Quick answer: A muscle-up is a pull-up, a transition and a dip, and the transition is a skill you cannot muscle through. This free program assumes the pull-up and the dip: 2 × 10 strict pull-ups, 10 dips and 2 × 12 hanging knee raises. Weeks 1 to 4 build pulling height, weeks 5 to 8 teach the transition with slow negatives and a kipping drill, and week 8 ends in up to three strict attempts.
Most people who never get a muscle-up are missing one of three things: pulling height, the transition, or the dip-out at the top. This guide tells you how to find which one is holding you back and trains it in the right order. Strict first, then everything else.
Download the program. Nineteen pages, free, no sign-up. Print the log sheet and start on week 1.
This program is already in THYMOS. Eight weeks, three sessions a week, for the bar and for rings. Every session opens with its sets, rest and effort, ready to start, and every set you log counts toward the Muscle Up skill ladder.
What is inside
- Entry standards and four rules. 2 × 10 strict pull-ups, 10 dips and 2 × 12 hanging knee raises before you start, and why attempts are a test, not a workout.
- The rep in three parts. The pull, the transition and the dip-out, what limits each one and how it is trained.
- The bar ladder. Seven rungs from a strict pull-up to a strict muscle-up, and two beyond it, each with a standard.
- Weeks 1 to 4, height. Chest-to-bar pull-ups, explosive high pulls and deep straight-bar dips, with fewer reps and a higher pull each week on the strength day.
- Weeks 5 to 8, the transition. Slow negatives, a kipping drill with less swing every session, and a deload before the attempts.
- The transition in detail. The bar path, the wrist roll, the lean and the elbows, the negative step by step, and how to avoid the chicken wing.
- When you stall. Which part of the rep is behind, and why the fix is usually a rung back.
- Rings. The false grip, the ring ladder and eight weeks on rings.
- After the first rep. Slow reps, weighted reps, and how sets of strict reps arrive.
- An illustrated exercise library. All 17 movements, each with a picture and the cues that matter.
Who it is for
You can do 2 × 10 strict pull-ups and 10 dips, and you want your first strict muscle-up rather than a kipping one. If you are not there yet, start with the twelve week plan linked below.