Now we are rolling! By now you should feel comfortable popping up on the rings and busting out some muscle-ups. Your friends are scratching their heads wondering how you are progressing so quickly.
In level 4 we build on top of what we already know. We want to string together more muscle-ups on both ring and bar. Additionally, we want to start learning how to do a strict muscle-up. Strict muscle-ups are a fantastic strength builder even if they don’t show up in WOD programming much.
Like with strict pull-ups, the more strict muscle-ups you can do the more kipping muscle-ups you can do.
In level 4 you’ll notice we have two microcycles. The way you handle that is to complete the first one then the second one.
- Current ability: 5 kipping ring muscle-ups unbroken and 1 bar muscle-up.
- Move to Level 5 Muscle Up when: 8 for women/12 for men kipping ring muscle-ups, able to string together bar muscle-ups, and 1 strict ring muscle-up.
- Objective: Muscle-up capacity that will translate into decreasing your time for the “30 Muscle Ups for time” workout.
Microcycle 1
| WHEN | DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BEFORE WOD | 3 rounds of as many muscle-ups in 1:00 minute as possible followed by 2:00 minute rest. | 5×1-3 strict ring muscle-up adding 1 rep a cycle until the next level. If you do not have a strict muscle-up yet then do the following complex: kipping ring muscle-up with a 10-second controlled descent from the top of the dip to the bottom of the pull-up. | 3 sets of max unbroken bar muscle-ups with 2:00 minute rest. |
Microcycle 2
| WHEN | DAY 1 | DAY 2 |
|---|---|---|
| BEFORE WOD | As many muscle-ups as possible in 3 minutes. Add 15 seconds each cycle till you move to level 5. Cap out at 5 minutes. | 5×1-3 strict ring muscle-up adding 1 rep a cycle until the next level. If you do not have a strict muscle-up yet then do the following complex: kipping ring muscle-up with a 10-second controlled descent from the top of the dip to the bottom of the pull-up. |