I’ve
only ever trained muscle ups once (for a few weeks), to no great success. I
could get up, with an ugly kip and struggle past the transition, but I could
never get much better. So I stopped training it, and focused my attention on
basic pulling strength, mostly through gymnastic bodies. So when Omar Isuf
posted a video on the muscle up something clicked with me, and I was finally
able to do a decent muscle up on a bar. However I still couldn’t do a clean
ring muscle up. I continued training ring row and pull ups on the Gymnastic
bodies program, and recently re tested my ring muscle up. I got it very
smoothly with what I would call ‘minimal kip’ (really I just pull up fast and
use that momentum to help the transition). By focusing on the process towards
the ring row, I was able to get a ring muscle up ‘for free’. Focus on the
process and great things happen.
A one
arm chin up is a feat of strength I have wanted to achieve for years now. I
have trained for it on and off for years, however after starting gymnastic bodies, that has been my main training focus. More recently I have been
focusing on one arm hangs in various positions. After taking a few weeks off
this training focus I came back to it and tried some one arm negatives. This
lead me to the realization that I was training much too close to my one rep
max. This meant I wasn’t able to put in enough reps (or time under tension) to
get a maximal training benefit. It was ego training, with a high risk of
injury. Like training only heavy singles for squats or dips, it just wasn’t a
good idea. So I have re-focused my energy. I will train the one arm town hang
for grip and shoulder strength, and I will focus on the gymnastic bodies
course. These are the areas where I can get a lot of reps in, and get solid
training. If I follow this process I will get the one arm chin up, or I will
get close enough that targeted training is then a viable option.
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| Holding the top of a one arm chin (fairly tough). |
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| 90 Degree hang, quite hard on the biceps |
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| One arm towel hang, a good option for my strength level |
It is
worth mentioning that my main focus is the gymnastics bodies program, this
means I don’t have any ‘spare’ training volume to use on things like archer
pull ups etc. which would definitely help in training for a one arm chin up.
I’m not saying you can’t focus on the one arm chin up on its own; you just need
to know where your main focus is because you can’t always split your attention.
