Started by Adelca, August 5, 2013 · 15 Replies · 6,562 Views
Hi ,
I am a newbie here , but I was wondering what is the maximum muscle ups that you guys can do ?
I am aiming for 30 Muscle Ups ,with no use of momentum from my lower body.
*I am not sure if I'm in the right forum for this type of question
**or if I can link a video of my form ?
first think about doing 30 pull ups and dips and then if you mastered that,think about 30 muscle ups!please Watch out your elbows if you felt pain in your elbows while doing muscle ups it means your not ready to train them and if you don't pay attention to that pain you'll get elbow tendonitis like me and have to rest at least one month! 
Adelca said:Hi ,
I am a newbie here , but I was wondering what is the maximum muscle ups that you guys can do ?
I am aiming for 30 Muscle Ups ,with no use of momentum from my lower body.
*I am not sure if I'm in the right forum for this type of question
**or if I can link a video of my form ?
I was at 20 last time I tried with no momentum. This was after rope climb so I could probably do at least 5 more had I not been fatigued.
Eventually they become nearly as easy as the pull-up.
i can do 8 muscle ups with 0 momentium but i never trained for them i got them from doing weighted pull ups and dips
Daniel Burnham said:I was at 20 last time I tried with no momentum. This was after rope climb so I could probably do at least 5 more had I not been fatigued.
Eventually they become nearly as easy as the pull-up.
I would not have believed you if I wasn't doing Foundation. I can do kipping muscle ups, but not strict. The other day I tried a false grip pull up and nearly did a strict muscle up. I haven't trained muscle ups in 6 months.
Amir Hussain said:first think about doing 30 pull ups and dips and then if you mastered that,think about 30 muscle ups!please Watch out your elbows if you felt pain in your elbows while doing muscle ups it means your not ready to train them and if you don't pay attention to that pain you'll get elbow tendonitis like me and have to rest at least one month!
How can you reduce the elbowpain? I'm able to do a muscle up and strength wise feel I can do some more. But i keep it slow due to elbow pain.
What exercises will strengthen those tendons? Will backlever strengthen the same tendons needed for the muscle up?
(also being not able to afford foundation that isn't really an option unfortunately)
Jurre said:How can you reduce the elbowpain? I'm able to do a muscle up and strength wise feel I can do some more. But i keep it slow due to elbow pain.
What exercises will strengthen those tendons? Will backlever strengthen the same tendons needed for the muscle up?
(also being not able to afford foundation that isn't really an option unfortunately)
You reduce elbow pain by gradually increasing the work load and not shocking your muscles with more than they are ready for. I jumped into gymnastic training and had a coach that didn't know any progressions and just told me to do things. Sure i had the strength to do a muscle up and back lever. But i did not have the conditioning to support continued training. Gymnastic strength is bought with many reps and many hours. Not by beating on your chest, screaming, and then adding 5lbs to your one rep max on bench press.
You have a goal of 30 MU i see. While that is an outstanding goal and maybe one worth completing. There certainly more things you can do on rings with the strength of 15 or 20 MU in a row. Reverse MU, Ring Pullover, Ring HS, German hang MU, Back Lever MU, MU to Planche, MU to back lever, regular grip MU, and on and on. Depending on your aspirations for ring training there are many more paths than the one you have expressed interest in. 30 MU is a good goal if you are trying to set a world record or something. Along the way you could possibly burn out.
We are here to help. Tell us what you want and we will help you get there. Are you looking for complete strength... or plateaued strength?
My goal was always to be able to do a 30 second muscle up rather than a bunch of them in a row. I can only do 5-6 in a row without momentum and with returning to a dead hang.
Obi Wan Azaryan said:My goal was always to be able to do a 30 second muscle up rather than a bunch of them in a row. I can only do 5-6 in a row without momentum and with returning to a dead hang.
What is this strength going to be used for? 30 seconds is a long time. It almost helps nothing functional. Also as you train bigger skills and manuevers you gain that slow strength automatically. If you can do a 10 second transition from pullup phase to dip phase then the rest is just standard fare. 10 second pullup or dip is no big deal. Either way working the muscleup will begin to deliver the results you want. Although i can't say exactly why you would want that kind of strength.
