc. The most important part of learning the muscle up (and any movement for that matter) is to work on it consistently. Be sure to build a solid foundation in each part of the movement and stay safe! Too often I see people that want the muscle up so desperately, they keep trying the movement over and over again with poor form and end up with pain in their elbows and shoulders. Be smart and patient! For our discussion purposes below, I will be discussing the strict muscle up on rings. Again, there are many other ways for you to work this movement, but by focusing on the strict movement we can address the weak points in your movement and get you performing high volume muscle ups in a wod over time.

The Grip – A muscle up can be performed in both a regular grip or a false grip. Traditionally, and the way we teach people is to learn the false grip. This shortens the length of the arm, gives us a stronger base of support and allows for an easier transition from under the rings to the suppport position above the rings. Start by practicing the false grip ring row.

Get comfortable performing a pulling motion maintaining the false grip and be sure to work the full extension of your arms with a turn out at the bottom. Once you master this, start working a bent arm hanging position with false grip.

Try to go from a bent arm position to full extension and back again without losing your false grip.

The Pull – In order to perform a muscle up, you will need at least a solid strict pull up, a strict chest to bar would be even better! When I say strict, I mean no swinging at all and holding a hollow body position the entire time. Please put your ego on hold while practicing these, use the proper amount of bands that allow you to show control and strength both up and down in the movement. Maintaining a tight controlled body position is tantamount to performing a good muscle up. Also, if you have never performed a pull up on the rings, give it a try!

The Transition – The major sticking point! There are a lot of drills to work on this movement. One of the first things I think people should work on is the bottom of the ring dip, or where you would finish the transition. You need to be strong in that position and aware of what it feels like. For any transition drill to be effective, you need to land in this position! Also, holding a false grip through these drills is assumed.

A few variations of this are: ring row into transition with feet on the ground, negatives or lowering yourself through the transition, banded transition work (embedded video).  Another great way to learn and perform the transition is with a spotter.

The Dip – Nothing fancy here, you just have to do it!  Be sure to work full range of motion, which includes not just good depth, but also a strong ring support position at the top.  Use bands as needed and also work the negative or controlled lowering.