MUSCLE UP GUIDE

THE MUSCLE
UP GUIDE

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE
INTRODUCTION
The muscle up is an advanced bodyweight skill. It‘s
one of the best upper body exercises out there since
it combines a pull and a push movement. The muscle
up requires a high amount of pull strength and body
control. In comparison to a regular pull up, where you
want to bring your chin over the bar or your chest to
the bar, during a muscle up you want to make it ab-
ove the bar. That means you need to accelerate your
whole body weight enough that your chest passes
the bar and you can press yourself up. This requires
a lot of explosive strength conditioning and techni-
que work. As with every other calisthenics skill, we
can work progressive and achieve this skill step by
step by breaking it down to easier regressions of the
skill. This guide will introduce you to three levels of
training:

Level 1: Increasing Pull Ups

Level 2: Muscle Up Technique / Pulling Height
Level 3: Muscle Up

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

This is designed to give you an overview of how to mas- About the author:
ter the muscle up step by step. It will show you how to ex- This guide was written by
ecute it properly and how to progressively train for it. Michael Schulz. With over 8
years of fitness experience and
This guide contains three levels. Each level will bring you a step several national and internation-
closer to the muscle ups if you use the given programming and al weighted calisthenics compe-
adjust it to your situation. Once you have mastered a level con- tition wins, Michael proved his
tinue with the next one. Be aware that you might have to change hard training and programming
your workout split for level 2 & 3 since they are very pull domi- knowledge. To share and spread
nant and have nearly no push integration in comparison to level 1. this knowledge he designed sev-
eral weighted calisthenics pro-
We recommend a frequency of two for each level. This grams, shares his training & rou-
means you should train the given program two times a week. tines on Instagram and also offers
How long you need to master a level depends on your pre- a lot of tutorials on YouTube. So if
vious experience, strength and also height & weight, so you are interested in more quality
don’t focus on time or compare your progress to others. content, make sure to follow & subscribe to his
social media channels.
The given programming aims for a holistic training approach. It has
no guarantee to bring you the muscle up in the fastest amount of Website: www.kingofweighted.com
time, but we can guarantee you it will bring you towards the mus- Instagram: www.instagram.com/micha_bln_
cle up in a balanced, progressive and sustained way. The guide will YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/MichaSchulz
not only cover all aspects of the muscle up but also give you some
insides in programming techniques you also can transfer to other
skills.

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE

MUSCLE UP TECHNIQUE
1.GRIP
To make it over the bar I would recommend every beginner to start
with a so-called semi-false grip. This means while we are hanging
on the bar we rotate our wrists up in the direction of the bar. This
has several advantages. The first one is, that this shortens the way
your wrists have to rotate during the transition. The second one is,
that it shortens the way you have to pull. The last one is related to
the first one since it is way easier to get your center of mass over
the bar with a semi-false grip. Also, it’s easier to pull in C-motion
because your wrists are pointing already in the way your body has
to take to once you are initiating the transition over the bar.

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE

MUSCLE UP TECHNIQUE
2. WRIST TRANSITION
To make it over the bar, the transition/rotation of your wrists is one
of the key points. Once your chest passes the bar, you will have to
make sure that you also rotate your wrists up by loosen the grip a
little and rotating your elbows upwards. If you don‘t loosen your
grip and keep your wrists in place this will most likeley result in a
muscle up attempt that failed because your wrists will block your
transition above the bar, since your elbows then have no chance
to make it upwards then.

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE

MUSCLE UP TECHNIQUE
3. TIMING
If you want a smooth muscle up, you have to keep an eye on your
pulling timing. To create the C motion we need, start the move-
ment by swinging in a hollow body position on the bar. In the point
of return of this movement, start pulling up. This will make sure
that you are pulling in C motion which allows your upper body to
pass the bar. If you don‘t have the right timing, you will also have
the wrong distance to the bar. This can result in a too big distan-
ce as seen in the picture on the right, or in a too small distance.

