Learning The Muscle Up, Part 2.
Due to popular demand, I’ve created this series on building to a strict muscle up on rings… This is as much for my members as it is for everyone else, so they can see why I program the things the way I do and why the insistence on certain things…
The muscle up is a fundamental movement and an incredibly important skill...
- It gets us from underneath something to on top - very useful should the **** ever hit the fan
- It develops strength in the full range of motion through the pull up and dip positions
- It is the gateway to more advanced ring strength
The Basic Hierarchy Of Training Session & Logical Progressions...
The Warm Up...
- A good warm up will get the blood flowing, the heart rate up, and a light sweat on the go
- For a class, including some partner based stuff will get people to actually talk to each other...
- Skill development can also be employed, assuming the intensity level is correct
Sample warm up for muscle ups:
Partner up:
- 10 synchronised burpees
- 1 length supinated wheelbarrow walk each
- 10 synchronised empty bar overhead squats
6 minutes of work - change partners each round (if practical)
This warm up is excellent for all the reasons listed above…
Mobility & Bulletproofing...
- This is where the athlete prepares specifically for the skill work to follow
- Targeted strength & mobility work will get the correct muscles doing the correct thing...
- It will also put the athlete in the correct position, or at least a little closer to the correct position
- Crossfit and gymnastics are both sports… Bulletproofing ensures the athlete is adequately prepared should things go wrong.
Sample mobility & bulletproofing for muscle ups:
- Wrist extensor prep - 10 reps
- Shoulder extension prep - 10 sec hold, 20 sec stretch
- Hollow prep - 5 hollow snaps
3 rounds.
The wrist extensor prep, depending on the drill, improves the false grip strength and range of motion. The shoulder extension prep improves the transitional strength and range of motion, and prepares the athlete should something go wrong during the transition - the supinated wheelbarrow walk in the warm up also serves to improves this position and acts as bulletproofing. The hollow snaps will prepare the athlete for kipping variations and strengthens the support position.
Skill Work...
- Skill work comes next now your nervous system and muscles are good to go
- Good skill and technique should be emphasized here - the body memorizes patterns...
Due to popular demand, I’ve created this series on building to a strict muscle up on rings… This is as much for my members as it is for everyone else, so they can see why I program the things the way I do and why the insistence on certain things…
The muscle up is a fundamental movement and an incredibly important skill...
- It gets us from underneath something to on top - very useful should the **** ever hit the fan
- It develops strength in the full range of motion through the pull up and dip positions
- It is the gateway to more advanced ring strength
The Basic Hierarchy Of Training Session & Logical Progressions...
The Warm Up...
- A good warm up will get the blood flowing, the heart rate up, and a light sweat on the go
- For a class, including some partner based stuff will get people to actually talk to each other...
- Skill development can also be employed, assuming the intensity level is correct
Sample warm up for muscle ups:
Partner up:
- 10 synchronised burpees
- 1 length supinated wheelbarrow walk each
- 10 synchronised empty bar overhead squats
6 minutes of work - change partners each round (if practical)
This warm up is excellent for all the reasons listed above…
Mobility & Bulletproofing...
- This is where the athlete prepares specifically for the skill work to follow
- Targeted strength & mobility work will get the correct muscles doing the correct thing...
- It will also put the athlete in the correct position, or at least a little closer to the correct position
- Crossfit and gymnastics are both sports… Bulletproofing ensures the athlete is adequately prepared should things go wrong.
Sample mobility & bulletproofing for muscle ups:
- Wrist extensor prep - 10 reps
- Shoulder extension prep - 10 sec hold, 20 sec stretch
- Hollow prep - 5 hollow snaps
3 rounds.
The wrist extensor prep, depending on the drill, improves the false grip strength and range of motion. The shoulder extension prep improves the transitional strength and range of motion, and prepares the athlete should something go wrong during the transition - the supinated wheelbarrow walk in the warm up also serves to improves this position and acts as bulletproofing. The hollow snaps will prepare the athlete for kipping variations and strengthens the support position.
