Thursday 120705

Rest Day

Tomorrow’s Workout:

Split Jerk 6x2xM.E.

Rest 5 minutes.

WORK TEST 2:

"Cindy"

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:

5 Pull-ups

10 Push-ups

15 Squats

Coach Mark’s Notes:

There are three main reasons why someone is unable to get a muscle up; you're either too heavy, too weak, or you're just not executing the movement properly.  It could be one of these things, or a combination.  Most people who see this movement for the first time want so badly to be able to do it, but they go about their efforts inefficiently.   I see muscle-up progressions online that are very good, but in most athletes' situations are unnecessary. While these progressions teach the movement very effectively and should definitely be learned, I find them to be not the best fix to the problem.  If you don't have a muscle up and you want one, hopefully this helps.

You need to be stronger: What's the highest you're capable of pulling up to on a bar?  I mean, where can you make the bar touch on your body with your hardest pull?  If you can't do a muscle up, this is where I suggest you start.  Next time you train, see how high you're able to pull so that you can gauge where you're at.  If you can hit your stomach, that means you're strong and a muscle-up is easily within reach.  If you struggle to get your chest to the bar, then you probably lack the strength to do a muscle-up.  This is probably the most common issue with someone who is incapable of muscling up.  If you're strong, you'll get the motion regardless of technique.  Being strong makes everything easier.  Pull-ups and ring dips are what you need to be training and training often.  High pull-ups, big range of motion.  Don't just gyrate on the bar, do real pull-ups and real ring dips.  Get low on your ring dips because that's where you'll be catching yourself on a muscle-up.  Perform pull-ups with some real effort, and pull hard!  That'll get you strong, and that'll get you the power you need to muscle up.  

You need to be lighter: This one is so obvious but I want to include it.  Your strength is relative to your body weight.  I spent years having slightly-too-heavy to way-too-heavy people come to me with their muscle-up questions and concerns, asking for tips and coaching and drills.  Too many times I didn't have the heart to tell them that they just weigh too much.  I don't have that problem anymore, you weigh too much.  Get lighter and all of your gymnastic movements (not just the muscle-up) will be easier, along with burpees and running and everything else that doesn't include a barbell.  A solid diet will get you there so, if this is your issue, start eating your way to a muscle-up.  Unless you're happy with the weight that you're at.  In that case you're going to need some wicked strength to go along with the extra poundage.  If you're a 225 pound guy that refuses to lighten the load, then you had better be focusing on getting stronger because that is a heavy ass muscle up.  Awesome, but heavy.

You need to learn the movement: This is the best of the three roadblocks to be stuck at on the path to your first muscle-up.  Sometimes an athlete will possess everything he or she needs to get a muscle up, except the actual movement understanding.  Here is where one of the progressions that I mentioned early would fit in perfectly.  This is the type of situation that I love as a coach, because you know the athlete has the ability, it just has to be pulled out.  Check out muscle up tutorials online or meet with a good coach.  The motion itself is not technically difficult, so if you're physically capable it shouldn't take much to learn.

Wherever you are in your attempt to join the muscle-up club, keep at it.  For some this is a long term goal that will take months, for others it is sooner within reach.  If you want it bad enough, you will get it, I have no doubt.  Train it and keep motivated.

"Kettlebell Clean Variations" with Jeff Martone, CrossFit Journal preview video [wmv] [mov]