How to Do Bar Muscle-Up: Progression & Muscles Worked

What is a Bar Muscle-Up?

The bar muscle-up is a challenging and impressive gymnastic move that requires a mixed skill base of strength, technique, and coordination.

The exercise combines a powerful pull-up with a seamless transition into a dip, performed on a straight bar.

It’s essentially what you do to climb out of the ladder-less neighborhood pool in an aesthetic way.

Beyond the aesthetic appeal, the bar muscle-up offers functional strength gains, enhancing upper body power and muscle coordination.

This guide delves into some progression steps and the muscles worked during a bar muscle-up, providing you with the knowledge and tools to master this advanced and cool skill.

How Strong Do You Need to Be to Do a Muscle-Up?

Well, we’re not gonna lie. A muscle-up is not something you bang out 52 reps of when you’re seven years old.

Unless you’re this kid:

But for us other, more normal human beings, it usually takes time to build sufficient strength to master the muscle-up successfully.

The strength parameter is also probably the most important factor separating how long it will take you to learn the full skill, as someone who isn’t strong enough to do a pull-up will have a harder time doing muscle-ups than someone who does pull-ups for reps.

Pull-Up Strength

Theoretically, a base strength of only one pull-up could be sufficient if the pull-up is powerful enough to lift you through the transition phase into the dip.

But in practice, to get that much power out of one pull-up, it’s more realistic to expect that a base strength of around 12–15 pull-ups will provide you with sufficient power for the task ahead.

Dip Strength

The dip part of the movement usually solves itself from the excitement of a successful transition from the pull-up.

But also, if you are strong enough to do the pulling plus transition part of the muscle-up, you’re probably already strong enough to do the final dip.

If you aren’t strong enough to push yourself up from the bottom of a dip, you should explore ways to achieve that before trying the muscle-up.

Bar Muscle-Up Progression & Drills

Where a person’s muscle-up journey starts comes down to the person’s capacity and abilities.

If you want to ride the muscle-up train, you should start by figuring out where you should jump on.

Maybe start with a pull-up program to check off those foundational 12–15 strict pull-ups?

Or if you’ve already checked off the required reps of pull-ups and dips, maybe the following two drills could guide you toward muscle-up mastery.

Jumping Muscle-Ups

The jumping muscle-up is a great way to practice the full movement of the muscle-up.

It lets you get a feel for the transition and also tests your lock-out strength in the dip.

How to Do Jumping Muscle-Ups:

1. Use a box of self-selected height. The higher the box, the easier it’ll be to get over the bar. 
2. Start with your feet on the box, bent knees, straight elbows, and a firm grip on the bar.
3. Use your legs to make a jump that helps you through the transition part.
4. Find a balanced position to land above the bar. Sometimes it helps to make a stomach-to-bar contact.
5. Press yourself up using your chest and triceps.

Like the parable earlier: just like climbing out of the neighborhood pool.

When you can do jumping muscle-ups, gradually lower the box height to keep progressing.

Banded Bar Muscle-ups

This variation uses the same principles as the box variation, except you now borrow strength from a rubber band instead of jumping off a box.

How to Do Banded Muscle-Ups:

1. Use a rubber band of self-selected resistance. The thicker the band, the easier it’ll be to get over the bar. 
2. Start with the band wrapped around one or both feet (it doesn’t matter if you use one or both; what matters is that they stay put or you’re up for a wedgie experience).
3. Hang with straight elbows and a firm grip on the bar.
4. Pull hard and use the assistance from the band to get through the transition part.
5. Find a balanced position to land above the bar. Again, it might help to make a stomach-to-bar contact.
6. And finish with a press to locked elbows.

Key Elements To Learn the Muscle-Up Despite Which Variation You Start With

1. False Grip

This odd and quite uncomfortable grip is required for a smooth transition above the bar.

The false grip could be described as a midpoint between a pull-up grip and a dip grip, eliminating the need for a grip switch in the transition.

2. Transition Phase

The transition is the hardest part, for sure.

To get through this tough part, you need (in addition to using the false grip) a really strong drive from the pull-up.

By creating speed already from the start of the pull-up, you’ll be able to fly halfway through the transition, making it a lot easier to get through.

The stronger you are in pull-ups, the easier this phase will be.

3. Dip Finish

Complete the movement with a controlled dip, locking out the elbows and achieving a full range of motion.

And remember, as you (deservedly) celebrate your victory of successfully climbing Mount Everest, you still have a long way down to safety that is painful to stumble through.

