Somehow a muscle-up went from being the way a gymnast got on top of the rings, to becoming an exercise that everyone in a gym seemingly wants to do.  This has become a source of endless amusement as the competitive exercise racers out there have started to add this to the regime of exercises that they try to do for reps in a short period of time.  This is nonsense.  What is worse, the refined technique that involves a careful wrist position, has largely been cast aside in favour of wild fish swinging as the mode of attack to completing this movement.  It is a sad inditement of the entire industry that this is one of the leading exercises that rings are often put to use for in many gyms.

The following video tries to point out that the wrist position required for doing these with the least amount of effort actually requires some active flexibility.  Yet again, it would appear that moving effectively, and being flexible trumps dumb strength.

At the end of the day a person can put a huge amount of work into trying to cheat this movement, but it is worth a lot more to just build the strength to do it with ease. The video covers most of the rough frame work for some of the basics to improving wrist strength and positioning. Not a crazy indepth video this time, but it gets the point across.

…now if only we could convince people that this really isn’t an exercise as much as it is a transition…

If you want to learn more about muscle-ups, the flexibility needed to do them, and what is more, some of the fun things you can do once you are on top of the rings, come by the facility and we will introduce you to this old strength tool.