- What's up. It's Chris Heria
Welcome to another blog.
Today I'm training with my friend Twan.
- What's up guys.
- Twan just moved to Miami a couple months ago,
and we've been training like every single week.
We've done some boxing.
I showed him how to do a handstand the other day.
And he literally got it in one day.
- That was insane. Good teacher.
- Honored brother.
Well, today, I'm actually going to be running you
through a muscle up, show you how to do it on the spot.
And hopefully everyone watching can learn something from
your experience and maybe they can see something that
they're lacking and improve and unlock your muscle-up.
And, of course, I know Twan,
but some of you watching may not.
So we're going to ask him some questions
and get to know him. Are you ready to start?
- I think so.
- Let's get it.
All right, now before even attempting a muscle-up,
you want to make sure that you have enough strength
so that you can learn it properly.
You can pass these requirements,
which are going to be 15 to 20 consecutive pull-ups,
15 straight bar dips, and a 15 second L-sit hang
and Twan can already do all of that.
So before we get started,
let's just see you attempt a muscle up.
- All right.
- Let's go, baby.
(slow music playing)
Hey, let's go.
Damn that was a definition of a muscle up, bro.
You just muscled through that whole thing.
- I did muscle through it.
- That was solid though. Alright, perfect.
So we're going to clean that up
and in the next couple of minutes,
you're going to be doing it like a pro.
Now, before we get started,
when did you start training
and how did you even get into this?
- I started working out when I was like 16
first I just wanted to like get swole,
and then I was like, I dunno.
I felt like it was really good for the vibes.
So that's why I kind of kept it going.
- Facts.
- And yeah, I mean, if you get stressed out with anything,
I just like to workout.
- Yeah, I had a very similar start off at first.
I just wanted to get swole
and eventually I fell in love with calisthenics.
Alright, let's get into the first step.
This one is called the "Magic button".
First, I'm going to demonstrate it,
show you what it looks like
and break it down for you.
So what you want to do
is put your feet right into that button
that I just made on the ground.
You're going to swing with one leg
and push off with the other legs. See that?
So when you push off with one,
try to put both of your feet in there.
So you go boom,
both of your feet.
So the more you feel that yank in your chest,
that's the spring and the explosiveness,
the better you're doing it.
So going to bring one foot in and then step on it.
Yeah. So you see how you put it over?
Try to act like you're going to step,
like you're trying to step on a dollar bill,
like flying in the wind. Like you don't want to let it go.
Boom. Exactly.
Again.
See that? When you step, you see that yank?
- Yeah.
- There you go. That's it.
Damn, you are a fast learner bro.
- So basically because of this bounce, and it helps
- That's what's going to spring you back up. Exactly.
So think of like a spring.
You're going to have the most explosiveness,
if you stretch it out, so that it can snap back.
Yeah. We're flying through this bro.
Now we're all ready for the next step.
But before we get into that,
I've seen you all over the internet.
How did you start creating skits and making content?
- I saw so many images in my mind all the time.
And then I started putting images together in stories.
And then I was like
"Damn, I'm thinking of such funny stuff."
I want to really like, make it, film it.
So I started grabbing like cameras and the phones
instead of trying to editing things together
and just started making videos.
And they were very short. They were on Vine
when I first started.
It was like six seconds. It was like,
how many shots can you make in six seconds
and like put them all together.
- That's dope. So are you naturally like a funny person
or do you like have life situations and you're like,
"Oh, that was funny."
Like, we're going to make a skit about that.
- I'm super hilarious.
(Chris laughs)
I don't know like yeah.
I was always making jokes
and just like messing around.
My whole family is sarcastic, so like
- That's dope.
- That's kinda where it started.
- All right. You ready for the next set?
- Let's do it.
- Okay. It's going to be an L-sit pull back.
So you're going to go right into the magic button.
You're going to press it down.
As soon as you feel all that energy build up,
you're going to L-sit as hard as you can,
lean back, and do like a lap pull-down.
So you're going to keep your arms straight.
So a magic button, in out. In out.
- You make it look so easy.
- You got that, bro.
Just notice that as soon as I start
to feel like my body start going this way,
I'm going to lower myself down and control
like that movement back to that same position. Exactly.
So you go there, boom, L-sit. Like snap, L-sit.
There you go.
Boom.
Exactly. You only need to do a couple reps.
Boom, L-sit, bang.
Excellent. That move is
It's pretty difficult, but you'll get this.
- I feel the swing up.
- You feel the momentum and the technique working, exactly.
Once you can do it with a bit of momentum,
eventually you decrease the momentum that we're doing.
Like you do less and less of a swing.
You push the magic button shorter and shorter and shorter
until it's like a tiny swing
until you're not even swinging anymore.
And just, boom, you pull straight up.
