The Struggle To Muscle Up
By vishwa on Inspiration, Training
November 10, 2015
Well, I see that I had a love and hate relationship with the muscle up. Firstly, I started executing these drills a few years before when I was operating the gym in the first floor of the building. I had a specific pull-up bar constructed for performing the muscle up. However, I later found out that performing muscle up on the bar caused my shoulders and elbows take a huge brunt. Later on, while I shifted the gym to the ground floor (we needed a wider space to execute the HIIT drills) I practiced the muscle up on the power rack. It was equally difficult to execute them on the power rack, for while trying to hoist myself up on the power rack the rack also swayed simultaneously causing great difficulty to move-up over the bar. Moreover, that was again a bar which continued to trouble my vulnerable shoulder and elbow.
Fortunately, at the same time, I had introduced the Olympic ring(rings are shoulder friendly), for I had a whooping wider space in the gym. The following years I practiced it infrequently on the ring. Several times, I abandoned practicing it, for I had failed to consistently execute them. However, since 6 months or so I took it up as a challenge to execute them regularly. On the flipside, I noticed that the planche practice particularly on Saturdays was always better, relatively. Later I realized that whenever I executed the muscle up before practicing the planche I was able to practice the planche better. My central nervous system–CNS thoroughly fires up after executing the muscle up.
Nonetheless, as I reiterated earlier I continued to fail several times while practicing it, for I neglected to execute one or the other related elements of the muscle up. Fortunately, I visualized the draw back, and I realized that I wasn’t changing the wrist position as I drew myself up. Thereafter, my confidence grew and executed them without any failed attempts. I started to execute them thrice in a week before practicing the planche, for I needed my CNS to be fired up to practice the planche better. Moreover, I honestly needed to face the fear of executing foolproof muscle ups.
On a similar note, since a failed attempt frustrated me I operated only on performing and mastering single repetitions. However, after performing unfailing singles for several weeks, I was confident to execute few more consecutive repetitions. Subsequently, I scored a personal best of four repetitions. The very next week I pursued again and tried breaking the four repetitions personal record. You will see in the video where I execute six repetitions and beat my previous score. However, I am not glad with the sixth repetition, as you can see me stuck and struggling to get up over the ring. All in all, I am very glad about my fight with the muscle up. Ha! Now I can blurt out that persistence pays and I can say that I love, not hate, performing the muscle up.
https://youtu.be/Hsfmk0Ezfak