The Muscle Up | Bar vs Rings (Which One's For You?)

The muscle up is a popular and coveted skill in the world of bodyweight fitness. On the surface it’s a simple motion that consists of a pull up into a dip, but those who train the move understand its hidden subtleties.
This video will compare the bar muscle up vs the ring muscle up and weight the pros and cons of pursuing each type.
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[@thenayancat8802]

I can barely do a single pull-up after lockdown, but I appreciate your optimism

[@tubecatt]

No need to call me out like that

[@ElBeasto94]

I love how technical he is. Keep it up. That's a lot of work

[@TIMtheBUSCHMAN]

love the calm way he explains the most important bits in a short amount of time. Very enjoyable, keep it up!

[@greyfox1956]

0:44 man, you make that look so easy! Like you are doing it in zero gravity. Very nice! Hopefully one day I'll be able to do a muscle-up as well. Great video, thank you!

[@movementforclimbers]

Thank you! I've come a long way since 5:02 :-)

[@user-fw9nb6pk9m]

Very good and precise video ! I love how humble you are, showing other people doing it and your 'younger' self having a hard time with all the things you do so well now !

[@raoulkent]

What an excellent video, huge props. Personal preference, but your both in terms of content and "voice over" are absolutely perfect. And as already noted by other commenters, a really great analysis on the details of both exercises.

[@jonbonhoagie5202]

clear communication at it's finest. What a wonderful explanation.

[@eda.climbs]

Really love how much information you explain in your videos! Hope to see more in the future :)

[@60SecondCalisthenics]

This is an awesome analysis of ring vs bar muscle up. I appreciate the detail. 👌🏾

[@orlandop4sun]

I can do both ring and bar MU. This video is the absolute best video out there on the subject of comparing the two. 👏👏👏

[@ivomeadows]

finally got my first ring mu today, never been that happy! man it feels good, but my elbows are sore now lol

[@gastonoberti284]

I like so much this video, excellent comparative. Thanks. Greetings

[@paologutierrez5888]

Must be the most underrated Calisthenic channel on yt

[@ziggen78]

Complimenti e grazie!!! Davvero interessante👌👌🤗💪

[@Rohan7ish]

Nice explanation

[@danzim3617]

I have to order rings now! You inspired me to workout my back with calisthenics 👍😎 Great content!!

[@jay7911]

Oh you won't regret it. Rings are super useful. It's a mobile gym which is also lightweight and cheap. You can train pretty much whole upper body using them.

[@danzim3617]

@@jay7911 I totally agree. Can't wait for it 😅 I'm so motivated right now :-)

[@NickkTabb]

Damn. I need your whole workout routine and nutrition guide

[@movementforclimbers]

haha, you might be appalled by my "nutrition".

[@weiyingk]

Goals!!!

[@Andre-gi6yg]

If u do muscle ups on the rings, u can do on the bars, if u do muscle ups on the bars, that’s not means u can do it on the rings…

[@ibraelgu]

I personally find the bar muscle up much harder than the ring muscle up. Whenever i focus on speeding the pull-up I lose the C-shape and my torso hits the bar. I need to work more on the coordination

[@pajaroprofeta]

It's not a "fast" pull-up what you need to do, that will only cause you to move in a vertical plane. What you need to do is try to "push" yourself away from the bar first, mostly with your wrists, forearms and scapulas. Then it's the same as a regular pull up.

[@ibraelgu]

Joaquín Fernando thanks a lot, I will work on these to improve

[@movementforclimbers]

What helped me the most to learn how to C curve around the bar is to stand about 1 ft away with the bar in front of you, then jumping up to grab the bar and let your body naturally swing in front of the bar. Once your body swings back and only when the bar is once again in front of you do you initiate the pull. Do not try to explosively pull when you are directly underneath the bar as you will only move in a vertical plane and the bar will obstruct your path. Use a gentle swing and it will come easy. Good luck!

[@MichalPuncochar]

For me: ring muscle up is relatively easy; strict bar muscle up with false grip is difficult but doable; bar muscle up feels impossible - I can do it only with severe swinging (basically a glide kip as in gymnastics). I guess I'm lacking explosive pulling power?