So normally you would stop here.
Train these two progressions for awhile,
but we're working with Twan here.
We're just going to keep it going. This guy's a beast.
Before we move on, I have another question for you.
I think everybody can appreciate.
I've definitely felt like this,
but have you ever felt like giving up, and, if you did,
what did you do to keep going?
- I felt like giving up all the time
No, it's something very normal.
I always say to keep walking forward.
At one point you look back
and you'll realize how far you've walked.
- I love that.
- And so I'll look back and I feel like
damn I've walked pretty far.
Like if I give up that, all that walking that I did,
it's like, I can't give up now. I'm already too far.
- I love that mentality. Hell yeah.
And just stay focused on your goals
no matter how long they take,
because truth is the time is going to pass anyway.
Whether they take two or five years,
eventually you're going to find yourself
at that two or five-year mark
wishing that you would have started five or two years ago.
- That's why. I want to say, gotta look back sometimes
and realize how far you came.
- Appreciate it, that's true.
Now this next step is going to be an exercise.
You can train to get the last progression,
even stronger and increase your height and explosiveness.
So this is going to be called an X pull-up.
This is something I made up a long time ago,
but basically you want to come in like the magic button.
And instead of coming out with our legs straight,
we're going to come out with our knees bent.
Now we're going to pull in at the same time
and then extend as we come out.
All right?
So this helps you with like that explosiveness
and using like the technique and the momentum
to like pop you up.
You bring your knees in as you pull and then you open up.
Boom. There you go.
Perfect. Bang.
Exactly.
Killing it, bro.
That was amazing. Amazing, amazing.
Another thing that helps this exercise
is doing some weighted pull ups.
Twan and I we're doing that the other day
so you're already ready for this. Let me ask you,
if you weren't a content creator, what would you be?
- Probably be modeling or something like that?
- Damn. Boy's a model.
For sure.
- I want to start a business. Modeling business.
I don't know, something.
Thank God, I've never had to think about it.
- That's true. It's like,
Hey, you don't need a plan B
when you're focused on your plan A right?
- That's true.
- Alright man, you ready for the next step?
- Yeah, let's do it.
- This next step is going to be an assisted muscle up.
We're going to be doing it on the side of a low bar.
So this is going to simulate the actual movement
of going up into a muscle-up.
So as I showed you the L-sit pullback,
it kind of looks like that, right?
So we're just starting off from that point.
We're gonna come up to here. Once we're at this point,
you're going to pull the bar to your chest and you're going
to lean over the border while your feet are forward
and you're going to push up and you're gonna finish,
come down nice and controlled like that.
The more controlled you can do the negative movement,
the easier it is going to be to pull back up again,
pull all the way up, bring your body to the bar,
keeping your feet forward.
As you can see, I'm doing the motion of a C.
And when I get to the top, I'm collapsing on the bar
to make sure that I'm still hooked on.
- Okay.
- All right. You got this bro.
And shoulder width apart. Some underneath.
You don't want to have your wrist like directly under
cause you're going to have to really re-grip
and turn your wrist. You want to have your wrist
as much rolled over in a false grip as possible.
- So I go here.
- Up and then from there you're gonna pull as close
and then do a C, you see?
Like lay your, lay your chest over the bar.
That's it. Now come down as slow as you can.
There you go.
Push up lean forward. Exactly.
Now lower your chest. Go slow.
There you go. Like that.
And then pull close to your body like a seat.
Bam. Exactly.
Then come down, slow.
One more.
Make that, C motion.
So lap pull down and it turns into a pull.
There you go.
All right, he's ready.
- Let's do it.
- All right. So the most important thing
to take away from there
is to make sure that you're not going
straight up into the bar
cause you're just going to hit your chest.
Come back down.
You want to make more of like a C motion.
- That's where I was always struggling with like
how to get those elbows over.
And now I feel like it's way smoother.
- Exactly.
Now, you know, you bring it straight to your chest,
lean over and instead of pulling straight up,
you do a bit of a lap pull down
and then turn it into a pulling motion.
Before we officially attempt this muscle up,
I have another question for you.
Have you ever been criticized? And if you have,
what do you do to overcome that?
- Well, I normally just like go into my room
and close the door I stomp around if I'm really mad
- Cry a little bit.
- Yell at myself in the mirror.
I say "You're worthless." Nah, I'm kidding.
Honestly. I'm very hard on myself
so if I have a good criticism, I'll look at it.
I'll be like that point. I could then adapt.
I think any type of criticism that is good. I love it.
If you just have only negative things to say,
I'm just not adding anything
Like if you say, "Hey, this looks a little bit off,
but I think if you would change that,
that would really help."
Now you're trying to give me like good criticism.
Like that is very helpful.
- Of course.
- But like if you just say like,
"Hey, you suck" like no.
