The Muscle Up is one of the most difficult exercises that you can do with your own body weight. In this challenge you will learn how to master it.

Together we will train hard for 40 days to finally get off the pull-up bar with success.

Let’s go!

What is a muscle up?

The Muscle Up consists of three phases:

1. Pull Up (chin-up)
2. Transition
3. Dip (support)

You pull yourself up on the pull-up bar (or the rings) until your chest is at bar height, transfer and then push yourself up with your arm strength.

So there are two exercises (pull-ups and dips) that you combine t.

Since pull-ups and dips are no picnic in themselves, you can probably already imagine why the muscle-up is one of the most difficult exercises with your own body weight.

It is not for nothing that it is also part of the advanced skills at Freeletics.

Nathan Forster, one of the world’s most famous cross-fitters – he has a box in New York himself – says the following about the Muscle Up:

This is one of the most complicated CrossFit movements you can do. It’s the last thing that a lot of people get. Nathan Forster

In short: Very difficult to create.

But not for you and me! Because we’re not giving up and have the 40-day challenge!

Preparation

First of all, something else that you can probably already guess: I am currently not able to master muscle-up . Therefore the challenge is what it should be for me: A challenge.

However, you have a few requirements if you want to master the muscle up in 40 days:

• First, you need a sturdy pull-up bar (a door bar is not enough in this case) that also goes up has enough space.
• Before the start of the challenge, you should be able to do 8 strict pull-ups – i.e. 8 pull-ups – without a break and pendulum movements.
• This goes hand in hand with a physique that allows you to develop this strength. The lower your body fat percentage, the faster you will master your first muscle-up. Below 15% body fat is a good guideline for men.
• You should have certain stability of your core – 60 seconds in the plank should not be a problem.
• You need enough strength in your triceps to get the dip – the push up after the pull-up. You should be able to do at least 20 normal push-ups without a break with your arms shoulder-width apart.

I will soon be blogging about how you can acquire this requirement.

For the current challenge, however, you should already bring this with you as your foundation.

Alternative challenge if you do not yet meet the requirements

If you do not meet the requirements above at the beginning of the challenge, you can use the challenge to fulfill them and then get started.

Instead of the normal pull-ups, just do the jumped variant – jumping pull-ups. You help yourself with the muscle strength of your legs over the bar, so you jump off the floor and support yourself with the pull-up

Also, take longer breaks from the push-ups and do the exercises for the core to a lesser extent and leave out the Freeletics workouts altogether or do the lighter endurance version.

The exercises

Before you get started, one more tip: Gloves (e.g. cycling gloves) can help you avoid blisters on your hands. You will be spending a lot of time on the pull-up bar in the coming weeks.

I have selected exercises for the challenge that are suitable for training your technique and improving your strength. You will mainly train your upper arms and shoulders, your (upper) back, your chest and also your core.

Admittedly: The legs are a little too short in this challenge.

Now we come to the exercises, which I will briefly introduce to you in the video below:

• Pull Ups (pull-ups; change the grip type from time to time, as I show you in the video)
  • Strict (without commuting)
  • Kipping (with pendulum)
• Push Ups (pushups)
• Muscle Up variations
  • Negative muscle up
  • Rim upswing
• Core Exercises (exercises for the core)
• Freeletics workouts

On Breaking Muscle you can find a good English article about the muscle up and also a video about the kipping pullups, which I could only partially show in my video.

You can see the rim upswing with negative muscle up here.

The Muscle Up Challenge Plan

You can start anytime . I built in a few regeneration days because we often use the same muscles in this challenge and a 48-hour break is a good guideline.

Please warm up carefully before your training sessions to avoid injuries! Please note my training instructions.

In the first two weeks we work on the strength and body tension foundation before we move on to the more complex exercises that we need to generate sufficient explosiveness in the Muscle Up.

