Ring Muscle-up

 Main muscle worked: Back

 Other muscles worked: Biceps, Shoulders, Triceps

 Equipment: Rings

 Mechanics Type: Compound

 Exercise Instructions: Muscle-up using false grip

1. Take the rings with a false grip position (described below).
2. Pull yourself up to the rings (see pull-up exericse for breakdown).
3. Now you need to do the transition and at the top of the pull-up bring your whole upper body over the rings. Move your shoulders over your hands, the elbows should curve round to your ribs and then back behind the body.
4. Now your body should be above the rings and you can press yourself up into the support position.
5. Dip back down and reverse the exercise, returning to the start position. Repeat.

 Exercise Instructions: Muscle-up without the false grip

1. Grip the rings and hang freely below them, supporting your body weight.
2. Pull yourself up to the rings.
3. The aim here is to generate just enough power so that you can hoist yourself above the rings. At the top of the pull-up kick out with your feet or knees, lean forward at the waist and thrust yourself up and over the rings into the dip positon.
4. Press yourself up into the support position.
5. Dip back down and reverse the exercise, returning to the start position. Repeat.

Notes:

• A highly effective, yet difficult exercise - the rings muscle-up is essentially composed of three parts, a pull-up, transition motion and ring dip.
• The transition is the most difficult part and you should master the false grip to achieve it.

 Muscle-up Information:

The ring muscle-up is an incredible upper-body exercise and demonstration of strength. The ability to start below the rings and finish above them in one movement is an acquired skill. It's a notoriously difficult exercise to master and is a firm favourite with CrossFit. The muscle-up essentially combines a pull-up and dip into one flowing movement and requires the effort of almost all upper body muscles with focus upon the pecs, shoulders and triceps. It will take dedicated training to achieve.

That being said it's a great challenge to set yourself and once you do achieve it you will be much stronger for it.

 Achieving the muscle-up

Much of the muscle-up is about technique rather than pure strength and there are some pointers to know about. Muscle-ups are essentially composed of:

1. Pull-up
2. Transition
3. Dip

You should start by mastering the ring pull-up and dip exercises individually and then work on combining the two into a muscle-up.

The transition is the most difficult part of the exercise and is the part where you move from the top of the pull-up, below the rings to above them so you can press the body up to the support position.

As you pull-up the rings will reach your armpits. Keep the rings tight to the body and continue the upward motion whilst rolling your shoulders forward and over the hands. Your elbows will curve round and back behind the body.

To do this, you should learn what is known as a false grip.

 The false grip

The false grip is a different way of positioning your hands on the rings which allow you to more easily move between the stages of the muscle-up.

The hands should be moved upwards, so that they sit on the rings at the bottom of the palms and wrists, rather than the hands and fingers. This will take some practice if you are new to the false grip. You can begin by using this technique on pull-ups or body rows first to build up the wrist strength. With the wrists above the rings you should have the leverage for the transition.

You don't have to use the false grip, but without it you will need swing or kick your way above the rings. If you do use a swinging or kicking motion to achieve the muscle-up it is recommended that you try to decrease it as you become more proficient and over time and try to remove the need completely. For beginners, this technique makes the muscle-up much easier.

 Muscle-up tips

If you are really struggling with the muscle-up you can try some of the following tips:

• Lower the height of the rings, use the ground as a starting position and jump into the exercise. As you get stronger raise the rings higher and higher until you no longer need the jump.
• Supporting the feet on a box or bench can be quite effective too, which reduces the amount of body weight being used during the exercise.
• Practice weighted pull-ups and dips which will develop phenomenal strength that will really help when training for the muscle-up.
• Use the legs to get up and over the rings by kicking or swinging out to gain extra momentum. Try to phase this out over time though.  
• Some people have had success using resistance bands threading them through the rings and putting the feet into the loop to support some of your body weight during the exercise.