Muscle Up

The muscle up is a pull up and a dip stitched together by a transition, and the transition is the part that humbles people. It is not a strength exercise you grind reps of. It is a skill built on top of real strength, and if you go after it before you own a chest to bar pull up and a deep straight bar dip, you will spend months kipping badly and hurting your shoulders instead.

How to Perform

1. Take a false grip on the bar or rings, with your wrists over the top rather than hanging beneath.
2. Pull explosively, aiming to bring the bar to your lower chest rather than your chin.
3. As the bar reaches your chest, drive your chest forward and rotate your elbows from under the bar to behind it.
4. Once your torso is above the bar, press out of the bottom of the dip until your arms lock.
5. Reverse the sequence under control, or step down and reset for the next rep.

Tips

• The entry standards are real: roughly ten strict pull ups and ten straight bar dips before you spend time here.
• Train the transition on its own with a band or on low rings. That is the limiting piece, not your pulling strength.
• Pull higher than feels necessary. Most failed attempts are a pull that stopped at the chin.