Your First Muscle-Up (Vault)

Content Schedule Overview

The “Your First Muscle-Up” program is meant to create change.  Change occurs on multiple levels, both in terms of physiology and psychology.  Most programs only address the former.  I designed this program to address both. 

Therefore, this program has a unique outline.  It’s not just about training your body to complete a task.  It is impossible to remove the mind from learning.  Countless studies on motor learning have taught us that.  After all, strength is a skill, not simply a quality.

To get your first muscle-up, it’s not just about being stronger.  That is a piece in the puzzle, and trust me, it will be addressed in this program. 

But it is also important to change the way you think about muscle-ups.  The way you think about a muscle-up now, will not be how you think about one at the end of these twelve weeks.  This change will be through a combination of reading, watching and doing through your own experiences in training.

Each week you will be assigned “homework” – that is – content for you to digest and think about during your training week.  The homework can be done at any point during your week, but preferably in a quiet place free of distraction (probably not the gym). 

Just like your homework back in high school, the goal is learning.  Let’s call it mental adaptation because really that’s what going on.  The goal is for it to feel as if you have an experienced coach watching over your shoulder, holding your hand through this journey.

Content Schedule

Week 1: Fitness Testing & Making Attempts

Week 2: How Do People Get Their First Muscle-Up?

Week 3: Ring Muscle-Up Focal Points

Week 4: Removing Binary Thinking [Pass / Fail]

Week 5: Bar Muscle-Up Focal Points

Week 6: Removing the Surprise of Success

Week 7: Hand Care: Don’t Tear

Week 8: Differences Between Bar & Ring Muscle-Ups

Week 9: Quality over Quantity

Week 10: Strength to Bodyweight Ratio

Week 11: Flow & Focus

Week 12: Where Do I Go From Here?

Week 1 Homework

Welcome to week one.  It’s time to establish a baseline.  That’s right, fitness testing. 

Yes, you will attempt a muscle-up on day one.  But don’t worry, we don’t expect you to be successful. 

It’s just to see where you are at.  I’ll explain on the “why” for this in a bit. 

The first and last day of this program are testing days. 

What is the test?

The fitness test is incredibly simple.  It’s two parts.  Part I is about your quantifying your strict pulling and pushing strength.  After a warm-up, you will find your max set of strict chin-over-bar pull-ups and a max set of strict ring dips.  The standard for ring dip depth should be at least bicep/shoulder touching the rings. 

Ideally, it would be chest between the rings because that is where you will catch a ring muscle-up once you have one.  A shallow dip means a higher catch, and a higher catch means you have to pull higher.  Considering the pull and transition is usually the hardest of a ring muscle-up, this is setting you up for failure.  Dip low, you will be thankful later.

Remember, you purchased this program knowing that you needed a bare minimum of one strict pull-up and one strict ring dip.  Without these you are better off working towards pull-ups and dips than muscle-ups. 

This program will certainly develop capacities in these movements – considering a muscle-up is a really just a pull and a press – but twelve weeks simply isn’t long enough to develop the strength to have a high likelihood of a successful first muscle-up. 

Part II of the test is muscle-up attempts, both ring and bar.   You will already be warm, so you can go straight into your attempts after a brief rest following the strength tests.  Every 90 seconds (or so) make an attempt at a muscle-up.  Film each attempt.  I recommend at a 45-degree angle from the front and side.  This way you can see movements in both planes.  After your six total attempts (3 ring, then 3 bar) you will hit your mobility and call it a day.

Why this test?

First, the strength tests (pull-ups and dips) are a good indication of how likely you are to achieve your first muscle-up.  Even if you don’t get your first muscle-up during this program, it is still encouraging to see pre to post test improvements.  The same is true for your pre to post test video attempts of your muscle-ups.  Not all attempts are created equal.  At the end of the twelve weeks, you will be glad to have objective data as to how exactly you improved. 

This test also illustrates your individual level of strength relative to your skill level.  Strict pulling and pressing strength often can’t make up for poor mobility, resulting in a horrendous kip.  And clean lines and mobility shoulders can’t overcome poor prime mover strength.  At the end of the day, you must have both strength and skill.  This test helps us identify where you are for each.

Done Testing? No More Attempts.

After six filmed attempts of Day 1, you are not to attempt muscle-ups again until week 8 of this program.  Even if you feel you are capable of making an attempt a few weeks down the road, don’t do it.  Trust the process.  An athlete who attempts and fails muscle-ups again and again is foolishly looking for short term satisfaction.  This will only result in creating bad movement habits and you’re your confidence in the master plan, not to mention it opens you up to injury.  Athletes who commit to not making attempts again until week 8 show a mature perspective and a long-term focus: skills that are needed for success in all aspects of life and fitness.

