It is exciting when you see a person banging Muscle ups one after another. The muscle up on rings exercise combines every pushing and pulling muscle in your body. It's a whole upper body workout, measurement of athleticism and power...and it looks bad ass. This guide will help you master the technique and the progressions to nail down your first strict muscle up in no time.
For maximum functional strength, follow this guide to do a muscle up on gymnastic rings. While the bar muscle up is still an impressive feat of strength, the total upper body engagement on the rings make it an irreplaceable exercise to build raw strength.
The Strict Ring Muscle Up Technique in Four Movements
Let's take a closer look at the technical movements which comprise the muscle up technique on rings. The whole movement consists of four different basics:
1. The False Grip
Instead of grabbing the rings in a regular way, you want your wrists to lie on the rings and your elbows should flex towards your fingers. Imagine you are in a bodybuilding pose, showing how big your forearms are. This is what gymnasts call "the false grip".
If you've never done gymnastic ring work before, you will find it difficult to hang in the air with this type of grip yet alone do any movement. It's an awkward position at first, but with patience you'll get used to it. Performing a strict muscle up requires that false grip. You will want to do only pull ups with the false grip at first to build a solid foundation.
2. The Pull Up
No much to explain here. Keep the false grip. Be sure your elbows point forward and do not flare them out. Safety first!
3. The Transition
This is the hard part and the reason why so many people quit trying the movement. Sure, you can use some momentum and perform the Crossfit's famous “Kipping muscle up”, but we're talking about a strict version here. If you're a beginner, momentum from the kipping motion is dangerous and will destroy your shoulders as your muscles are not used to your entire bodyweight in weak positions. No shaking, no swinging, no kipping.
4. The Dip
Once your delts are over your hands, perform a regular dip. Slowly and under control return to the starting position. Aim for a decline of three seconds that stays at the same speed your entire way down.
Now you know what a strict muscle up on rings, it's time to master the movement. If you have experience in calisthenics and can perform at least 5 strict false grip pull ups on rings and 10 ring dips with perfect form in a row, you are ready to move on to the progressions. If you're not there yet, take your time to improve these two basic exercises and only then continue with the ring muscle up.
Useful progression tip : Throw in some weighted pull ups and dips
If at anytime you find a movement easy but you cannot reach the next progression, use a weight vest. If you can knock out over 10 ring pull ups or dips, adding weight lets you hit the sweet 3-8 rep range for maximum strength development. It's not a must, but it's definitely a smart move.
Our weight vest is excellent for this as it wraps around your body. The weight vest is one way like position manipulation, to create progressive overload in bodyweight training to continually get stronger.
Ring Muscle Up Program
Progression #1: Jumping muscle ups
Set your rings at a comfortable height that allows you to generate the explosiveness to jump up and perform this easier version of the ring muscle up. If you set the rings too high you won't be able to jump with enough power to get yourself at the top. Don't set them too low either, as this won't help you with the progression, either. Keep the false grip throughout the movement.
Do a slow and controlled negative on your way down. As it comes to gaining strength and muscle, nothing beats the good old negatives. And I mean really painful slow negatives. You know what people say: “Pain is when weakness leaves the body”. They talk about the “good” pain.
Once you hit 10 reps of jumping muscle ups in a row, move on to the next progression.
Progression #2: Knees to feet muscle ups
Set the rings at a height that allows you to fully extend your arms, while you are on your knees. You should look like you're in a dead hang but with your knees on the ground. Now start pulling yourself up, while transferring the assistance from your knees to your feet. Once you're done with the pull up, you will be in a dip position but on your toes. Now you only have to do a dip and return to your starting position. Don't forget the false grip here too.
Once you're able to repeat this 10 times, you're ready for the next progression.
Progression #3: Feet on box muscle ups
Same thing here, but this time your feet will be elevated on a box or a similar object in front of you. The position makes this progression even more difficult than the previous one and here you'll have to perform a muscle up with most of your bodyweight. Don't rush it. Do both positive and negative parts of the exercise under total control. Get your reps up to 10 and you can finally try out your very first strict ring muscle up.
Sample Training Schedule
Performing a progression everyday would lead to overtraining, and that's a bad thing. Leave at least a day off between your workouts. Here's an example of a weekly training schedule:
- Monday – Progression
- Tuesday – Off
- Wednesday – Progression
- Thursday – Off
- Friday – Progression
- Saturday and Sunday - Off
That's all. It's not much yet requires consistency, patience, and dedication. Go through all three progressions and throw in some negatives and weighted pull ups and dips from time to time. You will get your first strict muscle up on rings.
This post first appeared on Bodyweight And Gymnastics Training Tips At Urban Strength, please read the originial post: here
