Visualizing The Bar Muscle Up

AMRAP 20 min:
15 DB Push Press
80 yard Farmers Carry
3 Rope Climbs
400m Run

Now that everyone has dialed in their ring muscle ups, well let's say many of you have, the bar muscle up is becoming more prevalent.

Bar muscle ups have a little different rythm and require much more explosivemenss.  Rings tend to take a little more balance but not as much power due to the advantage of the false grip.

To begin your bar muscle up, you want a little body english, or a swing going.  The easiest way to do this is to jump up to the bar from behind it vs. straight under it.  You want to stay really tight and throw the chest forward sending the body into a globally arched position.  This will load the body like a rubberband with tension that can be returned to create momentum.

From the arched poisition, you are going to snap to a hollow position agressively closing the hip and shoulder angle as your body begins to drift backward under the bar.  This will naturally create upward momentup and close the distance from your hips to the bar.

Here's where most people blow it.  Immediately after snapping to hollow you have to open the hips upward at the bar.  Most people I see missing bar muscle ups stay in the hollow position and never re-open, or wait too long to re-open the hips.  You all know what it looks like when someone tries this movement or a chest to bar pull up and it looks like a desperate flail and they miss?  That is opening the hips late.  Snap snap faster!  It's all timing.

In this first shot you can see how far in front of the bar Trav has stretched out.  The yellow lines represent the normal position for a kipping or butterfly pull up.  Again you can easily accomplish this position by jumping forward to the bar or naturally by coming down from the previous bar muscle up.

In the second slide, he is closing the hips and shoulders sending his legs up and accelerating his body back behind the bar.  By the 3rd slide, the hips and shoulders are well closed and his body is now behind the bar.  This is the moment of oppritunity to slam the hips open and upward at the bar to finish the power needed to float over the bar.  If you are even a split second late, you will miss the rep.

Here is the first time we see pulling with the arms.  Until this moment just after the hips explode up, all movment has been in the shoulder, midline and hips.  Trav is pulling the bar towards his hips, not towards his shoulders.  This why the "body english" or swing is needed.  You want your body to be drifting way back behind the bar, not straight up at it like a pull up.  If you can get your hips close to the bar, all you have left to do is "nose to toes" as the arrows show in the last slide.

So… You need a little swing to get your body loaded well in front of the
bar to start, then just as you start to drift back, snap from arched to
hollow to create momentum, then immediately open the hips up at the bar
to finish elevating your body.  As the hips approach the bar, pull the
bar into your waist, keep the toes up, and close the hip again to
transition over the bar.

A great drill from CF gymnastics master coach Carl Paoli is to go kipping pull up, chest to bar pull up, hip to bar pull up, 1, 2, 3 in a row.  If you can get your hip to the bar, the hard part is accomplished.  Study the slides and visualize your self flying over the bar.  Get your wang to bar pull up down and…
3, 2, 1 GO DO BAR MUSCLE UPS!