• Day 01: 3 x 10 Strict Pull Ups, 3 x 10 Hollows, 3 x 10 Arches
• Day 02: 3 x 10 Push Ups, 3 x 10 Hollows, 3 x 10 Arches
• Day 03: Regeneration
• Day 04: Freeletics Poseidon Workout (50 strict pullups, 50 push ups)
• Day 05: Regeneration
• Day 06: 3 x 10 Strict Pull Ups, 3 x 10 Hollows, 3 x 10 Arches
• Day 07: 3 x 10 Push Ups, 3 x 10 Hollows, 3 x 10 Arches
• Day 08: Regeneration
• Day 09: Freeletics Poseidon workout (50 strict pullups, 50 push ups)
• Day 10: Regeneration
• Day 11: 3 x 10 Strict Pull Ups, 3 x 10 Hollows, 3 x 10 Arches
• Day 12: 3 x 10 Push Ups, 3 x 10 Hollows, 3 x 10 Arches
• Day 13: Regeneration
• Day 14: Freeletics Workout Poseidon (50 strict pullups, 50 push ups)
• Day 15: Regeneration
• Day 16: 3 x 12 Kipping Pull Ups, 3 x 12 Hollows, 3 x 12 Arches
• Day 17: 3 x 12 Push Ups, 3 x 12 Hollows, 3 x 12 Arches
• Day 18: Regeneration
• Day 19: Freeletics Poseidon workout (50 kipping pullups, 50 push ups)
• Day 20: Regeneration
• Day 21: 3 x 12 Kipping Pull Ups, 3 x 12 Hollows, 3 x 12 Arches
• Day 22: 3 x 12 Push Ups, 3 x 12 Hollows, 3 x 12 Arches
• Day 23: Regeneration
• Day 24: Freeletics Poseidon workout (50 kipping pullups, 50 push ups)
• Day 25: Regeneration
• Day 26: 3 x 12 Kipping Pull Ups, 3 x 12 Hollows, 3 x 12 Arches
• Day 27: 3 x 12 Push Ups, 3 x 12 Hollows, 3 x 12 Arches
• Day 28: Regeneration
• Day 29: Freeletics Poseidon workout (50 kipping pullups, 50 push ups)
• Day 30: Regeneration
• Day 31: 2 x 10 rim upswings and negative muscle up
• Day 32: 3 x 12 Hollows, 3 x 12 Arches
• Day 33: 2 x 10 rim upswings and negative muscle up
• Day 34: Freeletics Poseidon workout (50 kipping pullups, 50 push ups)
• Day 35: Regeneration
• Day 36: Freeletics Workout Kronos (100 Push Ups, 200 Sit Ups, 300 Squats, 200 Straight Leg Lever, 100 Kipping Pull Ups)
• Day 37: Regeneration
• Day 38: 10 strict pull ups, 2 x 10 hollows, 10 kipping pull ups, 2 x 10 arches, 10 rim ups and negative muscle ups
• Day 39: Regeneration
• Day 40: How many muscle ups can you do in one minute?

It’s best to do this: 10 pull ups, 10 hollows, 10 arches and then all over again and finally a third time (for example on day 1).

This will save you the break time for your arms. That would be necessary if you do 10 pull ups and then want to do the next 10 pull ups.

If you choose this variant, you should take a break of about 2 minutes between the pull up sets.

You can also download the Challenge Plan here in a nice Excel file and adapt it to your start date (just enter your start date in the yellow field at the top left).

Then print out the sheet, hang it up visibly in your home and tick off every successfully completed day.

That motivates!

Tips for day 40 – how to do the muscle up correctly

If you’ve made it to day 40, nothing stands in the way of your first muscle up.

Before you start, remember the following:

• Warm up adequately (at least 5 minutes) and especially your arms, shoulders and upper back . Jumping Jacks can serve you well here.
• Decide whether you want the more difficult “strict” variant (i.e. without pendulum) or the slightly easier (technique and body tension required) “kipping” variant want to implement with swing from your hip.
  • Strict: Hang on to the bar with your arms curled up, the palms facing away from you. It often helps if the thumbs are on the same side as the fingers. Then pull yourself up explosively and stay a little behind the bar so that you can then move forward to get into the starting position for the dip. Then push yourself up and let the controlled fall back into the starting position. (Watch a video about Strict Muscle Up here)
  • Kipping: Stand a little behind the pull-up bar so that you build momentum forwards when you jump up. Then swing forward with your legs straight, gain momentum and use it to pull up explosively. Then move to the starting position for the dip. Push yourself up and let yourself fall down in a controlled manner so that you build momentum for the next muscle up. (Watch a video about Kipping Muscle Up here)
• Go mentally through the sequence of movements of the selected muscle up again.
• Do as many muscle ups as possible in one minute! Hit it!

Conclusion

But with my 40 day challenge you too will come a little closer to the dream of being able to do a clean muscle up.Muscle ups are difficult , no question.

If you meet the requirements described, I’m pretty sure that you will at least get a muscle up on day 40.

I’ll keep you up to date on Instagram about how the challenge is going for me.