How I got my first muscleup-tips

I have enjoyed this forum and learned a lot and I have read countless threads on pushing past the transition or "sticking point" that seems to give people trouble.

I weigh about 180 and am 5'11" and I got my rings and worked on basic pullups and dips because I was just starting to work out after a two year hiatus. After a couple weeks I could do about 8-10 pullups and 5 dips. I would work on the mu at the beginning of my workout but it was hard on my elbows and didn"t want to injure myself so I took it slow.

Here is the tip- bicycle tubes. I read about how people used them to work on their iron cross so I thought I would try it for the MU. I bought two 28 inch tubes from target and looped each one around each ring and did a pullup and put my feet in them. This gave me a slight boost on the pullup and really helped me get high enough to really work on the transition. As you move higher the assist from the rings get less as the tubes loosen so you only have slight assistance on the transistion and very little if any on the dip. This helped me get the feel of the movement and showed just how much effort was required.

This really helped and three workouts later I got my first unassisted. It was a complete max effort and wasn't pretty, but I did it. I found the mu hard on my elbows and kept doing several sets of one muscleup followed by a couple assisted trying to build up my strength. Then I had a back injury and couldn't train and at this point haven't gotten two consecutive, but after several month layoff I did a muscleup after 2 weeks of working out again.

Your results may vary, but this really helped the skill portion for me. Please realize that bike tubes are not designed for repeated stretching so flexbands or some other product will be safer, but I had no problems using bike tubes. Check everytime you get ready for signs of wear or stretching and always be aware that the could break or slip off your foot and smack you in the face. When I first started with this I put the rings low enough that I could stand with the tubes around my feet and raised the height when I felt comfortable.

Good luck, be careful, and let me know if this helps you.

Matt

I don't quite see the picture- are you using a pull up bar, and using the rings attached to that bar to put the tubes in for the extra leverage?

Makey98, interesting use of bike tubes instead of a flex band. I've been looking into getting a low weight flex band merely so I can have a better way of self spotting than using a chair and can do way more reps.

Garre- basically take a bike inner tubes and tie a slip knot around the ring. Repeat for the other ring. Now the tubes are around knee to thigh height depending on how high your ring setup is.Step in one tube, pull yourself up and step in the other. Now your weight is supported and you can try a couple pullups and eventually a muscleup.

Blairbob- yeah the bike tubes work well and are very cheap. I think I read about bike tubes somewher, but always for iron cross training, never for a muscleup. The genius of it is that the assistance decreases as you move higher. I also could straighten my legs or bend my knees to add/ subtract resistance.

I made the safety warning just to remind people, but I used the same tubes for over a year and never had a problem, even when I left them out in the garage all winter.

I used bike tubes as well when I was training for an iron cross. Never got the cross, but the bike tubes worked great. Seems like they would work great for a muscleup as well.

I also used surgical tubing, from a medical supply store. You can use different numbers and different lengths to easily vary the level resistance.

Also, if you don't want to spend time tying and untying knots, just put the tubes in between your hands and the rings, right where you grip. I found that the weight of my body combined with my grip kept the tubes from slipping just fine.

I used bike tubes as well when I was training for an iron cross. Never got the cross

I would like to know more about that if you dont kind. You gave up because you didn't see results or you saw results but it was quit difficult to do the cross.

I'm just starting to work on the cross (almost a month) consistent in cross pulls with elastic bands (just the same as bike tubes)

I saw results, and was gradually working with less resistance. At the time I was taking a gymnastics class in college. It was mostly tumbling, but they did have some rings, and so I learned muscle-ups, and started training the iron cross with surgical tubing and bike tubes. I took the class 2 or 3 times, but then got busy with my degrees and didn't have access to rings anymore. I certainly didn't want to give up, messing around on the rings was my favorite part of the class. I think I was still a ways off from being able to do an iron cross unasisted. The teacher of the class didn't have me doing any other kind of ring work, so I don't think I had the basic core strength to start from to progress properly. Thinking about how much I liked working out on those rings was what led me to this site, thank goodness. I'm actually going to the bike store tonight to see if they have some old tubes I can have, because I want to do an iron cross eventually. I think I saw on a post somewhere where you either have a spot, use bands or tubes, or else put your feet on a chair or something out in front of you. I'm going with the bike tubes, or surgical tubing.

As a word of caution. I was doing cross pulls with a thera band and unfortunately my feet slipped off, the thera band flew up and slapped my cheek, bought tears to my eyes!! :oops:

Now I always do it in bare feet

So last week, one of my bike tubes popped ( at an unconvenient and unknown reason ). I think I actually have 2 dead tubes. Maybe I'll try the second for the cross pullouts and see if I can go lower.

It works interesting.

