http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVsS7j2exx4
360 muscleup tutorial by Barstarzz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgKtOSYAdY4
How to muscleup and jump onto bar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fObX2A-5O-8
------------
This is one way of getting your first muscleup. I have been meaning to type something up for ages, so now is the time!
Firstly, you need to have an intermediate level of strength, this means you need to be able to do 15 slow dips in good form, 15 pullups and probably at least 30 pushups. These are numbers I think is reasonable because when I tried my successful first muscleup (a kipping one that went all the way to the top without doing the left or right elbow over), I had already achieved numbers well over these "reasonable" numbers.
If you are a total beginner, start with pushups and chinups. Chinups (both palms face you) are much easier than pullups (both palms face away from you) and if you do any bicep curls etc with dumbells, it will make your progression much faster. I could do 15 chinups before I could do 10 pullups.
Frequency for beginners, once you get over the first couple of weeks of initial muscle fatigue, do pushups and chinups on the same day, after chinups, immediately do a set of pushups. Do not go to failure as that will lengthen your recovery time to your next workout. In other words, it is better to do an extra set rather than making you exhaust yourself. Initially, train twice a week eg Mon & Thurs and do other stuff in between. The number of pushups you do is irrelevant as it is up to your individual level (I could do 30 when I was only 16 because we used to do pushups in Taewkondo and Karate and I trained alternative nights so I was doing pushups every single night and twice on weekends) i.e. you need to do as many pushups as you can, but just before you reach the failure rep.
If at any time you get bored doing pushups eg you don't need to do 30 each set, I would advise you try the variations like clapping hands and touching shoulder versions ie at the top your left hand touches right shoulder and at the same time right hand touches left shoulder before lowering; superman pushups, both hands touch knees mid air pushups, pushups moving your body left and right, alternating arms (when left hand is further forward, the right hand is by the hip and vice versa) etc. This increases your explosive strength (fast twice muscle). when you get old your fast twitch muscles deteriorate first which is why sprinters lose their edge when they get old. Having fast hands with power, helps in martial arts and other physical sports. Speaking of martial arts, there are some old skool pushups combined with combat rolls that are pretty useful too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnQTXAKUPyU
Also, I found that when I just trained chinups and pushups, my shoulders and traps were neglected, so I added inverted pushups into the mix eg in pushup set, I would do pushups in front of a wall (head facing wall), then every 8th pushup, I would pushup into handstand position.
Then when you can get 10 chinups (without kicking legs and wriggling like a snake) and however many pushups, it is time to train 3x a week. Note for chinups, you can go fast up and slow down, eg 2 counts up, 3 counts down. Don't forget to breathe, as this is rather strenuous exercise for a beginner, really focus on exhaling out of your mouth when you are pulling upwards and breathe in slowly with your nose when lowering down. Also, with chinups, initially you will use your biceps muscle since you are not accustomed to flexing your back muscles. I will try to find some youtube videos later to show you how to enagage the back muscles. However, at beginner level, don't need to think to much about whether you are using back or biceps muscles as the goal is to get you used to getting over the bar in good form. If you can have a goal in mind to touch the bottom of the bar to your chest, right from the start, for chinups, it will help you have good form later. You will find your wrists and elbow joints may not let you intially, but as you get stronger back muscles and have better grip and confidence, you can actually move your wrist to change grips as you are pulling yourself up, so you can in fact touch the bar to your chest without hurting your wrist.
If at any time you get bored doing pushups eg you don't need to do 30 each set, I would advise you try the variations like clapping hands and touching shoulder versions ie at the top your left hand touches right shoulder and at the same time right hand touches left shoulder before lowering; superman pushups, both hands touch knees mid air pushups, pushups moving your body left and right, alternating arms (when left hand is further forward, the right hand is by the hip and vice versa) etc. This increases your explosive strength (fast twice muscle). when you get old your fast twitch muscles deteriorate first which is why sprinters lose their edge when they get old. Having fast hands with power, helps in martial arts and other physical sports. Speaking of martial arts, there are some old skool pushups combined with combat rolls that are pretty useful too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnQTXAKUPyU
Also, I found that when I just trained chinups and pushups, my shoulders and traps were neglected, so I added inverted pushups into the mix eg in pushup set, I would do pushups in front of a wall (head facing wall), then every 8th pushup, I would pushup into handstand position.
