Muscle Up Substitution - thoughts?

So I learned about this muscle up sub yesterday and I had my Crossfit class do it as a sub (yesterday's workout was 30 Muscle-Ups for time - named "Xenia")

Anyway I thought the sub was great, basically we unstrapped our rings from our pull-up bars. Then we threw the straps back over the bar "pulley" style. So just like a pulley we attached a weight to one end, and had the rings on the other end. Then I had the guys/gals doing the sub stand directly under the rings and go through the muscle-up motion with their arms without moving their bodies. I tried to tell them to keep their trunk tight and concentrate on squeezing more muscles than they thought necessary since they were primarily only using their arms.

I think this was a decent sub, not only can they adjust the weight they're moving, but they could FEEL that it's much more work through the transition and they could tell, "Hey,...it's tough to go from the pull-up to dip position" I think it was the first time some of them felt that.

I still don't like that they are just standing, but if the weights are challenging enough, it's impossible to NOT tighten up your trunk to perform the movement.

Anyway thought it was another tool that can be used in developing strength through the MU transition. Although I don't think Pull-uping as high as possible or dipping as low as possible can be neglected.

I think I used to do something like this with cable machines. Target was 1/2 bw per each arm.

This may be an appropriate introduction to the muscle-up movement pattern for someone who is very weak or unfamiliar with still ring training. However they would be better served in the long run by transitioning to jumping muscle-ups and/or negative muscle-ups as soon as reasonably possible.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks for the reply Coach and Bobby Blair.

So I'm thinking that for my Crossfitters, I'll have them perform this sub when MU's are directly prescribed (doesn't happen that often) while they are working on their basic support hold. Once they have a decent ring support hold 25-30 secs, I'll direct them to jumping MU's and negatives...

That should be an excellent progression.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer