Two areas where I see athletes struggle in the strict muscle-up are:
- Locking out the dip and turning the rings out
- Turning over into the dip
Here are 2 drills I really like to work these. First are band resisted pullups:
I like band resisted pull-ups because the resistance increases as your chin travels up toward the bar. The reason why I like this is because I see so many people who lack top end strength and are unable to turn over into the dip. Adding band resistance will strengthen the top part of the pull-up. It also forces you to pull fast from the bottom of the pull-up which can be helpful for strict muscle-ups (creating some speed to help with turn-over).
For those who don’t have strict pull-ups yet, work on them! Also, adding band assistance does the same as band resistance (makes the top of the pull-up harder then the bottom for those who aren’t strong enough for strict bodyweight).
Second are band assisted ring dips. I talk a lot about getting comfortable in the bottom of a dip. As Dave Durante says, the bottom of the dip should be as comfortable as the bottom of a squat. Well, equally important is the lockout. I see athletes frequently who can’t turn out (or even lockout their elbows) at the top of a ring dip and other athletes who will fail at the lockout of a muscleup (Think about workouts that contain shoulder intensive work and then are followed by muscle-ups, the lockout gets much harder. Remember 15.3? 50 wallballs, 100 double unders, 7 muscleups?)
I like this drill because it makes the bottom of the dip easier (which is usually the limiting factors for athletes) so that you can focus on the top end.
Give these a try and let me know how they go!
If you’d like to see how I prescribe movements like these in my training program so you can master your muscle-up then click HERE.
More Muscling Up,
Dan Pope DPT, OCS, CSCS, CF-L1