Jim basically has the same model Power Tower I have except mine is in black. I'm not sure it's the same brand but it looks the same.

http://beastskills.com/OAC%20start.jpg

I found it best to hang the tube from where the PB split off the stem of the frame.

If I sit in in both parts of the tube or if I place the straps underneath my legs ( around the knees ) it will help the pull. It does basically nothing once I get to the bottom though and the dip is my weak spot in the muscle-up, not the pull.

If I jump into support on the rings and step on top of the tubes and then lower to an L in false grip. This allows me to push-jump a little bit off the tubes into the support.

I guess if I couldn't hold a support on rings, I could do so while in the tubes.

I couldn't figure out how to grab the tubes and support myself with them. I actually tried to loop them around my wrists but this was uncomfortable.

OTOH, it did help me do some cross pull/push-outs to about 45 degrees below horizontal. This is probably what I could do with a spotter. It's not something I should really worry about except for fun and something for variety.

It will barely help me in a front lever or back lever. It only helps a bit, but it's nice to work the position. It's a bit like doing a horizontal row with my feet on a stool though. I probably will still want to work on doing front levers in one leg or advanced tuck position.

Perhaps it will let me work back lever to german hang and straight body pull so I won't need to pike back up heavily. I've been working on letting the back lever go as low as possible and pulling straight up with a tight ( somewhat arched body ). Probably a good drill for inlocate since I've worked this with my boys before to keep that tight arch through.

And, btw it did snap up after it slipped from my feet but was no big deal. Saves me from probably buying a weight band.

Tomorrow, I'm going to do the 30 MU workout off CF with my feet in the tube. It definitely helps with the dip transition. Once that isn't a problem, I'll just work it from the hang L sitting or probably not have to worry about it since the pull won't be the problem.

Thanks all. I prefer this type of MU spot than doing them with my feet in the chair or trying to put my feet behind me on something like a chair to self spot. This tends to arch the body and I like doing it in the L. Since the tube moves a bit, it allows for a smoother transition than a stationary surface.

How do you keep your wrists from slipping out of the rings when you lower to the bottom?

From the support, start shifting your wrist to false grip as you lower. Pretty doable when being supported by a band or bike tube.

I didn't read all the previous posts, but I have some input on the muscle up skill. I wouldn't wrap my head around using a bike tube, personally I would work strict sternum pullups and false grip pulls, those are the essential parts of the muscle up.

I would save the inner tubes for skills such as the iron cross to slowly progress yourself, especially joint preparation skills.

Be careful with the inner tubes, it's dry out in most places because of the winter season which means the inner tubes will be dry and more liable to split.

Blairbob said:

From the support, start shifting your wrist to false grip as you lower. Pretty doable when being supported by a band or bike tube.

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I mean how do you hang all the way at the bottom of the rings with a false grip? I wanted to work on false grip pull-ups but my hands always slip-out at the bottom of the hang.

I wouldn't wrap my head around using a bike tube

I don't think I would do this either. Interesting bandana, though. Hand?

As for the false grip, ya just get into it. The hardest thing is developing the flexibility to hang in the false grip with straight arms.

I like using the assist methods mainly for pushing out of the hole in the dip. This is the hard part for most beginning gymnasts, especially kids. Dips can be quite daunting for kids. It takes a lot more dedicated training to get them proficient in dipping compared to pullups.

Whenever I have spotted MU, I end up mainly spotting the push out of the dip versus the pull into the transition.

A bandanna! That's what will happen if you mess with inner tubes, they'll eventually get the best of you!

Not to be contradictory but I've always seen most of the trouble in the transition and in the false grip. Along with the false grip it is something you will get use to, I did some muscle ups yesterday and I notice a little something in my wrists today, but you will get use to it, just have to strengthen them up a but.

You can look at my quick, blurry muscle up video I made. I practiced false grip L-pulls.

If you pull strong enough, you can use that to get through the transition and just past the bottom of the dip. This works for a slightly piked to piked MU or a MU with a quick pull ( not necessarily arch to hollow, snap hips up and transfer ala CF ) More like Coach Sommer's idea of a kipping MU but not really with the body swing.

It all depends on where your weaknesses are, I guess. With my guy who just got his MU yesterday it was the push out of the hole but he is a pull monster though his bent arm push strength doesn't seem very impressive. He can do ATpL and momentary Straddle pL besides his back lever and nearly his front lever. Honestly his pushups on floor are not very solid and those were with elbows flared out to the sides and not elbows to the sides. Then again he did PPPU in undergrip...damn, I dunno.

Ages ago, I was way stronger dip wise than pullup wise at nearly 2:1. Now it's more like 1:1. The dip or the pull weren't hard. Only when I failed the MU did it hurt my elbows and that was after half a dozen strict or so. When you're strong hanging out at the top of the false grip PU and then transitioning to the hole and back is ez or going wide.