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.

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!