Common Mistakes & Problems

Even the most dedicated learners often encounter challenges along the way to progress. The muscle-up, in particular, is an exercise with many pitfalls to either get angry at or explore for further progress. 

But lucky for us: that is often how progress is made. Trial and error until trial and triumph.

Dividing the Movement Into More Parts Than Necessary

One common mistake is how I’ve described a muscle-up until now:

As a pull-up + transition + dip = Muscle-up

In reality, trying to achieve a muscle-up by executing it divided into three separate steps makes it harder than it already is.

A better way is to really visualize the muscle-up as one fluid movement starting from the bottom, and now we’re here, at the top.

Simple but not easy!

Trying to Go Straight Through The Bar

Another common mistake somewhat related to the first is the pulling path.

Though a pull-up is usually executed in a vertical path straight up to the bar, a muscle-up is easier to do around the bar in a more circular pattern.

This will help you create some space for your body away from the bar, instead of you pulling straight into it, which definitely will decrease the possibility of you reaching the top.

The easiest way to create this “pulling around pattern” is to start the rep with the body slightly rocked forward.

Not so much that it leads you to a kip (more about kips further down) but so that you set your initial pulling power in the direction around the bar.

Not Being Strong Enough

This is the most boring pitfall, so I’ve put it last, even though I can’t stress the importance of it enough.

You must have sufficient strength to be able to lift your body’s weight.

So, if you’re not willing to amputate body parts for a lower body weight, you’ll have to rely on strength training along the way.

Without sufficient strength in your upper body, you’ll (probably) never be able to happily celebrate your strict muscle-up success from on top of the bar, out over the gym.

Training Tips and Variations

Some other helpful tips along the way could be:

Weighted Strict Pull-ups

This pull-up variation is great for increasing your ability to create as much power as possible in lower rep schemes.

And since the first main goal when starting to train for muscle-ups most often is to be able to do one muscle-up, it could be wise to prioritize training towards a strong 1RM pull-up along the way.

Try working with 4–5 sets of 3–5 reps per weighted pull-up session two times a week.

Maybe start with something light and then progressively add weight for every session you manage your selected set and reps.

Check out our workout log app for help with logging your weight progressions.

Banded Stomach To Bar

Or without a band if you can!

This variation resembles the first part of the banded (or not banded) muscle-up.

1. Use a rubber band of self-selected resistance. The thicker the band, the easier it’ll be.
2. Start with the band wrapped around one or both feet.
3. Hang with straight elbows and a firm grip on the bar.
4. Pull hard and use the assistance from the band to get your stomach to bar height.
5. Lower back down and repeat.

Though this could be considered both a strength and a gymnastic skill exercise I would recommend a low number of reps per set.

Try 5–6 sets x 2–3 reps and assess the quality of the reps according to how a muscle-up is executed.

Consider Kipping

While in the gym-bro or calisthenics world, mastering the strict bar muscle-up is the ultimate goal; there is a different universe to explore: The CrossFit universe, where “kipping” exists as a possible way for more power.

Regardless of your assessment of its light or dark affiliation, it is a force to reckon with.

Kipping can provide valuable height to the pulling part of the muscle-up. 

An effective kip might even work as a direct progression from a rubber band and give you that extra boost to get through the hard transition part.

But, since this is a guide on the strict muscle-up, we will leave the kipping option here as a taster for future exercise guides.

Eccentric Muscle-Ups

This fun and hard variation pays off well if this is where you are in your muscle-up journey.

To benefit from this variation, it’s good to have sufficient strength to control the descent and especially the transfer part with a good tempo.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Start in the top position with arms straight/elbows locked out.
2. Bend your elbows and make contact with the bar with your stomach. Find centered balance.
3. Now for the hard part! With a slow and controlled descent, transfer around the bar to a top-positioned pull-up. Maybe hold for a second, if possible
4. Keep descending down to the hanging position, where your arms are straight.
5. You should now hang like in the starting position of a regular strict pull-up or muscle-up.

So it’s basically like a strict muscle-up but in reverse.

In Summary

Muscle-ups are cool.

They are also probably to be considered more like a task or skill (like jumping, climbing, etc) than a straight-on muscle-building strength exercise like bicep curls.

To achieve a strict muscle-up, it’s good to have enough strict strength. But if that’s not where you are now, there are ways to progress to the muscle-up using variations and equipment.

And if you think the two-handed strict muscle-up is too mainstream, you could always try it with only one hand:

Related reading:

• How to Do Pull-Ups
• How to Do Bar Dips

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