Then when you can get 10 chinups (without kicking legs and wriggling like a snake) and however many pushups, it is time to train 3x a week. Note for chinups, you can go fast up and slow down, eg 2 counts up, 3 counts down. Don't forget to breathe, as this is rather strenuous exercise for a beginner, really focus on exhaling out of your mouth when you are pulling upwards and breathe in slowly with your nose when lowering down. Also, with chinups, initially you will use your biceps muscle since you are not accustomed to flexing your back muscles. I will try to find some youtube videos later to show you how to enagage the back muscles. However, at beginner level, don't need to think to much about whether you are using back or biceps muscles as the goal is to get you used to getting over the bar in good form. If you can have a goal in mind to touch the bottom of the bar to your chest, right from the start, for chinups, it will help you have good form later. You will find your wrists and elbow joints may not let you intially, but as you get stronger back muscles and have better grip and confidence, you can actually move your wrist to change grips as you are pulling yourself up, so you can in fact touch the bar to your chest without hurting your wrist.
3x a week training, lets assume you do Mon Wed & Fri, I would do chinups+ pushups on Mon, Pullups +dips on Wed and then Chinups+pushups on Fri
Now as a beginner, you probably cannot do too many pullups or dips, but the key is to try 1, and then 2 and then 3 and so-forth. Now without starting a debate of fitness in streets vs going to gym, if you do have access to a pulldown machine in a gym, I would strongly advise you to take advantage of that.
With dips, the dip bar may actually be too wide for you as it is one size fits all, so there is no need to go down as low as possible past elbows 90 degrees until you can do 15+ in one go, or you risk severe injury. Also, I would not recommend doing clapping dips or 180 dips (dip and mid air 180 to dip facing other way) either as the risk of injury is also very high. There is a difference in training for fitness vs training to show off, only you can decide which one you want.
With dips, the dip bar may actually be too wide for you as it is one size fits all, so there is no need to go down as low as possible past elbows 90 degrees until you can do 15+ in one go, or you risk severe injury. Also, I would not recommend doing clapping dips or 180 dips (dip and mid air 180 to dip facing other way) either as the risk of injury is also very high. There is a difference in training for fitness vs training to show off, only you can decide which one you want.
In fact, I would even recommend you substitute the Friday workout to go to the gym and do pulldowns because with the pulldowns, you can do several sets up to 80% of your 1 rep max and still have very strict form, this will significantly build up your back muscles. Now, of course, you need to ensure the weight available in the stack of weights plates is heavy enough or can approximate at least 80% of your bodyweight as some home gyms you can buy did not have enough weights available and some of us could pull the whole stack easily. You can build up your strength much better by incorporating the pulldown machine, focusing on squeezing your elbows down to your hips.
With the pulldown machine and heavy weights, i remember I used to use just wider than shoulder width grip when I was starting off, this enables you to pull heavy weight without any leaning back jerking motion i.e. you can be in total control of the weight and not let the weight control you. If you start jerking to get the weight down, then the weight is too heavy for you and you will risk injuring your lower back, back or neck muscles. Also, if using pulldown machine, pulldown in front of chest and touch the bar to the top of your chest or lower. Behind the neck pulldowns are really unnecessary for the goal of doing good pullups.
I forgot to mention warming up, you need to warm up before attempting exercises that are alien to your body. If you can run, I would suggest slow jog/run for 15 minutes, keeping your arms loose or punching the air in front of you as you run. And then follow with burpees for 30 seconds. If you cannot run for whatever reason, just do starjumps or jumping rope + burpees (eg 20 starjumps + 1 burpee and repeat) for a few minutes till you get a light sweat (as in sweat dripping down your forehead). The burpee warms up your core.
Then do some light stretching eg waist, elbow and knee rotations, reaching your hand over your head the other side, lunge stretch, touching toes static stretch, swinging your arms in big circles forward and back etc... Now most importantly is stretching/rotating your wrists as the pushups, chinups and pullups all place a lot of stress on the wrists for beginners. Warming up and light stretching significantly reduces the possibility of injury so ignore at your own peril! Note, I have been taught that you only do heavy stretching at the end of the workout because the benefits to your muscles are the greatest.
