Muscle-up, press out of bottom

[Chris Forbis]

I've been working on MUs a ton. The no kip variety. I've managed to grind out a few... at most one a workout but frequently no MU at all. Otherwise I get stuck in the transition, unable to initiate the press from such a disadvantageous position. This makes the elbows smart a bit, but I'm still able to work on them 2-3 times a week.

I do ring dips. I do them full ROM, I swear. When I do them I find it impossible to lower myself as low as I need to be to emulate where I press from in the transition on the MU. Maybe muscle tightness in the shoulder/chest/elbow causes this?

Are there any elbow/shoulder/chest stretches that will help me increase my functional ROM for this? Or maybe there's something else I need to work on. Thoughts?

[Sam Cannons]

Chris, can you do kip MU's ?

[Chris Forbis]

I have in the past. My recent return to MU is after a year+ layoff. Before I could only do them with an epic level of kipping. Part of my goal was to do them with no kip, as outlined in PMenu #18.

[Garrett Smith]

I think Sam is onto something. Doing some kipping ones will likely help you build strength in that transition area (by allowing for more reps). Same idea as kipping pull-ups helping with strict pull-ups.

You could also try slow muscle-up negatives, emphasizing the transition.

[Allen Yeh]

Originally Posted by Garrett Smith

I think Sam is onto something. Doing some kipping ones will likely help you build strength in that transition area (by allowing for more reps). Same idea as kipping pull-ups helping with strict pull-ups.

You could also try slow muscle-up negatives, emphasizing the transition.

Since I've only hit badly kipped MU's in the past and haven't reached anywhere the level I need to do dead-hang MU's I can't speak from experience. This part of the article talked about rudimentary(kipping) versus strict MU's.

My recommendation is that people make learning the strict muscle-up a priority over achieving the rudimentary muscle-up—that is, they patiently develop both the requisite strength and technique for the mature movement instead of grasping for anything that even vaguely resembles it simply to have one more movement to throw into the metCon pool. The reasons are based on both motor learning and path-dependent transferability. It’s very difficult to learn a new movement pattern that is very similar to an existing one: the transition movements of the two muscle-up variations are similar enough to cause neurological learning difficultly, but different enough that the movement pattern of the rudimentary muscle-up will not translate effectively to the strict muscle-up. And in terms of transferability, if you’re capable of performing a strict muscle-up, you’re without question also capable of performing a rudimentary muscle-up; the inverse, however, is clearly not true.

[Chris Forbis]

Those are two good ideas. MU negatives and kipping MUs. I can work both of those in addition to the non-kipped variety.

[Sam Cannons]

You could also try really slow strict dips touching shoulders to the bottom of the rings to get the strength out of the transition, weighted kips help to.

[Mike ODonnell]

Could also try using one of those big bands for assisted pullups attached between the rings for assisted muscleups to get through the sticking point. (assuming you have access to a band like that of course)

[Steven Low]

this might help you:

http://www.crossfitwiki.com/Crossfit/MuscleUp

[Chris Forbis]

Thanks for the tips guys.

I did FIVE muscle-ups today. All singles, but every rep was followed by a negative down to a full extension hang. My elbows and wrists are feeling a little beat-up, but it is completely worth it. I'll probably continue working on MU every other workout (3 times per 2 weeks).

Keys:
1) I wasn't so obsessive about doing them no kip. I didn't even worry about no-kipping... I just worried about getting the rep. I would need video to analyze, but I'm pretty sure any kipping was pretty insignificant.
2) I pretended I was trying to smash my face through the wall directly in front of me. This really helped me get my chest out and over where it needed to be.


Things to work on:
1) Starting from a full extension hang.
2) Multiple reps.
3) Eliminating any kip.