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You are here: Home / Articles / Lead-Up Exercises to Muscle-Up: Part 2 The Kipping Pull-Up

Lead-Up Exercises to Muscle-Up: Part 2 The Kipping Pull-Up

October 21, 2011 by Mike Fitch 19 Comments

Global Bodyweight Training - Mike Fitch

Full body extension is integral to the Kipping Pull-Up

Welcome to Part-Two of our series, “Lead Up Exercises to the Muscle-Up”! This week’s exercise is the Kipping Pull-Up, an absolutely essential technique in learning the first phase of the Kipping Muscle Up. As I had mentioned in Part 1, you will strive to use less and less momentum or “kip” as your technique improves, but in the learning stages it’s a must.

The Kip is the phase of the movement that begins your momentum arch. This allows you to generate enough power to get your upper torso above the bar. When doing the Kipping Pull-Up, this is as far up as you will be going. But with the full Muscle Up, you’ll continue on by simply flipping the elbows, pulling yourself into a dip position and pushing out of it (but we will explain more of the second phase in our next post).

Global Bodyweight Training - Mike Fitch

Once over the bar, you are in the perfect position for the full Muscle=Up!

This is an explosive and extremely integrated movement. The upper and lower body must synchronize so quickly that I usually make the comparison of an Olympic lift (Snatch or Clean) to explain the timing.

Be sure to pay close attention to the angle the body starts and finishes in. There are different styles of kipping, but this is the one we’ve seen work best at the GBT Gym. Give it a shot for yourself and get ready for the third installment of Lead Up Exercises to the Muscle Up!





Check out the other parts to this series here:

  • PART ONE: THE JUMPING MUSCLE-UP
  • PART THREE: THE MUSCLE-UP DIP


Filed Under: Articles, Bodyweight Exercises, Exercise Tutorial, Features, Instructional Tagged With: muscle up

Comments

  1. Ken says

    October 21, 2011 at 11:12 am

    Thanks for the progressions; I’ve been wanting to do a muscleup ever since I first saw one on youtube.

    Reply
    • Mike Fitch says

      October 21, 2011 at 7:52 pm

      Awesome! Once we’ve posted all of the parts and you get your first one, be sure to post a video on our facebook page!!!

      Reply
  2. Daniel Villela Runkel de Sousa says

    October 21, 2011 at 11:16 am

    Great video, Mike.

    BTW, what about those gloves you’re wearing in the video? What are they made of and where did you get them?

    All the best.

    Reply
    • Mike Fitch says

      October 21, 2011 at 7:54 pm

      Hey Daniel, the gloves are just leather batting gloves. I’ve found that these work best for bar work. We are actually in the process of manufacturing two different types of gloves. One will be specifically designed for the Animal Flow and the other for bar work. Keep an eye out, should be after the new year.

      Reply
  3. Steve says

    October 22, 2011 at 7:56 pm

    As always, a very informative video! Btw, where did you get that pullup system? I want one!
    Thanks,
    Steve

    Reply
    • Mike Fitch says

      October 22, 2011 at 11:06 pm

      Hey thanks Steve! The cage is by a company called Sorinex. I love that thing! So many possibilites

      Reply
  4. Brandon Cook says

    October 26, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    Great progressions to the Muscle Up, Mike. Like the new gym set up you got going on. Also, do you recommend learning the muscle up on a solid bar first versus something like O-rings?

    Reply
    • Mike Fitch says

      October 28, 2011 at 8:55 am

      Hey Brandon, you could go either way with your muscle up progress. There are very different techniques between the bar version and the gymnastics rings. You can use the same lead up progressions but with the rings you must get used to a false grip. We are about to start adding in a lot more rings videos, so stay tuned!

      Reply
  5. Ann Wendel says

    October 27, 2011 at 8:15 pm

    Awesome progression! Will try tomorrow! I did 5 Jumping Muscle Ups at the playground the other night on the bar! I also did the monkey bars 2x with only 1 hand on each bar, and 5 pull ups, none of which I could do before I started GBT last Spring!! Thanks, Mike! (Of course, I took a fall from 6 feet off the ground tonight at the rockclimbing gym while bouldering, and hit the mat flat on my back and hit my head, so we’ll see how the old body feels tomorrow!) Hope you have fun in Tampa!

    Reply
    • Mike Fitch says

      October 28, 2011 at 9:00 am

      Wow! That’s some serious progress Ann!! I’m going to expect a video from you soon. Oh, and i’m glad to hear you didn’t seriously hurt yourself from your bouldering fall. Take care of that body of yours Ann!

      Reply
  6. Theron says

    December 19, 2011 at 9:21 pm

    This is really informative! Was just wondering..what’s more important in doing the muscle up, strength or technique? If strength, how strong must I be?

    Reply
  7. Matthew says

    January 14, 2012 at 5:08 pm

    Would you mind telling me what gloves you are wearing there? Are they batting gloves or specially made BWE gloves?

    Thanks,
    Matthew

    Reply
    • Matthew says

      January 14, 2012 at 5:09 pm

      Ooops, I should have read the other comments! Sorry.

      Reply
  8. Jon says

    April 11, 2012 at 8:53 am

    Mike, first of all great videos!!! I’ve recently moved away frow weight training as it seems to cause so many injuries or niggles in my pursuit of the body excellence. Currently my main goal is to crack the bar muscle up by the end of the summer. However I’m struggling with the KIP Pull up. I just seem to lose momentum after about 3 or 4 pull ups. Is it just practice or are there common mistakes people make? The rest of the muscle up breakdown I’m pretty strong with. I wish i had a gym and a coach like you in the UK.

    Thanks
    Mike

    Reply
    • Mike Fitch says

      April 11, 2012 at 9:26 pm

      Hey Jon! Thanks for the kind comments! Remember, the Kipping muscle up is a very high neurological exercise, that requires just as much skill as strength. So this is were consistency and practice play a major role in executing this movement. If you loose momentum at 3 or 4 reps, then this is exactly where you should stop the exercise. Otherwise, if you start to slow down, then you are training your body to move slow. Just keep practicing each of the movements, then start integrating them. It will eventually “click”! Good luck my friend!

      Reply
  9. Jack says

    May 8, 2012 at 12:00 pm

    Great video! thanks for making it! Quick question – why don’t you straighten your armns and have a slight break in the elbows?

    Thanks,
    J

    Reply
  10. Bill says

    October 22, 2012 at 6:45 pm

    I’m up to 7 Kipping Pull-Ups. Time to move onto the Jump Muscle Up. Great instructional videos. Thanks Mike!!

    Bill

    Reply
    • Mike Fitch says

      November 15, 2012 at 2:37 pm

      Excellent! I absolutely love the jump Muscle Ups, and I’m sure you will as well! Keep up your practice man.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Muscle-Up Dip (Lead-Up to Muscle-Up Part 3) | says:
    November 26, 2011 at 5:31 pm

    […] Lead-Up Exercises to the Muscle-Up: PART 2 THE KIPPING PULL-UP […]

    Reply

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