Week 1 Sessions

Week 2 Homework

Was Your First Muscle-Up on the Bar or Rings?

How Did You Get Your First Ring Muscle-Up?

Interpreting the Results

The first thing to remember when looking at this information is the amount of variety involved.  Some athletes get their first muscle-up on the bar, some on the rings, some using a false grip, some with a neutral grip, etc. 

This program takes advantage of this by presenting you with exposure to different variations of muscle-ups through the use of drills, specific-accessory exercises, etc. 

You will develop the strength, skill and mobility to complete any of the variations, allowing the one that is most natural to surface.  It is never a waste to develop a skill. 

For example, even if you get your first ring muscle-up with a neutral grip, you will be glad you can hold a false grip because it will accelerate your ability to learn the strict ring muscle-up.  Your ability to learn new skills faster is called athleticism. 

This program is built to highlight your individual differences rather than forcing you into a technique that doesn’t feel as natural.  Your unique athletic abilities (including relative strengths and mobility limitations) and what “clicks” for you will determine how you achieve your first muscle-up.

Some will find the rings awkward and unstable, so you may end up getting your first rep on the bar.  Others will find it more natural to move the rings around your body, which combined with adequate dip strength and mobility, will result in your first muscle-up being on the rings.  Some of you will make attempts using on the rings using a false grip and other will find the neutral grip more natural.

How you get your first muscle-up doesn’t matter nearly as much as you completing the first one and gaining the strength and confidence to complete it successfully on command. 

Once you can hit consistent singles for muscle-ups, you can start your journey down the path to technique that allows you to string multiple reps while fatigued. 

For almost all high-level CrossFit athletes, this means catching bar muscle-ups high so there is almost no dip and using a kip with a neutral grip for ring muscle-ups. 

However, the road to how you get there will be different for each athlete.  Don’t get concerned if you have to take a detour while on your journey, everyone does. 

Be patient, keep working and – as always – stay the course.

Week 2 Sessions

Week 3 Homework

Your homework for this week is to read the Ring Muscle-Up Page from the Movement Library.  There is a lot of information to digest, so feel free to chunk it up throughout your week. 

As you read each of the sections below, ask yourself these questions…

Mobility Requirements

What position(s) of the Ring Muscle-Up do you have the hardest time with & what stretches can you do to improve them?

Step-by-Step Focal Points

What stands out to you that you didn’t think of before?  Write it down.

Common Errors

Which are you making?  What is the root cause of the fault?

False Grip or Nah?

To whom are the recommendations being made?  Why are you not that demographic?

Building Strength

What are your relative strengths?  What are your relative weaknesses?  How does this translate to weaknesses in your kip, pull, transition or dip?

Week 3 Sessions

Week 4 Homework

Removing Binary Thinking

Getting your first muscle-up is a milestone, much like when you got your driver’s license.  And while it does feel pretty great showing off your new party trick for a period of time, the excitement fades back into the daily rhythm of life. 

Why then do we put so much emphasis on our ability to do a single skill?

In part, it is because of the binary nature of doing a muscle-up.  It’s like a light switch, on or off.  Success or failure. 

Other skills in CrossFit aren’t like this.  While ‘success’ in gymnastics movements is measured in a “yes” or “no,” weightlifting and monostructural movements aren’t. 

It’s not that you can or can’t snatch, it’s just about how much weight you can lift (typically in increments of five pounds) on a given day. 

Binary thinking is the equivalent of describing your running ability as “I can’t run a 5:00 mile.” 

This sounds ridiculous because – for one – you always describe your current fitness relative to the best that you have done, not what you haven’t done.  Two, running ability is obviously on a spectrum.  It’s greyscale, not black and white.

Muscle-up development is a spectrum with a binary result.  You don’t think of weightlifting and monostructural movements as success or failure, so gain perspective for gymnastics movements as well. 

Stop thinking of your muscle-up ability as “yes” or “no” and begin celebrating each step in the journey.  Your ability to maintain a false grip better is moving your down the spectrum of muscle-up development. 

Each time you get a half-inch lower in your strict dip, you are closer to catching a muscle-up. 

While we are at it, take off self-imposed timelines for muscle-up development.  Your time to realization may or may not be 12-weeks.  You must be okay with this if you wish to perform your best. 

Focus on the process, not the product. 

You need to have goals to help direct your decision making, but your moment-by-moment actions determine where you ultimately end up.  Your ability to chill out and laugh when you fail may be the most important thing in your ability to learn this new skill.

