Movement Tip: The Strict Muscle-Up

The Strict Muscle-Up is an impressive skill by anyone’s standards – take a look at this video of CrossFit Seminar Staff member Julie Foucher, demonstrating the strict muscle-up. Not only does this movement require a lot of upper body strength, but it also needs a fair degree of shoulder mobility to move through the deeper than usual ring dip position. The muscle up can broadly be divided into three sections: 1) The chest to bar pull 2) The transition 3) The Ring Dip The range of motion for the pull-up and ring dip are more than would normally be done for those movements, so if you are training towards a muscle up, then make sure when you train these movements, you train the full range of motion you will need for the muscle-up. To make it a little easier when you start out, support some of your bodyweight by having your feet or toes on the ground or a box as you work through the movement.

Points Of Performance

  • Rings set approximately shoulder-width apart
  • False grip on the rings
  • Start with arms extended
  • Pull rings to sternum as torso leans back
  • Move the chest over the rings, hands and elbows stay close to the body
  • Complete at full arm extension at support position