Muscle Progression: 6 Steps to Mastering the Movement

Unless you are already a well-trained person gymnastThe horizontal bar muscle-up is one of the most challenging exercises bodyweight exercise You can try. In addition to requiring a large number of cores and upper body strengththe double-arm arm needs to be excellent Liquidity, body awarenesscoordination and timing.

If you’re determined to add muscle-ups to your gym repertoire, know that there’s a right and wrong way to develop this skill.

• Wrong way: Swing your body and pound the barbell repeatedly until you feel tired, frustrated, and maybe even injured.
• Correct way: Progression of muscle-ups.

Muscle progressions are a series of increasingly difficult moves that gradually develop your muscle-up technique while building strength. Each stage of the progression includes baselines that indicate your readiness to move on to the next exercise in the progression.

The final phase, of course, is the muscle-up lift with confidence and perfect form.

6-step horizontal bar muscle-up progression

Dr. AS John Gallucci, Jr., MS, ATC, PT, DPT, CEO I have physical therapyexplains that a muscle-up is actually a series of smaller movements strung together:

1. kip swing
2. Knee lift
3. Lift your legs
4. Breasts to the bar pull-ups
5. triceps extension

To perform muscle-ups, you must be able to perform the movements repeatedly with ease. This is where muscle-up progression comes in.

Developed with input from Gallucci and Jeff Waters, registered USA Boxing trainer and owner Waters Showthe following muscle-up progression starts at the beginner level. Depending on your gymnastics experience and current strength level, you may be able to skip this.

Step 1: Suspension knee/leg lift

• Hold the pull-up bar with your overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width.
• Keep your arms at arms length (this position is called a dead hang) and your legs straight and together.
• Bend your knees 90 degrees and lift them to hip level. Hold for one second, then return to starting position.
• Once you are able to complete three sets of 10 reps, perform the same movement, keeping your legs straight and your body forming an L shape. Once you can complete three sets of 10 reps with straight leg raises, you can move on to the next step.

hint: “Make sure you’re not swinging and using momentum to lift your legs, all the work comes from your hip flexors and core,” says Gallucci.

Step 2: Assist chest-to-bar pull-ups

• Wrap one end of a large resistance band around the pull-up bar. Hold the barbell with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and place one foot on the other end of the resistance band.
• Straighten your legs and keep a certain distance from your arms nuclear and Gluteus involvement.
• Without swinging or twisting (using momentum to propel you upward), engage your lats and squeeze your shoulder blades together as you pull your chest toward the bar.
• Pause, then lower your body to a still position.

hint: “Start with thicker straps,” Waters says. “If you can complete 10 complete pull-upsuse thinner straps. Over time, keep working until you can do 10 strict pull-ups with the thinnest band. Then move on.

Step Three: Strict Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups

• Hold the pull-up bar with your overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Keep your arms straight and arm-distance apart, and cross your ankles behind you.
• Without swinging or twisting, engage your core, glutes, and lats as you squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull your chest toward the bar.
• Pause, then lower your body to a still position.
• Once you can complete three sets of 10 reps, continue. But while you’re still learning a new skill, keep practicing chest-to-bar pull-ups.

hint: “At this stage, it is important to remain committed to “push‘That’s the function you use in a muscle-up,'” Waters said.

He suggested a merger push-up Incorporate into your training program include lever push-ups, in which you lower yourself all the way to the ground and momentarily raise your arms before pushing back into a plank to remove any momentum from the movement.

“Start in a floor position to half-height and then lower yourself back to the ground. This is the hardest part of the push, which is why we emphasize it,” he says.

Step 4: triceps extension

• Grasp the handles of the dipping station and jump or step out of the starting position: feet off the floor, arms straight, and ankles crossed. (To make the move easier, you can wrap a large resistance band around the handles and rest your knees on top.)
• Keeping your forearms vertical and your elbows in (not splayed), tilt your torso forward as you lower your body until your elbows form an approximately 90-degree angle.
• Reverse the movement and return to the starting position. Once you can complete three sets of 10 reps, continue.

Step Five: Swing Swing

• Hold the pull-up bar with your overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width.
• Keep arms at arm’s length, arms straight, and legs straight and together.
• Assume a hollow body pose: Engage your core and lats, flex (circle) your spine and tilt your pelvis back (tailbone tucked in).
• Push your chest forward with your shoulders and arch your spine, allowing your legs to swing behind you.
• Use your shoulders, lats, and core to swing back to a hollow body position and begin pulling up in the same manner as a chest-to-bar pull-up.
• Once you can perform three sets of 10 reps on the kip swing, during which your chest reaches the level of the bar, you can perform full muscle-ups.

hint: Make sure you use your shoulders, not your hips, to create your swing.

Step Six: Muscle Development

• Hold the pull-up bar with your overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder width.
• Hang with arms straight and core and glutes engaged.
• Initiate your golf swing: From a neutral body position, use your shoulders to push your chest forward and arch your spine. Then, use your shoulders, lats, and core to swing back to the hollow body position. (Once you’re behind the bar, lean back and pull the bar down as high as possible.)
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull your hips toward the bar. Once your belly touches the bar, rotate your wrists forward, lean forward, and straighten your elbows so that your torso is over the bar.
• Hold, then lower to rest suspension position.