If you get your first muscle-up during this program, stay the course.  Don’t allow a momentary result derail your progress.  If you don’t get your first muscle-up during this program, stay the course. 

Don’t allow all your progress to be defined by a binary result.

Week 4 Sessions

Week 5 Homework

Your homework for this week is to read the Bar Muscle-Up Page from the Movement Library.  There is a lot of information to digest, so feel free to chunk it up throughout your week. 

As you read each of the sections below, ask yourself these questions…

Mobility Requirements

What position(s) of the Bar Muscle-Up do you have the hardest time with? How do these align with the challenges you have with the ring muscle-up?  What stretches can you do to improve these positions?

Step-by-Step Focal Points

What stands out to you that you didn’t think of before?  Write it down.

Common Errors

Which are you making?  What is the root cause of the fault?

Thumb or No Thumb?

Do you wrap your thumb when doing movements like Pull-Ups and Toes-to-Bar?  Did you do the same thing for your Bar Muscle-Up attempts in week one?  What is your plan moving forward?

Building Strength

What are your relative strengths?  What are your relative weaknesses?  How does this translate to weaknesses in your kip, pull, transition or dip?  How do these weaknesses align or differ from those in the Bar Muscle-Up?

Week 5 Sessions

Week 6 Homework

Removing the Surprise

Managing your expectations is a very important aspect of achieving a goal.  Very rarely is a person surprised when they do something, even if it seems extraordinary.  They might be filled with joy and excitement, but rarely surprise.  High performers in any discipline fall into this.  While those observing may be shocked to see a Michael Jordan or Tom Brady overcome the odds, they are not.  The level of investment, confidence and poise overwhelms expected doubt.

Although you probably don’t think of yourself as a Mat Fraser or Tia Toomey, you share a lot of the same qualities.  Even though the scale of your stressors may be different, the way you react to them and approach challenges are the same.  One of the most valuable lessons we can glean from top athletes is removing the surprise of achieving the goal.

Our expectations often determine our reality.  Once you are confident that you will do a muscle-up when you attempt it, you will probably be successful.  And I don’t mean some fake non-convincing self-talk, I mean deep down in your gut you know you have prepared and are capable of doing it.

There are several ways this program helps you develop this confidence.  One, you are committing (probably to a level you never have before) to achieving this goal.  Committing is present tense.  Each session, each week, each month that you complete your preparation will build a foundation of gut-level confidence. 

Success breeds success.  The opposite is also true, which is why you aren’t attempting muscle-ups right now in training.  The second ways this program develops confidence is through small, incremental successes.  You will do many muscle-ups before you ultimately complete the one that “counts.”

You will have done pieces of them, held their positions, completed with drills and executed the full movement with assistance of bands or a spotter.  You will know exactly what a muscle-up will feel and look like before you complete your first one. 

Work to remove the surprise.  It is a matter of when, not if.

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Is Confidence Overrated?

Week 6 Sessions

Week 7 Homework

Hand Care, Don’t Tear.

My number one piece of advice for hand care is don’t train stupid.  If you train stupid, no pair of grips can save you.  People usually tear their hands when they are violating basic training guidelines.  The most common cases are jumping up gymnastics volume quickly and poor movement quality.  Athletes who move well and watch their gymnastics volume in workouts, rarely tear their hands.  So it’s simple: stop doing workouts with ridiculous amounts of volume (aka. “Murph”) or don’t complain when you rip your hands.  In terms of this plan, volume will be increased slowly and stay relatively low, so it really comes down to not getting crazy with gymnastics volume in your normal workouts, outside of this program.  Doing a workout with 50+ toes-to-bar and then doing a session from this program is foolish.  Your movement quality will decline, and the total volume makes it likely you will tear. 

Grip or No Grips

Whether you were grips or not is completely up to you.  But here are a few considerations whether to wear gymnastics style grip or not when completing Muscle-Ups, whether bar or ring. Either way I recommend buying a pair of high quality grips that you can use in certain scenarios. For example, almost everyone should use grips for CrossFit Open Workout 20.5 (40 Ring Muscle-Ups, not including warm-ups and no-reps).

Should I Wear Grips? | Five Factors to Consider

Factor #1 | Workout Volume: How many Muscle-Ups will you do in the workout? The higher the total is, the more likely it is you should wear grips. If you are a person who can only complete a few Muscle-Ups it might not be worth the hassle of putting them on. Likewise, if total volume is pretty low and they are paired with movements that are annoying to wear grips for (Handstand Push-ups, Barbell Work, etc.) I would opt to not wear them. However, as soon as the total volume reaches a point where you believe there is a possibility you could rip, put on the grips.

