In recent time I have started to become more and more fascinated with fitness, not just lifting weights but trying to push myself to do more difficult exercises, and eating a strict diet. In my progression I have finally felt that it was time for me to learn to do a muscle-up, one of the hardest exercise to master according to men’s health Youtuber, Scott Herman. It has gained this reputation due to the fact that many muscles are being engaged and you have to support your own body weight. 

In my test trial before my practice I attempted to do a pull up, and twist one of my elbows above the bar. According to Chris Heria of THENX training training program, this is one of the most common mistakes that occurs to those trying to learn a muscle up and will ultimately result in you never learning this exercise. I tried it a couple time before I gave up, and just tried doing pull ups to increase my strength. 

I began researching the movements involved in using proper form, and this is where I first came across a Men’s Journal article breaking down the movements. In this article it recommended starting in a false grip, then pulling your chin up to the bar. Once the chin is at the bar roll yourself up on to the bar. After trying this method I was still having significant trouble with it, so I decided to continue to research more steps.

I found an article on Men’sHealth which gave a list of prerequisite exercises to complete before trying this exercise. I needed to practice these exercises, but I also had to skip a day in between targeting the abs and back again to allow them recover. I also had a short time frame to learn this exercise so I would need to give myself time to learn the real thing as well. I tried some of these prerequisites mastering some, but not all of them. Wanting to give myself time to break down the movements with about eight days to go I began actually figure out the proper form.

After meticulously searching for videos, I found two from THENX and ScottHermanFitness. After watching these videos is the only time I made real progress. In both videos, trainers, Chris Heria and Scott Herman finds a bar that their feet can touch the ground, which really helped because I had always attempted it from a hanging position. They then went to explain how to swing your body out to build momentum. Chris Heria recommended an L-sit, while Scott Herman recommended tucking the knees to the chest. I tried both and an L-sit works more efficiently, but also takes more energy.

As you can see in the following images when I used an L-sit I got higher over the bar.

To get over the bar Chris recommends treating it like a hanging push up while Scott says to simply turn your wrists and pull forward. I had significant trouble on this part and was ultimately the reason why I couldn’t learn to fully complete this movement. 

I realized going in that this would be a very difficult task to master a muscle-up in thirteen days. Not only would it take a lot of dedication, strength, and self-discipline it takes a lot of practice. Looking back on the process now I realize that most of the places where I messed up were in turning my wrists to get me over the bar. I underestimated how much practice I would need to learn how to do this and is what led to me not being able to do it, but I will still keep practicing and learning how to complete this difficult task.