Then do some light stretching eg waist, elbow and knee rotations, reaching your hand over your head the other side, lunge stretch, touching toes static stretch, swinging your arms in big circles forward and back etc... Now most importantly is stretching/rotating your wrists as the pushups, chinups and pullups all place a lot of stress on the wrists for beginners. Warming up and light stretching significantly reduces the possibility of injury so ignore at your own peril! Note, I have been taught that you only do heavy stretching at the end of the workout because the benefits to your muscles are the greatest.
When you can get to what YOU think is intermediate stage, then you can start this program in the following ebook:
One of the links should work... if not, just go buy the book from amazon as the workout routines are priceless
I attempted it personally and I can attest that while you may not end up with 50 pullups at the end of the 7 weeks when you do your test, you will get from 10 to 15 pullups if you do everything in good strict form and don't forget to do a set of pushups at the end of each pullup set for balancing. I barely got 20 pullups in 7 weeks and the last 2 reps were very dodgy, ie nothing to be proud of. The key is to build up your back muscles for the muscleup. If you wish to continue going for 50 pullups, that is your choice, but IMO, the high repetitions are only going to screw you when you get older ie you will get wrist injuries (RSI) amongst other shit. Scientific studies have shown it is better to do an extra set(s) than push yourself to that extreme.
As the book says, you should rest if you feel any excessive muscle fatigue and feel your joints giving you clicking noises. Resting an extra day may mean missing a workout but you need to think longterm, ie you can win the battle but lose the war! eg Taking 8 weeks instead of 7 is better than taking 7 and then resting for 4 weeks due to injury.
Then there are other ways to increase your rep count eg Official barstarz How To Do More Pull Ups Program (Increase Your Reps!!)
Pullup Bar vs Rings
IMO, you should learn the false grip and use rings in each workout TOGETHER with the pullup bar eg I would do one set on pullup bar, one set on rings and one set on pullup bar and so on. e.g if you do et the 7 weeks to 50 pullups ebook, everytime it mentions chinups, you can do one set of the chinups on pullup bar and one set on rings as eventually you want to be able to muscle up on both the ring and the bar so if you do not get accustomed to using rings as early as possible, you will have to waste a lot of time learning the rings. Plus the rings are fun, you can do levers much easier than on the pullup bar since you can get your legs over your head and back without having a bar obstruct you and thus train your core much more efficiently and effectively. Also, the rings enable you to have your arms in a more natural position to cut down elbow or wrist injuries/stress.
HOWEVER, I have been to some parks where the rings are not round ie the are triangle in shape so you cannot use a proper false grip or where the ring is like one cm in diameter which will cut into your flesh of your palms into your finger bones, in that case just stick with the pullup bar. An alternative is to buy TRX rings and google how to use them.
The major benefit with TRX rings is that you can lower them to a suitable height so you can practice the transitional movements to develop the supporting muscles, rather than have to do a muscle up "cold turkey"
The major benefit with TRX rings is that you can lower them to a suitable height so you can practice the transitional movements to develop the supporting muscles, rather than have to do a muscle up "cold turkey"
Of course, you can get the same benefit if you have access to a gymnastics gym with rings that you can lower.
If you get bored doing reps and reps of pullups, thrown in some pullup variations, initially just changing grip for each set from neutral shoulder width to wide to narrow then as you progress do harder ones such as clap hands at the top with a goal of being able to get high enough so you clap in front of your chest one day... try those classical bartendaz type pullups where you move left to right (and kiss your biceps) with knees like running man, they will all help your core strength and hit your back and supporting muscles at different angles .
If you get bored doing reps and reps of pullups, thrown in some pullup variations, initially just changing grip for each set from neutral shoulder width to wide to narrow then as you progress do harder ones such as clap hands at the top with a goal of being able to get high enough so you clap in front of your chest one day... try those classical bartendaz type pullups where you move left to right (and kiss your biceps) with knees like running man, they will all help your core strength and hit your back and supporting muscles at different angles .
Ok now you can get over 15 good form pullups with no swinging, how do you get a muscleup?
Firstly, I will state the obvious, there is no way on earth you can do a slow and controlled muscleup straight from the pullup stage, even if you can do 20+ pullups or 30 dips, so to get started you have to learn by doing a kipping muscleup and utilise your body's momentum and explosive power.