Factor #2 | Pull-up Bar Coating: Some gyms have powder coated pull-up bars that provide little friction. Often times wearing grips on these bars makes holding onto the bar extremely challenging even with chalk. Removing grips can provide a better grasp while not resulting in tearing. Other gyms have bare steel bars (like the Speal trademark bar from Rogue Fitness) which provide lots of friction and a “sticky” feeling grip. For these bars it may be a good idea to wear grips even with lower volume workouts because the intense friction can easily tear your hands.

Factor #3 | Grip Strength: This factor ties in with the last. If you struggle to get a good grip while wearing gymnastics grips and you don’t believe you will tear not wearing them, it is a good option to ditch them for a workout.  Additionally, if your grip strength or traction feels better while wearing grips, why would you not wear them?  

Factor #4 | The State of Your Hands: How ready are your hands to handle the demands of the workout?  If you are used to high volume gymnastics, your hands are tough, your calluses are shaved, and you don’t have any tears, you will be ready to handle much higher volumes of gymnastics without grips.  If you are newer to muscle-ups and your hands are relatively sensitive, you will want to wear grips.

If you have teared recently, wear grips.  Likewise, use a callus shaver or pumice stone to keep calluses thin.  Thick calluses rip quicker. Caring for your skin isn’t just about wearing grips.  Take the five bucks and five minutes to put yourself in the best scenario for preventing a tear.

Factor #5 | Personal Preference: Lastly, it all comes down to personal preference.  Where do you feel strong and comfortable while remaining tear free?  I recommend practicing with your grips for a period of time before giving up on them…it takes some time to get used to them.  There are some tricks for workouts with multiple movements, like spinning them on your wrist so they are out of your way (on the back of your hand) during pressing movements.  Some athletes will simply not put their fingers in the holes so they can easily rotate them or even take them off once they have gotten through a gymnastics-dense section of the workout.  Play around with different styles and techniques and discover what works for you.

Week 7 Sessions

Week 8 Homework

6 Differences Between the Ring & Bar Muscle-Up

Difference 1: Moving vs. Fixed Equipment

Rings: You move them around you.
Bar: You move around it.

Ask Yourself: How should I move differently based on whether the apparatus moves or is fixed?

Difference 2: The Mount

Rings: Mount 0-6″ behind
Bar: Mount 12-18” behind

Ask Yourself: Why does the Bar Muscle-Up need more horizontal momentum than the Ring?

Difference 3: Kip Cadence

Rings: Slower, Longer Kip
Bar: Faster, Tighter Kip

Ask Yourself: How does the length of the ring straps affect the speed of the kip?

Difference 4: Momentum Transfer

Rings: Think “Soccer Ball Kick”
Bar: Think “Knee Pump”

Ask Yourself: How can I better maintain my speed through the middle of my pull?

Difference 5: Stability & Dip Depth

Rings: Deep Dip, Long Press
Bar: Shallow Dip, Short Press

Ask Yourself: How does the dip of the ring muscle-up play to my strength / relative weaknesses?

Difference 6: Support Position & Stability

Rings: Unable to Rest in Support Due to Instability
Bar: Able to Rest in Support Due to High Stability

Ask Yourself: How does this affect my ability to do a single rep now? (and) multiple reps in the future?

Week 8 Sessions

Week 9 Homework

Motor Learning

Learning new skills is an important part of your fitness journey.  In fact, motor learning is a skill in and of itself.  Once you have mastered the skill of acquiring and learning new skills, you will be able to adapt the model to whatever new thing you want to undertake. 

Here are principles to keep in mind when learning new skills, not exclusive to learning muscle-ups. 

1. Quality over Quantity: More is not better.  Better is better.  Moving through reps and drills for the sake of checking a box or completing an exercise is a waste or your time.  In fact, this is the exact reason why two people of equal strength and ability level won’t have the same result.   Only the person who spends time in mindful, intentional practice will acquire the new skill.  If you are stressed, overworked, underfed, sleep deprived or unfocused you are better off saving your session for another day when you can give it the energy and focus it demands.  You taking time to learn the skill is always better than plowing through a workout.  Type A personalities, check yourself.
   
   
2. Unfatigued Practice: When learning new skills, you must do it when you are fresh.  This applies to several levels.  First, practicing directly after a grueling workout when you aren’t fully recovered is a waste of time.  Two, starting your next set, drill or progression before you are cleared all the fatigue in your system is robbing the quality of your session. Remember, quality over quantity.  Three, practicing when you are running low on sleep ruins your coordination and dampens your ability to commit new procedures to memory.  Learn the skill forwards and backwards, then slowly – over the course of several months or even years – add the layers of multiple reps (strength), speed (intervals) and eventually fatigue (met-cons).
   
