Many have tried to master the muscle up, and many have failed. The muscle up is a rare breed. It requires both pulling and pushing power as well as a tremendous amount of core strength and coordination. You might say the muscle up is to the upper body what the squat is to the lower body.
Unfortunately, as beneficial as they are, many athletes struggle to squeeze out one half-decent muscle up, and training to improve muscle up performance has proven to be difficult. Dips are necessary, but lack the transitional training from pull to push. The ability to crank out pull ups without a sweat is also no indicator of muscle up capability. This is where the tuck pop up comes in.
The tuck pop up requires both specific motor skills and specific strength. Erwan Le Corre designed this four-week program to teach the critical technical components of the tuck pop up movement while developing the specific strength and coordination required for the muscle up. After completing this program, you’ll make strides with your muscle up performance.
In this four-week program, you’ll cycle through these sixteen exercises, each week increasing reps or time under tension. Take a look at these videos to see exactly how they’re done:
- Dead hang
- Side swing hang
- Wall/feet assisted forearm hang
- Low forearm hang
- Low forearm hang side swing
- Single forearm hang switch
- Medium forearm hang bent knees
- High forearm hang bent knees
- Medium forearm hang knee tuck
- Medium to low forearm hang slow negative
- Medium forearm hang bent knee swing
- Medium forearm hang swing
- Low to medium forearm pull up
- Medium to high forearm pull up
- Low to high forearm pull up
- Weighted forearm pull up
Ready to finally conquer the muscle up? Click here to start the first week of the program now.
When you get stronger and/or need a bigger challenge, work your way through the advanced stages of the program:
After you’ve completed the four weeks, give both your tuck pop up and your muscle up a try. We’d love to see your video in the comments.