I have found the best youtube video on how to do a kipping muscleup on the pullup bar is this one by Mr quikieemart and from the posts, a lot of people have had similar success
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJX1pxL-NMo&feature=channel&list=UL
This one is also very good
Calisthenics Tutorial for Beginners Part 5 - How to do Muscle Ups
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyZOnPfMo8w
This one by strength project talks about how you can forget about all the slow pullups (if you can do 15 slow pullups) and just do low rep range momentum pullups fast as you can and has some useful fast pullup exercises which I have tested to work, try it yourself :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmsyY2BptU4
This one also good and shows different ways of training for muscleups including the negative in slow mo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_TrSecnDjw
and this one on how to kip (if you really want to desperately and easily get on top of the bar so you can do negatives)
http://www.lostartofhandbalancing.com/bar-kip-tutorial/
If you can do 20+ pullups and 30 dips, just try Mr Quickieemart's method. which is to step behind the bar about a foot or two, jump forward and up to just grab the bar with hand positioning about shoulder width apart, and swing forward with arms still extended ie do not pull during forward swing, then when your body is swinging back, quickly do your pullup and bring knees up to the bar (a good exercise to practice this is to just do pullups with knee raise to bar at same time as this is a partial movement to the kipping muscleup) and explode up and when you can, do the dip pressing motion and lean forward. This kipping version is really easier than it sounds once you have the pre-requisite strength.
My first one, I banged my sternum onto the bar and was unsuccessful, but my 2nd I got so much height I almost flew over the bar after pressing hard and leaning forward too much. When I got my proper first one, I was thinking to myself, maybe I just got lucky, and I then did another one, walked around the pullup bar and did another one, and then again and again so I did 10 in total and called it a day. The next couple of days I was feeling extra sore in the biceps compared to just doing my pullup routine because I think I used my biceps a lot more in the muscleup as I always wanted to get over the bar and not fail. (Holding up a mobile phone for more than a minute gave my bicep cramps)
Tips: Once you get your first muscle up, don't do too many as your body needs to get accustomed to the movement, especially your wrists and elbows joints. You should stick with the program rather than overexert yourself. eg go back to the how to do 50 pullups in 7 weeks program but do sets of muscleups instead of pullups. It is ok to do them kipping for 7 weeks because there is no way you can do them slow without the supporting muscles and ligaments being strong enough (or suffer the consequences). Go back to 2 days a week training eg Mon/Thurs as you really need to rest to grow and muscleups take longer to recover from.
Also, you should do the muscleup workout at the start of your workouts and do not pre-fatigue your triceps. ie dont do any explosive pushups before muscleups because you need your explosive strength in the triceps for transition phase.
To do 2 or more muscleups in a row you need can use momentum to swing both legs down and forward and then do what you did to get your first muscleup to get back up.
Afterwards, you can focus on keeping legs straighter during the swing down and forward and kip less and less and eventually you can do a proper muscleup.
There are a lot of exercises you can do to strengthen yourself for the transition phase of the muscleup. eg in parkour you have to climb high walls, whereby your dangle on side of wall or high ledge (wall/ledge has to be higher than your head) with fingertips over, then with legs pushing into and down the wall, you climb up and thrust your palms over the wall and muscleup. this little exercise will develop your explosive /core strength to get over the bar.
If you follow the program, you can achieve your goal of a muscleup. I admit I did a lot of weights since I was a kid so I already had sufficient back muscles, but there is nothing stopping a beginner to also get a muscleup after two years of hard training.
when you can muscleup on pullup bar try on rings (with momentum). I do not advise doing it the other way around (ie dont try muscleup on rings first and then learn on pullup bar) because the pullup bar does not move so you have a better focus on form than using momentum, it is harder to learn the other way around.
Here is a famous vid of BJ Penn (old MMA guy) doing mups on rings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPTuZhNzCOE
When it comes to using rings for muscleup just tell yourself if girls can do it, you can too :) Some of these crossfit girls have amazing strength and put a lot of guys to shame when you compare pound for pound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZDO7YXlB4g
Then when you are banging out muscleups as easy as pullups, then its time to buy a weighted vest to give you extra load.
Then after weighted vest muscleups, you are ready to do a slow muscleup, I would suggest you try on rings first as it is better for your wrists as the rings turn with your wrists.