   
3. Ideal Frequency: How often you practice greatly affects your ability to learn new skills.  Good luck successful learning double unders if you only attempt them every two weeks when they pop up in your programming.  When you are learning a new skill, you want to practice it as often as possible in recovered settings.  This goes for mental and physical fatigue.  There will be times in drills, when your body is fine to continue but your mental capacities are shot.  You are best served taking a break, allowing your mind to wander and recovery, then refocusing to the task at hand.  As a good rule of thumb for physical skills, like those within CrossFit, three or four days per week is a good starting place.  Less and you have a hard time find a groove, and more usually results in too much fatigue to productively put in practice.

The purpose of this week’s homework was twofold. 

One, be intentional in your practice. 

And two, if you want to do more, put the effort into mobility, sleep, nutrition and visualization.

The hard work is not showing up to workout, it’s being disciplined and holding yourself to your best in each moment, especially those outside the gym.

Week 9 Sessions

Week 10 Homework

What is the Best Body Type for CrossFit

(or)

Optimizing Your Body for Fitness Performance

Mass Matters. Body weight plays an important role in CrossFit.  It’s important to understand how shedding excess body fat can impact your fitness journey as a whole.  At the end of the day, you want to be happy, live long and prosper. Achieving your first muscle-up is just a piece in that puzzle.  Understand how the body fat piece fits into that picture as well. 

One of the keys to longevity is reducing wear and tear on joints and improving mobility and stability.  There are three ways to do this.  One, get stronger.  Two, get lighter.  Three, get a little bit more of both. 

When improving strength for weightlifting, it really doesn’t matter if you gain a few pounds.  However, in gymnastics every pound matters.  The goal is to optimize strength to bodyweight ratio.  It is possible that you maintain strength and lose weight and can do a muscle-up when you weren’t before.  The article uses the analogy of access fat as a weight vest.  Shed those access pounds and you automatically become better at bodyweight movements. 

Practically, think about optimizing your body composition (body fat percentage) while you improve strength during this program.  You can’t ignore glaring issues like this and expect to have results. 

Rather than focusing on fat loss, this program focuses on improvements in strength and skill.  However, aligning nutrition and activity levels in addition to this program can magnify the results. 

“Your First Muscle-Up” focuses on developing upper body strength and mobility in the specific range of motion you need for muscle-ups.  Strength is range of motion and activity specific.  Context always matters.  That is why this program focuses on teaching the skill of strength using isometrics (positional holds), eccentrics (tempos and pauses) and developing the neurological qualities (speed & coordination) needed for fast, precise and consistent movement. The combined result of all of these factors is what produces the final result of your first muscle-up.

Week 10 Sessions

Week 11 Homework

Focus Now. Flow Later.

Fully Focused

Eliminating Distractions

Why is focusing in your training so important?

What in your current training distracts you from staying focused?

What actionable steps can you take this week to remove or limit some of these distractions?

Singular Focus

One of the keys to staying focused is knowing what to focus upon.

At any moment you can only focus on one thing. 

Each rep you can only focus on one cue or point of performance. 

This singular focal point will change from rep-to-rep and eventually from one period to another.

Cues as a Focal Point

What are some of the focal points, cues or points of performance right now that help you most for Bar Muscle-Ups and the various Bar Muscle-Up drills?

What are some of the focal points, cues or points of performance right now that help you most for Ring Muscle-Ups and the various Ring Muscle-Up drills?

Changes in Thinking | Mental Adaptation

How do you think about muscle-ups now versus when you started the program?

What accounted for this change in thought?

This week in training, before each rep, have a specific cue to fixate upon. 

Stay focused in your training now. Reap the rewards later.  Focus now.  Flow Later.

Week 11 Sessions

Week 12 Homework

Where do I go from here?

It’s important that this program is a single segment within your timeline of muscle-up development.  The program wasn’t the first training you have done towards accomplishing your first muscle-up, even if at first glance it appears that way.  Even more important is that the progress you made during these twelve weeks is not defined or stopped on week 12.  This means first, being okay with whatever results you got.  It’s important to have perspective as you continue your journey.  Every person that completes this program has a different starting point and each will have a different end point.  Again, don’t allow yourself to get discourage or overly excited with binary thinking.  Yes, this program was designed to move you along the muscle-up development continuum.  Be confident that your 12 weeks of work moved you further along that continuum than you were when you started.

Week 12 Sessions

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Copyright © 2020 by ZOAR Fitness LLC. Updated 2022.

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