Skill Work...
- Skill work comes next now your nervous system and muscles are good to go
- Good skill and technique should be emphasized here - the body memorizes patterns...
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Sample skill work:
Strict muscle ups x1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3 reps This could be a muscle up transition drill, an assisted muscle up with a controlled negative, or even a weighted strict muscle up, beautifully demonstrated by Alex in the photos to the right... Again, the emphasis is on quality. This ladder system allows the athlete to work a challenging variation of the strict muscle up and ‘sneak up’ on reps… The system shown above will yield 18 high quality repetitions without the athlete getting too fatigued (this is of course, assuming the correct variant / intensity was chosen - if you choose the wrong variant you will limit your progress)… |
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Strength Work...
After a warm up and some skill work comes strength work. Strength work comes third because it requires a very large stimulus from the central nervous system to operate effectively. Since we are recruiting near maximal numbers of muscle fibres it is important to perform these after lower intensity activities - warm up and skill work - to get the most benefit.
As an example, if you perform your strength work after your conditioning (higher intensity), the fatigue will limit your ability to lift the same amount of weight as you could in the beginning, meaning less of a stimulus, and therefore less of an adaption.
After strength work comes conditioning, flexibility, cool down, etc... I won't be touching on these today, but what I will say is try not to undo all the good stuff you've done in your session by indulging in some horrendously long, stupid, conditioning session... If 3 minutes is ideal, why do 25? Your glands and organs that repair damaged tissue will have more limitations than enthusiasm... Your kidneys, for example, can only clear the blood of a certain amount of waste concentration each day - if you regularly indulge in long met-cons you're just going to hit a biochemical bottleneck... Stoppit!
Back to strength work...
Sample strength work:
Either: 5x10 perfect press ups
Or: Find 2 rep max bench press
*Superset with shoulder rotation work...
If you can perform 5x10 press ups then feel free to bench press...
How to build from 3x4 hands elevated press ups to 5x5 controlled dips:
Hands elevated on a box - anyone can do these!
S1/ 3x4 (3 sets of 4 repetitions)
S2/ 3x5
S3/ 3x6
S4/ 4x6
S5/ 4x7
S6/ 4x8
S7/ 5x8
S8/ 5x9
S9/ 5x10
*If a step is ridiculously easy, then move up 2 or 3 steps...
Once 5 sets of 10 repetitions has been completed, we move the hands to the floor, and use the exact same set and rep scheme.
In this manner, even progressing from the very bottom rung and climbing slowly, you will move from 3x2 with your hands elevated to 5x10 perfect press ups in 18 steps.
Once 5x10 perfect press ups has been achieved, we can begin to look at dips.
Dip negatives - 10 second eccentric:
S1/ 3x1
S2/ 3x2
S3/ 4x2
S4/ 3x3
S5/ 4x3
S6/ 4x4
S7/ 5x3
S8/ 5x4
S9/ 5x5
Once 5 sets of 5 repetitions with a controlled 10 second eccentric has been completed, we move on to full dips with a 10 second eccentric using the exact same set and rep scheme.
In this manner, even progressing from the very bottom rung and climbing slowly, you will move from 3x2 press ups with your hands elevated to 5x5 perfect dips in 36 steps (or weeks).
......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
36 steps in total.
These steps work for ring pulls, feet elevated ring pulls, chin up holds and/or negatives, and chin ups… I’m sure you can apply that on your own.
......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
As you can probably tell, I like slow progressions… Here’s why:
Number 1. Slow progress is still progress. Not terribly sexy, but definitely true.
Number 2. You need to base your training on how ALL of the tissues of the body adapt - not just muscular fatigue… Ever had tendonitis? It means your muscles were good for the job but your connective tissue wasn’t.
Number 3. By taking what you might consider to be the slow road you are actually just mastering the prerequisites - something that will prevent injuries and plateaus, while allowing the appropriate time for all of your tissues to adapt. This slow road is actually just the fast road in disguise.
You must train first the qualities you NEED to develop so you can pursue the movements you WANT to pursue. Gymnastics skills are for everyone who has earned them.