I guess your next goal after that should be levers Hannibal for King style with leg flutters
Here are some useful muscleup vidz
Muscle Ups - Beginner to Perfect Form
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYlyMoNwlKc
Hannibal for king doing close grip muscleups (bar doesnt touch body) into lever with leg flutters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh9BzXDmHbo
The comments there also talk about lockout, you dont need to fully lockout your arms in muscleups on bar. Just flex your muscles to the top and that is sufficient for what we are trying to achieve.
And his latest vid is an advertisement but still shows all his abilities and his legendary muscleupdip on the dip bar which is an extreme feat of strength that very few people can do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lh63gdRFSs
Firstly, I will state the obvious, there is no way on earth you can do a slow and controlled muscleup straight from the pullup stage, even if you can do 20+ pullups or 30 dips, so to get started you have to learn by doing a kipping muscleup and utilise your body's momentum and explosive power.
I have found the best youtube video on how to do a kipping muscleup on the pullup bar is this one by Mr quikieemart and from the posts, a lot of people have had similar success
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJX1pxL-NMo&feature=channel&list=UL
This one is also very good
Calisthenics Tutorial for Beginners Part 5 - How to do Muscle Ups
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyZOnPfMo8w
This one by strength project talks about how you can forget about all the slow pullups (if you can do 15 slow pullups) and just do low rep range momentum pullups fast as you can and has some useful fast pullup exercises which I have tested to work, try it yourself :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmsyY2BptU4
This one also good and shows different ways of training for muscleups including the negative in slow mo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_TrSecnDjw
and this one on how to kip (if you really want to desperately and easily get on top of the bar so you can do negatives)
http://www.lostartofhandbalancing.com/bar-kip-tutorial/
If you can do 20+ pullups and 30 dips, just try Mr Quickieemart's method. which is to step behind the bar about a foot or two, jump forward and up to just grab the bar with hand positioning about shoulder width apart, and swing forward with arms still extended ie do not pull during forward swing, then when your body is swinging back, quickly do your pullup and bring knees up to the bar (a good exercise to practice this is to just do pullups with knee raise to bar at same time as this is a partial movement to the kipping muscleup) and explode up and when you can, do the dip pressing motion and lean forward. This kipping version is really easier than it sounds once you have the pre-requisite strength.
My first one, I banged my sternum onto the bar and was unsuccessful, but my 2nd I got so much height I almost flew over the bar after pressing hard and leaning forward too much. When I got my proper first one, I was thinking to myself, maybe I just got lucky, and I then did another one, walked around the pullup bar and did another one, and then again and again so I did 10 in total and called it a day. The next couple of days I was feeling extra sore in the biceps compared to just doing my pullup routine because I think I used my biceps a lot more in the muscleup as I always wanted to get over the bar and not fail. (Holding up a mobile phone for more than a minute gave my bicep cramps)
Tips: Once you get your first muscle up, don't do too many as your body needs to get accustomed to the movement, especially your wrists and elbows joints. You should stick with the program rather than overexert yourself. eg go back to the how to do 50 pullups in 7 weeks program but do sets of muscleups instead of pullups. It is ok to do them kipping for 7 weeks because there is no way you can do them slow without the supporting muscles and ligaments being strong enough (or suffer the consequences). Go back to 2 days a week training eg Mon/Thurs as you really need to rest to grow and muscleups take longer to recover from.
Also, you should do the muscleup workout at the start of your workouts and do not pre-fatigue your triceps. ie dont do any explosive pushups before muscleups because you need your explosive strength in the triceps for transition phase.
To do 2 or more muscleups in a row you need can use momentum to swing both legs down and forward and then do what you did to get your first muscleup to get back up.
Afterwards, you can focus on keeping legs straighter during the swing down and forward and kip less and less and eventually you can do a proper muscleup.
There are a lot of exercises you can do to strengthen yourself for the transition phase of the muscleup. eg in parkour you have to climb high walls, whereby your dangle on side of wall or high ledge (wall/ledge has to be higher than your head) with fingertips over, then with legs pushing into and down the wall, you climb up and thrust your palms over the wall and muscleup. this little exercise will develop your explosive /core strength to get over the bar.
