Before starting this project, the closest movement I could do to a muscle up was a pull up. I got to the point where I felt I have perfected this movement and was ready to tackle something more difficult. Learning about the muscle up these past few weeks has provided me a perfect challenge and learning opportunity. While I have not yet perfected this skill, I have come a long way.
Jenkin’s New Media Literacies of appropriation, judgement and networking allowed me to find the most beneficial videos and help forums to guide my learning (2013). One challenge I ran into was the use of a bar versus rings for a muscle up. In my gym I only have a bar to use. I found it difficult to transfer the skills I learned from videos using the rings to my practice using the bar. Appropriation and judgement allowed me to feed these resources out and find tutorials that matched the equipment I had to work with. I began with this video which really helped me to see the individual steps and processes involved in completing a muscle up. I like how this video broke down each movement and talked about the proper placement of the hands and feet when doing a muscle up. This showed the proper progression and gave lots of examples and tips of the technique.
Images attributed and retrieved from Bodybuilding.comBodybuilding.com
I found the steps easy to understand, but executing the movements did not go as planned. Even after studying the video, there was still something missing. To overcome this challenge I turned to a help forum to find other opinions and suggestions. After much research I was led to this video which goes back to the basics. Before teaching the steps of a muscle up they went over the different positions your body should be in at each step. They spent a majority of the time learning the moves and stretches on the ground, without the actual equipment.They transitioned from body weight, to PVC bars, to the actual bar. This seemed to be the missing key for me. This body positioning, as well as the step-by-step progressions from the two videos allowed to gain a better understanding of how to complete a muscle up.
Before and After Progression:
Below is my before video. In this video you will see that I was not able to get my chest above the bar. I was able to pull myself parallel to the bar, with my right side going a bit higher. In the tutorials I watched, it was common for one side of the body to be stronger than the other. In a perfect muscle up both sides would come up at the same rate.
In my after video you can see that my height has increased. I was able to to get my chest above the bar, with my right side still dominating. In a short amount of time I was able to add significant height to my movement. I am working on applying proper techniques to execute this movement. I need to work on keeping my arms straight and using the momentum of my body to push myself to the top of the bar. Stay tuned to see my progressions on the muscle up.
References
Jenkins, H. (2013). Create Circulate Connect Collaborate. New Media Literacies. Retrieved from http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/
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