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE
MUSCLE UP TECHNIQUE
4. PULLING HEIGHT

All the previous techniques won‘t help you if your back can‘t pro-
vide the force which is necessary to generate enough acceleration
so you can pull your chest over the bar. This height is needed, so
you can move your upper body over the bar and start pressing up
in a straight bar dip. If you don‘t reach that height, you won‘t make
it over the bar (as seen in the first picture).

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE

EXPLANATIONS
Reps The number of repetitions you have to perform a certain exercise
Sets The number of sets you have to repeat an exercise with the given reps
Iso Short for isolation - describing an exercise where you only train the targeted muscle
Main Lift The exercise where your main training focus is on
Assistance Exercise Exercises that will help you to improve on your main lift ( & maybe physique goals)
Break The pause between each set
Rear Delts Another term for your posterior shoulder muscle
Vertical Pulling Pulling exercises where you pull yourself vertically up or a weight vertically down
Horizontal Pulling Pulling/rowing exercises where you pull yourself up horizontal or pull a weight horizontal
towards your body

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PROGRAMMING LEVEL 1:
Increasing Pull Ups
To be able to do the muscle ups you will need a solid
foundation of strength. It’s always not very accurate to
set requirements for a skill, but it will give you an orien-
tation when you can start to focus on a specific skill. For
muscle ups this imaginary border is around 10 pull ups
(& 10 dips) But since the pull ups are the more import-
ant, we will focus on pull ups. So if you masterd around
10 clean pull ups (& dips), you can start to focus on mus-
cle up specific training.
Exercises:
To increase pull ups , the most important exercise is:
pull ups. So your training should start with pull ups. You
should be training them at least 2x a week. But your abil-
ity to do quality pull ups will be limited to a few sets. That
is where assistance exercises come in, which you can
train to assist your training for the main lift, in our case
the pull ups. The second main part of the movement is
the pushing part. That’s why also pushing exercises will
be part of the training. A training could look like this (see
also workout table).
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MUSCLE UP GUIDE
Main Lift 1
Pull Ups
Assistance Exercise 1
Vertical Pulling (Lat Pull Machine, Assisted Pull Ups, Nega-
tive Pull Ups, Jumping Pull Ups, Chin Ups, etc.)
Main Lift 2:
Dips / Straight Bar Dips
Assistance Exercise 2
Horizontal Pulling / Rowing (Australien Pull Ups, Rowing
Machines, Front Lever Pulls, Dumbbell/Barbell Rows, etc)
Assistance Exercise 3
Pushing Exercise 2 (Push Ups, Dip Variations, Bench Press
es, etc)
Assistance Exercise 4:
Rear Delts / External Rotation (Scapula Pull Ups, Facepulls,
Butterfly Reverse Variations, Hinge Rows)
Assistance 5:
Arms (Curl & Triceps Extension Variations)
As you can see, there are a lot of different exercises and so
a lot of different training is possible. There are no best exer-
cises. You should choose the exercises depending on your
strength/weaknesses and also your ability to train them.
Another big factor is fun. If you only choose exercises you
don’t like, the plan will not be very effective for you.
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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE

LEVEL 1:
Sample Program
EXERCISE REPS SETS BREAK NOTES

Pull Ups
Horizontal Pulling Assistance
Dips / Straight Bar Dips
4-6 4 2-3 min This plan would be an option for an
athlete who‘s pull up max is around
6-8 3 2 min 6-8 reps and dips max around 8-10. (If
your values are different, just adjust
6-8 4 2-3 min the reps)

Depending on your deficits, preferen-

Rowing Exercise 8-12 3 2 min ces and also aesthetic goals the volu-
me of each exercise can vary. This is
Pushing Assistance 8-12 3 2 min just a sample. The break time is also
never to be taken as a fix. If you need
Rear Delts Iso 8-12 3 1 min more break, take more break!

