Before you begin your muscle up training, make sure you can do at least 10 straight pull ups and around 20 straight bar dips, just to ensure you have enough to start out with. Another thing you'll need to remember as you progress is that muscle ups are very much about power as well as strength.
10 PULL UPS IN STRICT FORM
In order to gain the proper strength that will allow you to achieve the muscle up, you must, first of all, be able to perform at least 10 pull-ups in strict form.
Necessary Strength for a Strict Muscle-Up
You should be able to string a minimum of 5-7 strict chest-to-bar pull-ups together. This means that the bar is coming in contact with your chest at the very least right below your collarbone.
For the most part, we can estimate that less than 1% of the world's population can perform a muscle up with correct form, whereas the percentage may be significantly higher among the fitness and athletic community.
As a further insight, of the 68.3% of the participants who could do a pull-up, 32% of those can achieve 10 or more consecutive pull-ups. 11.2% of participants said they can perform more than 15 consecutive pull-ups… Impressive!
Men need to complete between 18 and 23 pull-ups on their PFT, depending on their age, to get full marks. Women need between four and 12 pull-ups on their PFT, also depending on age, to get the full 100 points on that event.
However, fit and active men should be able to do at least 4 to 8 pull-ups in one set. Fit and active women should be able to do at least 1 to 3 pull-ups in one set. Any number above 8 for men and 3 for women is very good. You are in the highest percentile if you can do 12 to 15 pull-ups or more with good form.
Issue #1: Inadequate pulling strength
Bar muscle up 101 – if you can't pull yourself high enough to get over the bar you're not going to be able to do a bar muscle up. While using power from your kip to help elevate your body is a key part to a kipping rep, having the absolute strength to pull high enough is also key.
If you can do at least eight pull-ups and eight dips, a muscle-up should be achievable within a month. As is the case with anything new, particularly in the world of fitness, you might find that the movement is difficult at first but it should begin to feel normal as you improve your strength.
The muscle-up is astonishingly difficult to perform, unrivaled in building upper-body strength, a critical survival skill, and most amazingly of all, virtually unknown.
Lat Pulldowns
If you want to target the latissimus dorsi, lat pulldowns can't be beat. You can perform these with a cable machine or invest in a resistance band if you want to include this exercise in a home workout. Lat pulldowns are the closest thing to the pulling motion of a regular pull-up.
You can develop muscular imbalances
Pullups train the upper back and biceps. While these are important muscles, you do not want any muscle group disproportionately strong compared with the rest of your body. If you only do pullups, you will develop a muscular imbalance.
This programme is split across three days. By following this plan, someone with a degree of previous training history should be able to achieve 10 pull ups in two to three weeks. Don't worry if you're a complete beginner.
Pull-ups are a foundational strength training exercise that can help you build muscle, with nothing more than bodyweight and a sturdy bar. While they require upper body strength, core stability, and coordination, even beginners can work up to doing full pull-ups, according to fitness experts.
An overhand grip pull-up is the hardest to do, because it places more of the workload on your lats. The wider your grip, the less help your lats get from other muscles, making a rep harder.
Pull-Ups. Longer range of motion and more weight to pull means this will be more challenging than for someone of a lower bodyweight.
And if you can't do pull-ups, this may be why: Not being able to hold onto the bar through lack of grip strength. A lack of latissimus dorsi (large back muscle), spinal erector (lower back stabilizer muscles), abdominal muscle, and biceps strength. A lack of “mind-to-muscle” connection.
Pull-ups, 75 to 100 repetitions (seven to 10 sets of 10 reps). Push-ups, 200 to 300 repetitions (10 to 15 sets of 20 reps). Sit-ups, 200 to 300 repetitions (five to 10 sets of 40 to 50 reps).
Now, whether you train at home or at the gym (or even at the local park), the principle is the same. Mastering the Pull-Up CAN be done within a few weeks and here's how you can go from ZERO to TWENTY pull-ups in just 8 WEEKS.
They have to complete a two-mile run in less than 15 minutes and 12 seconds, as well as a five-mile run in 40 minutes or less. They must be able to perform six untimed pull-ups.