RyanC said:What is this strength going to be used for? 30 seconds is a long time. It almost helps nothing functional. Also as you train bigger skills and manuevers you gain that slow strength automatically. If you can do a 10 second transition from pullup phase to dip phase then the rest is just standard fare. 10 second pullup or dip is no big deal. Either way working the muscleup will begin to deliver the results you want. Although i can't say exactly why you would want that kind of strength.
No, doing exercises slow helps build more pure strength and control. It's wrong to say is has "nothing functional".
ForzaCavaliere said:No, doing exercises slow helps build more pure strength and control. It's wrong to say is has "nothing functional".
Yes, but 30 seconds is a really long time and builds more endurance than strength.
ForzaCavaliere said:No, doing exercises slow helps build more pure strength and control. It's wrong to say is has "nothing functional".
If you are going to quote me then do it correctly. I said Almost helps nothing functional. I am a gymnastics coach and have been for 8 years. I have not trained an athlete yet to move any amount of weight slowly other than the negative part of a move. There is deliberate control of high level strength moves. Even then the FIG code wants you to go directly to the hold and show control. Moving slowly out of a strength move is key since it encourages combinations i.e. maltese>back lever>cross.
This is merely my opinion. I can't think of any other exercise that you would want an athlete to take 30 seconds to do one rep of. I know coach has laid out a OLS variation that went something like (2,1,30) 30 seconds being the decent part. This would be something i would have an aspiring elite athlete do from time to time. The poster merely wanted to do it just to do it. Which is why i asked him why he wanted this strength. Oh and i don't train slow MU but i did a wide grip 30s MU today no problem. 
Haha I did quote correctly, using the common journalism technique of being selective with my quotes.
I've never been to high level training sessions with elite gymnasts so I'm not certain if they also don't train slow movements like you, my suspicion is that they probably don't.
However I disagree that it's as useless as you say it is. Martial artists train many slow movements such as ultra slow kicks to develop a lot of control throughout the entire motion. Perhaps it's my fault for considering the benefits of slow movements outside of the context of a gymnastics environment, while posting on a gymnastics forum?
However I disagree that it's as useless as you say it is. Martial artists train many slow movements such as ultra slow kicks to develop a lot of control throughout the entire motion. Perhaps it's my fault for considering the benefits of slow movements outside of the context of a gymnastics environment, while posting on a gymnastics forum?
LOL... you sneaky journalist you! If there is a specific benefit that directly applies to the overall goal of gymnastics then any technique is welcome. I'm not saying that its completely useless. Just that i haven't seen the direct impact of training slow movement. We train static, explosive, passive, active, and every other efficient way of training that applies to the explosive, passive, active, and static nature of the sport. If you could connect me to an article or study that speaks to the benefits of slow positive phase lifting then i will put it in my program tomorrow. To be fair i sometimes have my kids to Press HS with as much as 15 seconds to get to the HS part. So i agree with the control part.
I stopped training muscle ups when I was able to do 3 sets of 10. I think you are better off learning skills like Galimores when you master the MU. I also did a muscle-up with 45 pounds added when I tried my 1rm. I don't know if it is good or not but, serously, start foundation, and skills like MU will become surprisingly easy. Good luck!
2ish months of training doing muscle ups from when I first learned them (last April), I could do maybe 6-7 with no leg bend and probably more after with leg bend. Don't do them anymore except maybe once a month when a friend asks if I can still do them or doubts I ever could. Never maxed out on them as I always thought quality was more important since I could easily do more with more momentum. Can't do them now without bending my legs. Not sure if it's just lost strength or explosiveness or maybe psychological conditioning like a reflex type thing.
Always felt like when somebody says they can do X muscle ups it's almost meaningless because you never know how much momentum they are using. Like I would tell my friends I could only do a bit over 5 muscle ups and then they'd show me how many more they could do but their form was always kind of sloppy.