Biceps Iso 8-12 3 2 min

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE
PROGRAMMING LEVEL 2:
Muscle Up Technique / Pulling Height
Once you improve your pull up game, it‘s time to start
a more muscle up related conditioning. This consists Main Lift
of 3 parts. The first part is to understand the move- Explosive Pull Ups
ment and learn the technique. The second part is to Main Lift 2
work on your explosive pulling strength which is re- Assisted Muscle Ups / Negative Muscle Ups
quired to make it over the bar. The third part is the Assistance 1
basics. Two achieve this, we will need to adjust our Weighted Horizontal Pulling (Weighted Pull Ups,
training. Pull Ups against band, vertical pulling machines)
Assistance 2
Exercises: Rowing Exercise
A good way to learn the technique for muscle ups Assistance 3
are assisted muscle ups. With these exercises you False Grip Training (Hanging in semi false grip,
can perform the skill with less load. A second exer- performing pull exercises with this wrist position)
cise that helps to understand the technique is to do Assistance 4:
the negative part of the skill. For this part you need Hollow Body Position Training (Hollow body
no explosive pulling strength but still can experience crunch, hollow body holds, knee raises, leg rai-
every phase of the muscle up. To improve your ex- ses, abs roll outs, lalane holds)
plosive strength you need to increase your overall Assistance 5:
pulling strength. To achieve that you can work with Rear delts, Arms
longer breaks, lower reps ranges, higher rep speed
& additional weight. The push part of the muscle up
is already mastered and will not be discussed in this
level anymore.

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE
LEVEL 2:
Sample Program
EXERCISE REPS SETS BREAK NOTES
Explosive, high pull ups 2-3 4-5 3-4 min To improve your semi false grip, you
can use this grip in any vertical pul-
Assisted Muscle Ups 3-5 3 2 min ling exercise. The hollow body core
training will help you to keep the C
Weighted Vertical Pulling 5 3 3 min shape of your body during the muscle
up.
Negative Muscle Ups 1 6-8 /
From time to time you should also
add muscle up attempts to the begin-
Horizontal Pulling / Rowing 8-12 3 2 min ning of your training, to see if you can
already make it above the bar.
Hollow Body Core Exercise 10 3 2 min

Rear Delts / Biceps 10-15 3 2 min

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE
PROGRAMMING LEVEL 3:
Muscle Ups
At a certain point in your training, you are finally able to Main Lift
make it above the bar. In most cases, this is not worth to Muscle Ups
be called a muscle up, but it‘s the start of this level and the Main Lift 2
perfect moment to start working on a clean strict muscle High Pull Ups
up. Assistance 1
Weighted Horizontal Pulling (Weighted Pull Ups, Pull
Exercises: Ups against band, vertical pulling machines)
From this point on the muscle up itself will be part of the Assistance 2
training. You start with low reps and work your way up. Rowing Exercise
The rest of the training is similar to level 2 since you still Assistance 3
need to improve your pulling strength and explosive pul- False Grip Training (Hanging in semi false grip, perfor-
ling power. ming pull exercises with this wrist position)
Assistance 4:
Hollow Body Position Training (Hollow body crunch,
hollow body holds, knee raises, leg raises, abs roll
outs, lalane holds)
Assistance 5:
Rear delts, Arms

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE
LEVEL 3:
Sample Program
EXERCISE REPS SETS BREAK NOTES
Muscle Ups 2-3 4-5 3-4 min At the beginning, you will need to use
a lot of momentum for your muscle
Explosive, High Pull Ups 3-5 3-4 2 min up. This will change over time and
will get cleaner and stricter. For tech-
Weighted Vertical Pulling 6-8 3-4 3 min nique adjustment, I would recom-
mend you to frequently film your
Deep Straight Bar Dips
muscle ups to check your form. Over
2-3 3 2-3min
time you can increase the reps of
your muscle ups.
Horizontal Pulling / Rowing 8-12 3 2 min

Hollow Body Core Exercise 10 3 2 min

Rear Delts / Biceps Iso 10-15 3 2 min

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 MUSCLE UP GUIDE

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