How We Got Victor a Four Minute PR on His Muscle Up Test

By: Briana Siegert 

One of the first things we do with each of our clients in their initial 2-Weeks into the program is an assessment. This includes movement assessments, strength tests, aerobic tests, and gymnastics tests of all varieties (max unbroken reps, analyzing movement/technique, and capacity). 

One thing I noticed is that Victor has great relative strength. He has a strong weighted pull up and his strict movements are great, but he struggled with a couple things that were hindering his max sets AND his capacity on ring muscle ups. 

1. He has a pretty big asymmetry in his left and right shoulder. More specifically, he lacks upward rotation in his right scapula. This is a problem in the muscle up as, when you pull yourself up, your serratus anterior and lower trap work together to keep the shoulder blades rotating upward and depressed. A common fault when these muscles are weakened is overusing the upper trap, which causes a "shrugging" motion on the pull. This can be a problem because when the traps are trying to take over this decreases the space in your shoulder joint (which can lead to impingement later) and also directs energy away from your lats which should be doing the majority of the work here. 

2. From a technical standpoint, he initiated the movement with his knees as opposed to the hips which should be the highest point on the uprise of a ring muscle up. You or someone you may know might do this. What this looks like as a common fault is you might catch on the rings in a “V-up” position instead of an arch position. (the second phase of the photo below) 

How did we fix this and get him from 6 ring muscle ups to 12 in a max set and decrease his 30 ring muscle ups for time? 

When you are working on gymnastics in relation to CrossFit you want to do this in THREE phases: Skill Acquisition, Volume, and finally Capacity. 

First, you have to dissect those movements and work on them as separate parts. You must also start by working in the skill by itself and without any fatigue interference. Day one: Scap symmetry and lat strength + Skill (Tension in the swing and bail)

Day two: Skill (hip drive and kipping dip) + Volume accumulation 

Symmetry Warm-Up:

A. LAX ball subscap and upper trap x 2:00 each

B1. 8-10 wall slides @ 3131 x 2

B2. 10-12 seated single arm banded pull downs @ 2121 x 2 

C1. :30 dead hangs x2

C2. 8-10 Scap push ups on matador or rings (not holding a hollow position) x 2

Skill Work:

Day 1. 

A1. Off-Set Pegboard pull ups x 3-5 each side x 3 sets, Rest 1:00

A2. Barbell Ab Wheel Rollout x 8-10 each side @ 3030, rest 1:00 

B1. Ring Swing initiation + 5 Ring swings with push and pull

B2. Ring Muscle up bails x 5 

B3. Seated banded ring turn over x 6-8 

Day 2. 

A1. Supine Hip Drive on Low Rings x 5

A2. Ring Swings with dip x 3-5 reps of 3 swings + 1 dip

B. 5x2-3 Ring muscle ups with toe spot, Rest 1:30-2:00 b/w sets 

After progressing him to 30 ring muscle ups without interference, we started adding in some interference. This is where we still have to keep progression in mind. Just because we’ve built the volume does not mean that his capacity was ready for a workout like 26.2 that had a lot of prior pulling fatigue. 

We started with EMOM’s:

Every 2:00 for 10:00 

12 cal ski + 3 RMU 

After he’d progressed on the EMOM’s, we started doing longer intervals with more interference.

2 Sets: 

5-4-3-2-1 

Run 100m 

Ring muscle up

Rest 3:00 b/w sets 

And finally, we added upper body fatigue (muscular endurance)

3 Sets: 

800m Run @ 5k pace

Into….

5-4-3-2-1

Burpee to ring

Ring muscle up

Rest 3:00 b/w sets 

A couple short rules of thumb when you are working on any weakness that is perceived as a big hole:

1. Work on it TWICE per week. 

2. Spend at least 6-weeks working on progressions. It will be boring and you’ll want to get pulled into a metcon to make it “more fun”. Trust the process

3. Skill > Volume > Capacity 

4. Don’t jump from doing 10 in a workout to 30. Build your volume gradually. 

If you’d like an assessment and a planned execution to improve your ring muscle up capacity send us your contact info and we will reach out to you.