The same can be said for any movement or skill - snatching, backflips, freestanding handstand push ups, triple bodyweight deadlift, etc - they are all earned with prerequisites.
Nail the prerequisites and earn it.
Tuesday: what to do once you have nailed the prerequisites...
~ Coach Collins
Copyright 2017
After a warm up and some skill work comes strength work. Strength work comes third because it requires a very large stimulus from the central nervous system to operate effectively. Since we are recruiting near maximal numbers of muscle fibres it is important to perform these after lower intensity activities - warm up and skill work - to get the most benefit.
As an example, if you perform your strength work after your conditioning (higher intensity), the fatigue will limit your ability to lift the same amount of weight as you could in the beginning, meaning less of a stimulus, and therefore less of an adaption.
After strength work comes conditioning, flexibility, cool down, etc... I won't be touching on these today, but what I will say is try not to undo all the good stuff you've done in your session by indulging in some horrendously long, stupid, conditioning session... If 3 minutes is ideal, why do 25? Your glands and organs that repair damaged tissue will have more limitations than enthusiasm... Your kidneys, for example, can only clear the blood of a certain amount of waste concentration each day - if you regularly indulge in long met-cons you're just going to hit a biochemical bottleneck... Stoppit!
Back to strength work...
Sample strength work:
Either: 5x10 perfect press ups
Or: Find 2 rep max bench press
*Superset with shoulder rotation work...
If you can perform 5x10 press ups then feel free to bench press...
How to build from 3x4 hands elevated press ups to 5x5 controlled dips:
Hands elevated on a box - anyone can do these!
S1/ 3x4 (3 sets of 4 repetitions)
S2/ 3x5
S3/ 3x6
S4/ 4x6
S5/ 4x7
S6/ 4x8
S7/ 5x8
S8/ 5x9
S9/ 5x10
*If a step is ridiculously easy, then move up 2 or 3 steps...
Once 5 sets of 10 repetitions has been completed, we move the hands to the floor, and use the exact same set and rep scheme.
In this manner, even progressing from the very bottom rung and climbing slowly, you will move from 3x2 with your hands elevated to 5x10 perfect press ups in 18 steps.
Once 5x10 perfect press ups has been achieved, we can begin to look at dips.
Dip negatives - 10 second eccentric:
S1/ 3x1
S2/ 3x2
S3/ 4x2
S4/ 3x3
S5/ 4x3
S6/ 4x4
S7/ 5x3
S8/ 5x4
S9/ 5x5
Once 5 sets of 5 repetitions with a controlled 10 second eccentric has been completed, we move on to full dips with a 10 second eccentric using the exact same set and rep scheme.
In this manner, even progressing from the very bottom rung and climbing slowly, you will move from 3x2 press ups with your hands elevated to 5x5 perfect dips in 36 steps (or weeks).
......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
36 steps in total.
These steps work for ring pulls, feet elevated ring pulls, chin up holds and/or negatives, and chin ups… I’m sure you can apply that on your own.
......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
As you can probably tell, I like slow progressions… Here’s why:
Number 1. Slow progress is still progress. Not terribly sexy, but definitely true.
Number 2. You need to base your training on how ALL of the tissues of the body adapt - not just muscular fatigue… Ever had tendonitis? It means your muscles were good for the job but your connective tissue wasn’t.
Number 3. By taking what you might consider to be the slow road you are actually just mastering the prerequisites - something that will prevent injuries and plateaus, while allowing the appropriate time for all of your tissues to adapt. This slow road is actually just the fast road in disguise.
You must train first the qualities you NEED to develop so you can pursue the movements you WANT to pursue. Gymnastics skills are for everyone who has earned them.
The same can be said for any movement or skill - snatching, backflips, freestanding handstand push ups, triple bodyweight deadlift, etc - they are all earned with prerequisites.
Nail the prerequisites and earn it.
Tuesday: what to do once you have nailed the prerequisites...
~ Coach Collins
Copyright 2017