[@pajaroprofeta]

I say this everytime i see this question: try doing straight arm pulls, as high as you can, or even front lever pulls (any of it progressions). Most of the time what is lacking when someone can't do a bar muscle up it's the ability to pull with your arms straight in the first part of the motion, so you can move away from the bar, and then working on the coordination to pull yourself back in, creating that C curve that is shown in the video.

[@TheFxEditor]

@@pajaroprofeta do you have an example of what a straight arm pulls should look like?

[@pajaroprofeta]

@@TheFxEditor Search for scapular pull-ups or front lever pulls. You will notice with this exercises that there's a little bit of pushing in the movement, not only pulling. Hard to explain it, but what matters it's that you shouldn't think about it only as a explosive pull-up and a dip, but as a coordinated pattern of pushing and pulling

[@bios546]

Yup, he's wearing the blue shorts too...

[@nootnootpenguino8586]

I can only do 12 strict pull up on rings but got muscle up first time. 1 Muscle up on rings is easy. Maintaining false grip is hard.

[@TimothyLeeMSOTCPT]

Wow, how did you set up your rings on the trees and stuff? Did you climb them? I live in San Francisco and it's impossible to find a pull up bar or sturdy even tree branch to set up my suspension systems. Maybe rings are set up differently. Anyway, good video on the difference between bar and ring muscle ups. I could never do strict bar muscle ups and could never get used to the false grip on rings. Seems like a fun goal to reach when the pandemic is under control!

[@jay7911]

No need to climb. You can just throw the buckle over the branch. Then when you're done just unbuckle the strap and pull it back over that branch. Here's a vid explanation kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJLUgp98h7unp80

[@TimothyLeeMSOTCPT]

@@jay7911 Thanks for this!

[@movementforclimbers]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4fOaJerfa6hhKc for how I set them up. Yea sometimes it's difficult to find a good tree. I've also used the anchor bar on swing sets before. Just make sure you're not encroaching on any kids.

[@danielr8474]

I personally have never done any form of explosive muscle up, however my first ever muscle up was a false grip muscle up on the bar, and then discovered I could do them on rings. How would I go about “unlocking” the explosive muscle up??

[@akosijason]

For me ring muscle up is insane

[@elfriederich]

2:30 full crimping the bar? :D

[@movementforclimbers]

Yup. Wrist meat hook with a full crimp (a.k.a. bar false grip)

[@TheFxEditor]

Would doing strict ring muscle ups help to achieve strict bar muscle ups? Does anyone have any clue if that would transfer over?

[@jay7911]

The transition phase of rings MU (when you move rings from in front of your chest to the sides) is totally diferent so not much transfer here as different moving pattern is required and there's a different muscle emphasis.

[@TheFxEditor]

jay7911 how different is it though?

[@movementforclimbers]

When I started training ring MUs I also played around with doing a strict bar MU. I made progress and eventually got it without really directly working normal bar MUs. So for me there was a bit of carry over. Even though I agree that the two movement patterns are different, I did feel that when you isolate the rings transition it works the brachioradialis muscle on the forearm, which is the same part that's under stress when I'm transitioning in the strict bar MU. The real key to the strict bar MU is establishing a good false grip. You also have to find the "correct" bar. Factors like friction and thickness are important.

[@TheFxEditor]

@@movementforclimbers I really appreciate the comment! I've been so lost about how to improve my muscle ups and always wanted to do strict bar muscle ups but I couldn't figure out how to improve the transition. I have a solid ring strict muscle up but I can't transition over a bar. Soo I was wondering if there was some direct transfer. But I haven't tried to train it seriously, so now I will test it out and see if it works. My false grip is definitely a limiting factor for me.

[@laz_sw9524]

@@TheFxEditor when it comes to the slow bar mu it really only comes down to a strong false grip,brachioradialis muscles and a lot of outer elbow conditioning(transitional strength),so basically working on negatives on the bar/rings,russian push ups/dips and all sorts of tricep extensions.I actually tried a really interesting variation of a tricep extension on a high parallete where you pretty much do a normal floor tricep extension,but you go as deep as you can and press back up keeping the elbows in as much ass you can.Trust me...you will feel it REALLY bad on the elbows :P .Work on these excercises and it should come naturally.Once you become good at the strict mu itself,you can also work on the impossible dip,since the conditioning will already be adequate.Train hard and best of luck my friend! :D

[@tenemax7849]

Its easy when you weigh 55kg..