- 100%. I completely agree with that.
I feel like even the best products and the best brands,
they don't have all the answers
when they're first starting out,
they need to develop as they go.
And the most valuable thing that you can get
when you're just starting off as a brand or a product
is people's critique.
Criticism is actually where a lot of your growth lies.
And if you can't take criticism, chances are,
you're not going to be growing much.
Now, on the other hand, there are people
that just like to put people down
without any criticism at all,
they just don't like people and that's understandable.
Not even I like everybody. Right?
But for all the people that love you and I look up to you
and like, you're their idol
and they're dying for your attention.
Why even waste your attention on someone there
that doesn't even care about you? You know what I'm saying?
- Right. Focus on the positivity always.
- Yup. 100%.
And with that said, we're about to smash this muscle up.
So you're going to put
everything that you've learned all together,
the magic button, the L-sit pull back,
how to do the technique as you're pulling up,
turn that lap pull down into a pull
so that you can get that C motion.
Normally you want to try this fresh,
but you're a beast, bro.
Here we go. You got this.
- Let's see how much of a beast I am.
- I believe in you.
Boom, boom.
Yes sir. (Chris clapping)
Easy bro. And that looks a thousand times better
than the first time. That was amazing.
Eventually you want to eliminate
as much momentum as possible
as you get stronger and as you get better.
So eventually this magic button will get closer.
So it's even closer. You just stop right there.
Pull straight up till eventually
you don't need this anymore at all.
And you just go straight off,
rip off the dead hang right here.
Pull straight up off the dead hang,
but we're getting there.
- I really liked the pulling thing you just said.
So like first going,
like going out like that and then pulling it
because for a second, I was like,
"I dunno, I'm gonna to make this."
And then I just pulled in really hard.
- And leaned over the bar.
- Yeah I was like now I'm over it.
Like now it's just triceps.
- Yeah. And the truth is it's like
we're always hoping that we're high enough,
but if you just pull up to your chest,
you can actually just lean over it
and that's perfectly high enough.
- I kinda want to try another one.
- Let's go for it, man. You got this. Let's go.
Boom. Easy. Light money.
- Hell yeah. So much better.
- That is amazing. Hell yeah.
You're a beast, Twan.
I was not kidding when I said Twan
learned how to do a handstand.
Like, and just a couple minutes.
I showed him to some of the progressions.
The very next day you were sending me videos
like an 11 second, like handstand hold.
I was blown away by that.
- Let's see if I can do one right now.
- Let's go. Let's go.
Let's bust that handstand.
You got this, Twan.
That's insane, man.
That's literally like two, three days of work right there.
What we're about to.
We're witnessing the next, the next athlete.
Crazy.
Oh, he's going for the handstand pushup. What?
Okay. Okay.
Doing the negative. Yo Twan, you're a beast, bro.
What? I thought he was going to push back up.
That was insane, bro.
I love that. You know what?
Next video we're going to get you back on
and we're going to unlock the handstand pushup.
- Let's do it.
What I love the most.
Like if I just remind myself of what you tell me,
like you break it down into steps.
Like just what we did with the muscle up.
- Yup.
- Or with the handstand, you broke it down for me in steps.
And then like before I go,
I'm like make sure I'm like my body's at the right height.
- The checklist.
Everything, it just makes a world of a difference
if you really just listen to exactly what he says.
Like it's going to make it so easy.
- Definitely bro.
There's a perfect example of taking criticism
and applying it right away
to become the best version of yourself.
I love that. Well, you're a freaking beast man.
All right. So I have one last question for you.
Is there anything that you have going on right now
that you can share with us. That we can check out.
- Yes. I do a lot of YouTube.
So I have my shows on my main channel @Twan Kuyper.
And then I have my second channel and TwanReacts.
- Make sure you subscribe right now.
- Yes, make sure you subscribe.
I worked on a film for over two years,
but it's going to be a really crazy movie.
So when that comes out, it's called "Rule of Thirds".
Keep an eye out for it.
- This is the first full movie that you've produced.
It's so crazy to see that you just went from doing skits
to making a full on feature film.
- It's a journey for sure.
And it's so different than making small skits.
It's so much work. That's why it's taken like two years.
It's crazy. But we'll see you when it comes out,
It's going to be amazing.
- Amazing, bro.
And I can't wait to watch it.
I'll definitely be watching it.
I'll be letting you guys know as soon as it's out
so you can watch it as well.
Maybe Twan will be doing some muscle-ups in the movie.
But if you haven't already make sure you subscribe to Twan.
He has two YouTube channels, TwanReacts.
- Twan Kuyper, my main channel.
- I'll put the links down in the description below
and until next time,
I'll see you guys next Thursday,
2:00 PM. USA Eastern time. Mad love. Peace out.