BEST Muscle-up Tips 2024!

[@kimpark3956]

I had been trying to learn the muscle up for over a year. I finally unlocked it recently. I could do 15 pullups but still could not muscle-up. I could muscle up using any combination of the bands (light, medium, heavy, ultra-heavy) and do 3 sets of 5 muscle-ups on every band. But I noticed there is a difficulty gap between the light band and actually doing the muscle up. And your technique has to change a little when dropping the bands completely. For example, you must add a kip in when you drop the bands completely. This is frustrating bc you are being forced to change technique after you have gotten used to the bands. The bands cause you to swing a little at the start. But I prefer to take a little trampoline step forward with both legs together and then pull. Anyway, the reason I could not muscle-up was bc I was just not strong enough; I didn't have enough pulling power. And if you can't pull to your navel or belt-line then you cannot turn your hands down to do the dip (and stay on the bar). Chest-to-bar pullup height is not good enough. You will bounce your chest off the bar every time. So what I did was go back to weighted pullups. Previously I was doing 50 lbs weighted pullups. So I added more weight to 60 lbs. Then I rested. Then I came back and added more weight up to 78 lbs. Rested 2 days. Then I came in fresh and tried to muscle up and landed my first muscle up in my life. So what I have learned is that on average, one must pull about 50% of your bodyweight in weighted pullups to have enough pulling power to do navel-to-bar pullups or beltline-to-bar. I am 160 lbs so I got my first mu after doing weighted pullups with 78 lbs, which is 48% of my bodyweight. I was prepared to keep adding weight until I got it but I didn't actually hit 50%. On "Geek Climber's" video his calculation was on average 54% of a person's weight is necessary on a weighted pullup to have the pulling power to do a muscle up. In addition to this, I use the overgrip hand position (knuckles facing upward to sky), fishing gloves with a grippy pattern on them that are used to hold slippery wet fish (from the fishing aisle at your local store - only $2-$3 but they are the best imo). My hands sweat all the time so I must use gloves. And they help me avoid calluses. Another huge tip I got from your channel and at least one other channel is that you must do your weighted pullups with your elbows and arms kept close to your torso instead of pulling out to each side. This is about the elbows and forearms facing forward. Do your weighted pullups the same way you do the muscle up. By imagining that you are slamming the car trunk straight down. The forearms are coming down straight in front of you. Not to the side. One last thing I did before getting the muscle up was isolating my forearm with additional weight lifting. I hypothesized that my forearms may have been a weak link and they are vital if you are doing a pullup or muscle up because most of your body is hanging from the forearm. All the energy of movement is running through the forearms so if they are weak, you will lose your power as it's transferred from the forearm to the hand and the bar. So I did some forearm exercises like wrist rollers and pronated (palms facing down) biceps curls. I also started taking creatine for about 1 month before I hit the muscle up. I figured I needed an extra edge. And it's supposed to aid in muscle recovery and muscle formation. Although I hear that 25% of people do not respond to creatine at all. 1/4 people. MU negatives also helped a bit but honestly, it's all about the pulling power. The rate-limiting step or bottleneck for most people is that they are simply not strong enough. So you have to do high-pullups down to your navel or belt line. And you only get this strength from doing weighted pullups. So for anyone out there, keep adding weight in progressive overload until you get to 50% of your bodyweight. Although there are outliers and everyone is a little different, the correlation is strong enough that you can expect to get your MU at around 50% of your bodweight. That is your lighthouse in the ocean to guide you. And of course, if you are overweight it will be even harder to ever muscle up so lose the weight.

[@MikeZouth]

Thank you very much for your comment and great tips! Will include it in my next video!

[@pecebogojov3881]

hello mike you are right about to the little swing in the past i was thinking that more swing is better but now when i try little swing i realise that i was going up higher than before thanks that was good tip

[@MikeZouth]

Hey and Thank you for your comment 😊👊🏼. Glad the tip helped you!

[@tekkentagtournament9846]

Thanks broader

[@MikeZouth]

You're welcome!

[@CallBack-gw5tw]

Mike pulling with biceps like reverse biceps curls helped me next time explain to the people how to pull like reverse biceps curls

[@MikeZouth]

Thank you for your comment, I will do my best explaining it in my next video!

[@DevinsCalisthenics]

Informative content Mike, thank you again! Have you ever tried muscle ups w/ gymnastic rings?

[@MikeZouth]

Hey brother and thanks for the question! In the beginning of my muscle-up journey I played around with ring MU's but fell in love with the bar ☺️. But who knows, some day I might pick it up. What about you?

[@DevinsCalisthenics]

@@MikeZouth I've been trying it a bit just because I don't have access to a bar currently. I prefer the bar at this point too, but I like the rings for basic exercises. Maybe when I get stronger I'll enjoy ring muscle ups more.

[@mycheezels205]

The YT algorithm fed me this rings video and it was interesting to watch as it suggests all you need is rings for a full body workout and great mobility. I personally am in the thick of Hyrox training so I’m just playing around with banded muscle ups for 5 minutes before training very occasionally but thought this would be a handy video if all you had was rings kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4Ctc6SGlqumes0si=DDxWNJiuZCIGOYvJ

[@DevinsCalisthenics]

@@mycheezels205 nice video, good core and mobility ideas I haven't seen before. 👍

[@farhanzaki959]

do you remember what was your 1 rep max of weighted pull ups before you moved on to doing muscle ups as your primary pull exercise

[@MikeZouth]

I think it was around 40 kg

[@Goku_SAAD]

I'm still here buddy ✊🔥a question : Should i deload When i feel weaker . or just before getting weaker or hitting a platteau ? I hope you got it

[@MikeZouth]

Great question! Will answer it in my new video tomorrow!

[@CallBack-gw5tw]

Mike about the half muscle ups you need to change the name because half muscle ups is not the right name because half muscle ups are like full mu movement if you can half mu you actually can do completely mu better to named into a 90% or 99% muscle ups . 😂

[@MikeZouth]

Haha that is actually true