Learning ring muscle ups

Ring muscle ups is a technically hard exercise to do but with the right drills it’s possible to get it right. With that said, some people can just jump up to the rings and perform the muscle up without thinking of what they are doing. For those people the exercise just comes naturally and easy, but in most cases it’s not that easy. It can take many drills and months of training to get up those rings. I had to work very hard to get my very first muscle up!

I can’t actively practice my muscle ups every day since my shoulder isn’t ok with the movement. I get sore afterwards if I overdo them, but I try to do muscle ups about twice/week and that seems to be enough to keep the skill fresh.

This is my tips to learn ring muscle ups;

1: Start with learning the transition with resistance bands. Attach two bands in the pull up bar and grab hold of them. Keep the hands close to the body when practicing the transition from pull to dip.

2: Another good way to get stronger in the transition is to jump up to the rings with a light weight or a ball between the feet.

3:  Once you have understood how the transition works, you can make the movement from straight arms and with a thick resistance band under your butt and then gradually reduce the size of the band until you no longer need it. Make sure to bring your hip up towards the rings in the transition… (I don’t really do that in the video below)

4: Practice weighted dips and pull-ups and also dips with just body weight is definitely recommended. It will make you stronger and more confident in the exercise.

5: Do a lot of practice in the rings with “false grip”. Especially strict chest to rings pull ups and don’t forget to swing with false grip. The sooner you get good at holding false grip it will become easier to do the transition.