The Muscle Up Progression: 6 Steps to Mastering the Move

Unless you’re already a trained gymnast, the pull-up is one of the most challenging bodyweight movements you can try. In addition to requiring significant core and upper body strength, pull-ups require excellent mobility, body awareness, coordination and timing.

If you’re determined to add muscle to your gym repertoire, know that there’s a right and wrong way to develop this skill.

• The wrong way: Repeatedly swing and slam your body into the bar until you are tired, frustrated and possibly injured.
• The right way: A progression of muscle growth.

A muscle-up progression is a series of increasingly difficult movements that gradually develops your muscle-up technique while building your strength. Each stage of the progression includes benchmarks that indicate your readiness to move on to the next exercise within the progression.

The final phase is, of course, a safely executed muscle-up with confidence and impeccable form.

Muscle up progress with 6 step bar

Dr. John Gallucci, Jr., MS, ATC, PT, DPT, CEO of JAG Physical Therapy, explains that lifting a muscle is actually a series of smaller movements linked together:

1. Kip swing
2. Raising the knee
3. Leg lift
4. Chest pulls on the bar
5. Tricep dip

To do a pull-up, you need to be comfortable performing each of these movements repeatedly. This is where the progression of muscle growth comes in.

Developed with input from Gallucci and Jeff Waters, USA Boxing Registered Trainer and owner of Watters Performance, the following muscle growth progression starts at a beginner level. Depending on your gymnastics experience and current strength levels, you may be able to skip ahead.

Step 1: Hanging Knee/Leg Raise

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Hang at arm’s length with arms straight (a position known as a dead hang) and legs straight and together.
• Bend your knees 90 degrees and lift to hip level. Hold for one second and then return to the starting position.
• Once you are able to complete three sets of 10 repetitions, perform the same movement keeping your legs straight so that your body forms an L shape. Once you are able to complete three sets of 10 repetitions of leg raises, go to the next step.

Tip: “Make sure you don’t swing and use momentum to lift your legs up, and all the work comes from the hip flexors and core,” says Gallucci.

Step 2: Assisted pull from chest to bar

• Wrap one end of a large resistance band around the pull-up bar. Grasp the bar with a grip that is slightly wider than shoulder width and place one foot on the other end of the resistance band.
• Hang at arm’s length with your legs straight and your core and glutes engaged.
• Without swinging or jumping (using momentum to push you up), engage your lats and squeeze your shoulder blades together as you pull your chest toward the bar.
• Rest and then lower back into a dead hang.

Tip: “Start with a thicker band,” says Watters. “If you can do 10 full pull-ups, use a thinner band. Over time, keep working your way down until you can do 10 strict pull-ups with the thinner band. Then go on.”

Step 3: Strict pull from the chest to the bar

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip that’s just beyond shoulder width.
• Hang at arm’s length with arms straight and ankles crossed behind you.
• Without swaying or jumping, engage your core, glutes, and lats as you squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull your chest into the bar.
• Rest and then lower back into a dead hang.
• Once you can do three sets of 10 reps, move on. But keep practicing chest-to-bar pull-ups as you work on new skills.

Tip: “At this stage, it’s important to also work on the ‘push’ feature you use to lift the muscle,” says Watters.

He suggests incorporating push-ups into your training plan, including deadlifts, in which you squat down to the ground and momentarily lift your arms before pushing yourself up into the plank, to eliminate any momentum from the movement.

“Start from the floor position halfway up, then lower back down to the ground. This is the most difficult part of pushing, so we emphasize it,” he says.

Step 4: Triceps dip

• Grab the handles of a dip station and jump or rise to the starting position: feet off the floor, arms straight and ankles crossed. (To make the movement easier, you can tie a large resistance band through the gloves and rest your knees on it.)
• Keeping your forearms vertical and elbows tucked (not flared), let your torso bend forward as you lower your body until your elbows form an angle of about 90 degrees.
• Reverse the movement, returning to the starting position. Once you can do three sets of 10 reps, move on.

Step 5: Swing with kip

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Hang at arm’s length with arms straight and legs straight and together.
• Assume a hollow body position: engage your core and quads to arch (round) your spine and tilt your pelvis back (attach your tailbone).
• Use your shoulders to push your chest forward and arch your spine, allowing your legs to move behind you.
• Use your shoulders, lats, and core to return to an empty body position and begin to pull yourself up the same way you did for chest pulls.
• Once you are able to complete three sets of 10 reps of toe swings during which your chest meets the level of the bar, progress to a full pull-up.

Tip: Make sure you are using your shoulders, not your hips, to generate the swing.

Step 6: Muscle growth

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip that’s slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Hang with arms straight and core and wrist muscles engaged.
• Start a toe swing: starting in an empty body position, use your shoulders to push your chest forward and arch your spine. Then, use your shoulders, arms and core to return to an empty body position. (Once you’re behind the bar, lean back and pull on the bar to get as high as you can.)
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull your hips toward the bar. Once your abs make contact with the bar, rotate your wrists forward, bend forward and straighten your elbows so your torso is over the bar.
• Hold, then lower into a hanging position.