If you follow the program, you can achieve your goal of a muscleup. I admit I did a lot of weights since I was a kid so I already had sufficient back muscles, but there is nothing stopping a beginner to also get a muscleup after two years of hard training.
when you can muscleup on pullup bar try on rings (with momentum). I do not advise doing it the other way around (ie dont try muscleup on rings first and then learn on pullup bar) because the pullup bar does not move so you have a better focus on form than using momentum, it is harder to learn the other way around.
Here is a famous vid of BJ Penn (old MMA guy) doing mups on rings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPTuZhNzCOE
When it comes to using rings for muscleup just tell yourself if girls can do it, you can too :) Some of these crossfit girls have amazing strength and put a lot of guys to shame when you compare pound for pound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZDO7YXlB4g
Then when you are banging out muscleups as easy as pullups, then its time to buy a weighted vest to give you extra load.
Then after weighted vest muscleups, you are ready to do a slow muscleup, I would suggest you try on rings first as it is better for your wrists as the rings turn with your wrists.
I guess your next goal after that should be levers Hannibal for King style with leg flutters
Here are some useful muscleup vidz
Muscle Ups - Beginner to Perfect Form
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYlyMoNwlKc
Hannibal for king doing close grip muscleups (bar doesnt touch body) into lever with leg flutters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh9BzXDmHbo
The comments there also talk about lockout, you dont need to fully lockout your arms in muscleups on bar. Just flex your muscles to the top and that is sufficient for what we are trying to achieve.
And his latest vid is an advertisement but still shows all his abilities and his legendary muscleupdip on the dip bar which is an extreme feat of strength that very few people can do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lh63gdRFSs
If you find you run out of workout ideas crossfit.com or googling crossfit will give you lots of ideas. Crossfit workouts after a light jog are ideal as warmups as it will get you sweating in no time and blood pumping to every orifice.
This one is kewl (only I jump onto a high ledge about hip height instead)
21-15-9 'Man on Fire" Burpees & Squat Box Jumps
From looking at all the posts, I know a lot of the haters who talk about street workouts not training legs, but not everyone who does a streetworkout does not train their legs... in fact most of the bodybuilding guys who train legs using conventional squat or leg press methods in a gym probably have chunky useless legs compared to those who do a crossfit type workout.
I train for overall fitness (and i am trying to learn parkour) so as long as i can sprint, jump high, vault,climb and kick, i have no reason to need chunky useless legs. Unless you are a bodybuilder, doing leg extensions and calf raises etc will stuff your knees up, limit your mobility...you are better off training your legs using crossfit methods.
46 yo teaches muscleup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=w6nAUtBudJ0
Here are some street workout vidz
Niko - Street Workout Russia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgTXiPc_VuI
Halfway thru this parkour vid there is a kewl scene on the bars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC-vDxamhkc
Wanna learn how to do a handstand
http://www.lostartofhandbalancing.com/
Just in case you are wondering about energy drinks they are actually bad for you from a physical and biological perspective (but I drink the v, monster and rockstar drinks anyway because I need to stay up all night studying. )
http://eatingforenergy.ca/eat-for-energy.html
How to wallrun (parkour) assasin creed style (also has a good breakfall parkour roll tutorial)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A97PxrZHkxg
redbull 400m run up steep hill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z94NVESBto0
-------------------------------------------
Just found a nice new game by makers of angry birds called bad piggies
http://www.rlslog.net/bad-piggies-v1-0-0-cracked-theta/
The main game I am playing right now is a nice strategy turn based game
XCOM_Enemy_Unknown-FLT
released by fireaxis games. I loved their old games like sid meiers alpha centauri
Steven segal has new movie in his little mini series
Blood Alley 2012 DVDRip Xvid AC3 Legend-Rg
and one with Steve Austin which is crap
Maximum Conviction 2012 BRRip XviD AC3 - TODE
as mentioned before, i quite enjoy his movies. they are like a tv series but movie length with same cast
out of old the old dudes like stallone, jet li van damne etc, segal is the only one to still make decent movies.
another one was Violence Of Action 2012 DVDRip x264 AAC-UNiQUE which has Steven Seagal and his true justice team :)
another one is Vengeance.Is.Mine.2012.DvDRip.x264.AC3-MATA
http://www.tvrage.com/American_Horror_Story is back on :) Season 2 started this week
so is Nikita season 3 soo soo happy :)
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Inverted leg thrusts
dont forget to train your traps by doing inverted rows /leg thrusts
What I do is warm up on the rings by pulling my body up with traps and biceps as high as possible 3 to 4 sets of 5 to 8.
