Invictus Blog

Steps to a Muscle-Up – Step #3: Turnover and Transition
Written by Heather Hippensteel

The next crucial piece of the coveted muscle-up is the transition from hips to rings to getting up and over the rings. There are a few different variations of drills to practice this transition step. The key is to be fast and aggressive, utilizing the momentum created from powerful hips while keeping the rings close so that the athlete is able to catch himself securely in the bottom of the ring dip.

Drill 1 – Roll to Candlestick

The first drill to practice this aggressive transition is called a roll to candlestick, performed on the ground. Instruct the athlete to:

• Start standing with your feet together, and then slowly sit back and lower your butt to the ground.

• Roll backwards rounding your back and t-spine and shoot your feet straight up in to the air, extending your arms overhead on to the ground behind you. You should pause for a split second in this position with abs, butt, and legs engaged and squeezed together.

• As you start rolling forward and tuck your feet underneath you before standing, think about throwing your shoulders in front of you. To do this, engage your midline, and practice bending your arms at your sides as your shoulders come through and you stand up.

Drill 2 – Band assisted transition on low rings

Once the athlete is comfortable with the roll to candlestick drill, we will move them onto a pair of low rings. Attach a band to the rings like you did in last week’s Step #2 to provide assistance. It is essentially the next progression of the hip drills we did in Step 2. The band should be across their butt as you lay back and hold the rings with straight arms and a tight body. Instruct your athlete to:

• Get into your good grip with your arms straight, lying back.

• Pop your hips to the rings a few times and on your third bounce, pop your hips up while quickly pulling the rings down towards your hips, then throw your chest and shoulders through.

• It is important to keep the rings close and pulled into your sides as you catch yourself in the bottom of the ring dip. As you transition, you should be over the rings with your chest towards the floor, in the bottom position of your ring dip.

Drill 3- Feet assisted transition on low rings

Keeping the rings situated how they were for Drill #2, you’re going to remove the band for the next progression. Instruct the athlete to:

• Start with your legs bent, your feet planted on the ground in front of you and rings over your shoulders at arms length (similar to setting up for ring rows, just with bent legs).

• Pull yourself into the rings and throw your shoulders up and over just like you did in Drill #2.

• Remember to think about pulling your rings towards your hips, and not into your armpits.

• Feet stay on the ground throughout the drill.

• Think about pulling yourself high and fast enough so that you experience a split second of weightlessness and at that moment throw your chest and shoulders through, finding yourself in the bottom position of the ring dip.

Once you’ve mastered that, set up a box to put your feet on. This uses more gravity as resistance, providing an even greater challenge version of this drill.

Stay tuned for next week’s final drill where we move onto the rings for some assisted drills.