The the best muscle-up tutorial on the internet was posted by a non-gymnast, Tyler Hass, on the Power Athletes Magazine site.
Tyler called muscle-up the one upper body exercise that reigns supreme.
Now, building on that article, strength guru James Bathurst posted an exhaustive tutorial on his excellent Beast Skills site. Once again we gymnastics coaches have been bettered at our own game.
Of course James takes a fitness rather than a gymnastics approach. You need not keep your feet together and feet pointed on his drills.
From his long tutorial, here are a few visual highlights:
With beginners, I always introduce the skill on the very end of the Parallel Bars. It is easier to learn the false grip and the “outward” action of the elbows there.
His tutorial includes that drill as well, but on a machine in a weight room on the chin-up handles of a squat rack.
In the culture of men’s gymnastics, you are nothing until you can get above the rings by yourself.
LATER … you need to do muscle-up on a bar.
What really caught my eye, however, was muscle-up on a bar in UNDERGRIP. I’d never seen it before.
Check the tutorial for yourself – The Muscle-Up – Beast Skills
I’ve seen a few female gymnasts do muscle-up, but not many. I’d love to get a video clip of a girl doing it on rings.
3 comments ↓
Thanks for the posting! I understand that the way I teach the muscle-up may not be the exact way it’s taught in gymnastics, but I think I’ve given enough information for the average gym-goer to try the skill.
Oh, and none of the drills are performed on any machines. There are no machines in my gym! I’m doing the muscle-up on the chin-up handles of a squat rack.
As for the reverse muscle-up, hats off to Jack Arnow for bringing that skill to light for me. John Gill also makes mention of them on his webpage listing chinning feats. It’s quite a neat trick and offers a bit more challenge than the regular muscle-up.
Again, thanks for the mention!
Jim, thanks for the tutorial. It’s quite interesting. And thanks for posting it Rick!
You know, in my prime, I probably could have done the reverse muscle up, quite well. It just never really occurred to me to try. I think if I just flipped my wrists, I would have been able to do it. And I might have even done it with semi-straight arms. I used to do “waist ups”, where I’d jerk the bar all the way down to my waist level. The idea of finishing above the bar in a front support did cross my mind; but I just never seriously thought it a big enough deal to try.
I’ve seen a few female gymnasts do muscle-up, but not many. I’d love to get a video clip of a girl doing it on rings.
You know, I’m pretty sure my gymnast, Thea, could do it. I’ve never had her try muscle ups on the rings; and although she doesn’t do them often on the bar (our head coach thinks it’s bad for her elbows, if she does too many), the last time I had her try on the women’s bar, she had a very smooth muscle up.
If I have the opportunity to do so, I’ll try putting her on the rings, sometime, on a Saturday.
Here’s a video of girls doing muscle ups (fitness style, no pointed toes and stuff) on rings (and not only that…): http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/051204.wmv
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