What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
So we're going to talk about the Muscle Up today.
Lot of guys have requested information about the Muscle Up exercise.
There's a reason why I really haven't covered it all that much.
Because I don't like the exercise too, too much, especially as a Physical Therapist.
But first let me demonstrate what it is for those of you that aren't really familiar what
the Muscle Up is.
Alright it's simple combining a Pullup and a Dip into one motion.
We start up here and we pop ourselves up to the top, ok and then we come back down.
Now, why don't I like the exercise that much?
I put together an 8 Best Bodyweight Exercises video for you and I'll link it somewhere around
here.
It didn't make the top 8 for me.
Because a lot of times as a PT who trains Athletes you've got to have the risk reward
benefit for an exercise.
And to me this is a little bit of a party trick.
It's a lot involved with timing, you definitely need strength to do it.
Matter of fact I wouldn't recommend that you attempt the exercise if you can't do at least
10 Strict Pull Ups.
Maybe more like 15 Strict Pull Ups, I'm not talking about Kipping Pull Ups guys, 10 Strict
Military Pull Ups.
And then also our Dips, you've got to be able to do at least 20 Dips.
The idea here though is, what is the body doing in order to get you up there?
A lot of momentum, but then inside your body and your joints, there's a lot going on that
maybe necessarily isn't all that great for you.
So most importantly for me, two things going on here, the Elbow and the Shoulder.
The Elbow you have to, in order to get this exercise right, and I'll show you how to do
it if you're going to still ignore my advice and try to do the exercise.
You've got to get really rapid flexion here of your Forearm, ok,
so you'd be turning your Wrists over at the top so that you can actually position your
hands on top of the bar to be able to execute the push.
To do that you have to have a lot of flexion right here in these Forearm Flexors, right.
You've got to get a quick strong contraction which is all placed the brunt of it right
here in your Medial Elbow.
So guys that have Medial Elbow pain, Golfers Elbow, this will flare it up pretty quickly,
especially if you have a history of it.
Secondly you've got to really turn yourself over, well this is internal rotation at the
Shoulder.
And again internal rotation at the Shoulder, especially quick internal rotation at the
Shoulder,
especially if you have a Shoulder that's not really biomechanically set up properly for
that.
So if you have a Hooked Achronim here, this could quickly lead to Shoulder issues too.
So it's not one of the top exercises that I would ever program for an Athlete because
thirdly I talk about it being a little bit of a party trick.
It's just a momentum thing.
And if you're going to do it the key is you want to be able to do two things.
Number one, you've got to be able to do an explosive Pull Up.
That means you've got on the bar you've got to pull and get up to Chest height, ok.
You can let go of the bar but pull and get up to about this height on the bar.
That's a prerequisite.
Secondly, it's a timing thing, so you start a little bit further away from the bar.
So that when you jump up for it, you're not just underneath the bar here, but you're away
from it so that takes your momentum in.
Now where have you initiated the move?
You initiate the move, right here.
Which is, right when your body swings all the way to the front, just when it's starting
to come back.
Just when the body starts to change direction, is when you want to initiate the swing.
And there you do something I call, Pull, Pull and Turn.
Pull up, Pull your Knees up, like a, you know like an Ab Knee Raise, ok so you're doing
this at the same time.
That's where you get that explosive part.
And then thirdly, Turn.
Ok you have to turn your hands over because if your hands are underneath the bar,
there's no way you're going to be able to get your body up on top.
You have to be able to turn and get your body up on top.
Alright, so putting those three in action, again.
You jump up from a little bit further away, come inside, pull, pull and turn, ok and down
and down.
Not my favorite.
I feel it here in my Shoulders, I feel it in my Elbows,
even my Hands get pretty beat up just doing a couple reps I can really start to get my
callouses all torn up on my Hands.
So, not my favorite exercise.
Guys if you're looking for the smarter exercises though, if you want to Train Like an Athlete,
that's an Athletic move no doubt,
but do it with a purpose because if you're just working out that's not really having
a purpose behind it.
Work out with a purpose, that becomes training.
And we Train Like Athletes, here at ATHLEANX.
Head to ATHLEANX.COM right now, start training like an Athlete.
Follow the best exercise for building Upper Body Strength, Lower Body Strength and everything
in between.
And that I'll help you guys with day by day with our program.
I hope you found this video helpful and hopefully it saved a couple Shoulders along the way
too.
I'll see you guys back here in a couple days.
Make sure you leave your comments and thumbs up below.
Whatever you want to see, I'll make sure I cover it.
This is another request that you guys made, I'll make sure I cover more.
See ya.