How can I perform high-pull ups?

Question

In order to try muscle-ups I am trying to do High pull-ups but I can't take my body above the chest level.I can do up to 15 normal BW pull ups.

Answer 1

To start learning a muscle-up you need to know how to use momentum.

You need to start doing explosive pull-ups, to get the momentum upwards. You can also use your legs to create even more momentum, pull your legs up (knees towards your chest, or towards the pull-up bar) as you do an (explosive) pull-up. This way you'll get so high, you'll practically be doing a muscle-up already.

Once you become better and better at doing explosive pull-ups, you won't need to use your legs as much, so you'll be progressing into a perfect explosive pull-up and eventually a muscle-up.

If you have any questions about this feel free to ask them, I've been doing calisthenics for a few years.

Answer 2

I would not suggest to use momentum first (i.e. kipping muscle-up). I would suggest to master strict muscle-up first then learn how to do kipping muscle-up.

If one does not have the structure to support strict muscle-up, kipping muscle-up could mess up his shoulders.

I would suggest working on eccentric muscle-up i.e. starting from the end of the muscle-up position (so above the bar) and trying to slow the descent. Chris Heria has such a video on youtube and it is apparently (youtube, reddit) quite efficient to build strict muscle-up. I am working on it right now using a smith machine to have a bar at the proper height.

Answer 3

Pigmie's "How to do a MUSCLE UP in only 5 Minutes". I know that you said you're looking to start with the high pull-ups, but if your stated goal is muscle-ups, why not advise you that direction?

I will first state that I am not an expert, and I have not learned to do this myself. However, I have gone through other tutorials by this fellow and he seems to be pretty good at breaking down the progression to provide a sense of progress as you go through (although, in my experience, he more or less assumes physical ability to easily do the exercise, just ignorance of technique).

Pre-requisites that he lists are the ability to do a chest pull-up and the ability to do a dip at the top of the bar. You stare you can do the first. Hopefully, you can also do the second.

• 0-2:00: Swing slightly back and forth on the bar. As you're on the back-swing, and just about to lose your backwards momentum to swing forward, you do the chest pull-up, getting used to lifting yourself up and around the back of the bar.
• 2:00-3:00: Practice releasing and returning your grip at the top of the pull-up, letting go of the bar and then grabbing again. Part of the muscle-up is rotating your grip forward, and releasing briefly for the switch is easier for most people.
• 3:00-3:30: Practice doing the pull-up while swinging back, but with the letting go and grabbing the bar again at the top. This is just combining the prior two steps.
• 3:30-4:30: Practice the eccentric muscle-up, climbing up to the straight-arm dip position, pushing off a bit to free your hands up to switch your grip, and then swinging down through the muscle-up motion going down in as controlled of a manner as you can.
• 4:30-5:00: Try the complete movement, going from swinging backwards to pulling yourself up, letting go of the bar, regripping, and pushing up into the dip.

As I stated before, I think this guy tends to assume basic proficiency from the beginning and five minutes is a bit optimistic, assuming that you're already at the level of fitness where you'll be able to do all of the progression with no rests in-between and that each progressing will take the short amount of time he provides (he's provided a few videos showing him learning a new technique, figuring out the progression, and he seems to average around 20 minutes doing progression steps on-camera and I suspect he's got recovery breaks in-between). That said, he does do a good job of providing each progression step if you don't mind the little 15-20 second ads he does for his workout program. He also does a number of funny little vignettes with him playing multiple characters which started as another way to advertise his program and have since become something of their own.