Then get below the dip bar (your feet are less than 90 degrees to upper body and your goal is to thrust legs to the sky. at the bottom your feet just go near your butt but dont touch ground so it works your abs bigtime. It is a balancing exercise as once your knees are at your butt level, you probably will touch the ground with your feet unless you have high dip bars. This is a simple exercise, but will blast your biceps and traps so hard, your friends will all notice the improvement in the size of your neck, I do these at the end of my pullup workout before my ab workout.
Alternatively, you can do these on the rings, but because of the swinging of the rings, it is more a trap exercise than ab exercise. Regardless, if you can do a few of these, it will significantly help with your pulling power for muscleups.
-------------------------------------------
Front levers
I am currently still improving technique, some guys say to use rings then get your legs up over your head, then slowly lower the legs back, but i prefer to do it the hard way, find 2 monkey bars close to each other then grip with hands facing each other one on each of the outside of the monkey bars, then pull hard and with legs as straight as possible thrust your hip like you f#$k the space between the two bars, if you have long legs, then focus on extending the heels of your feet as far away as possible and make sure you touch the bottom of the other end of the monkey bar with your legs, try to pause at the top for 1 second (or more when you get good at this). Your abs will get really good workout and after 5 sets, you will definitely feel it the next day :)
To hit your abs at different angle you can point your legs 45 degrees to the gripped monkey bars, one left and one right. By using the natural grip on the monkey bar, you will find you can get use your strength more productive than using the rings. If you don't have monkey bars, then use rings, but you have to counter the swinging of the rings to stabilise yourself. Once you get used to monkey bars, then you progress to rings, then pullup bar because the pullup bar has your arms in a stretched position which needs good wrist and forearm strength, whereas when your hands are in natural grip, you can focus on building up your core first instead of finding your grip strength giving up before your core.
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I was fortunate enough to download Convict Conditioning. It is a great series for working out in a confined space (like a prison cell). One exercise I picked up was the "bridge" whereby you arch your back upwards from an initial lying down on your back position. The key is to push up with both your legs & butt and your hands simultaneously. Initially, I started with 3 sets of 10. Make sure you lower all the way to the ground (to count as one rep). It really helps your lower back and if you had trouble doing kip-ups (flipping up off your back), this exercise will let you easily do it (with no hands) ha ha
if you incorporate these into your workout, you will find that your handstand pushups are much stronger and stable.
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IMO 3 slow and controlled sets of 10 rep wide grip pullups and 3 sets of 15 reps (or do 18, 15,12) normal dips and russian dips on dip bars in one workout is all you need for enough strength to do a muscleup. What you just need is to develop your explosive power. In martial arts, you make a loud noise from the gut and when powerlifting you hear this noise, it focuses all your energy. Try it and exhale when you get to the top of pullup to push through the sticking point.
It is the triceps that you need to develop to get through the sticking point. while doing dips on the side of a dip bar is good, imo, the best way to get the triceps strength is actually to do triceps pressdown (or use a lat pulldown bar to press down) at the gym since the movement is safer for your joints relative to doing dips on the side of a dip bar. This is because for beginners with no basic supporting muscles developed, the risk of injury is significantly higher. Also doing the various
To do 2 or more muscleups, when lowering, dont lower too fast or gravity will put extra strain on your joints at the bottom point, when you get head back below bar, use the swing forward and back like your initial muscleup and blast up (as per the youtube video link above)
One tip I find useful is when swinging forward at the bottom of the muscleup (but dont swing too much forward) , you actually open up your chest as far as possible forward with shoulders back so your elbows and shoulders are in the same plane, this helps you contract your back muscles when pulling up.
when I first started doing muscle ups, my grip was just slightly wider than shoulder width apart (measured by the outside of my shoulders) then I saw a youtube video emphasizing a semi false grip where when you jump up, your wrists literally are sitting on top of the bar ie your palm is on the other side of the bar (palms above fingers) almost facing you as opposed to normal pullup grip where it is facing away from you with fingers above your palms. With this way, I got a couple more reps. This grip by default will make hand placement less than shoulder width apart.
if you can do a few muscleups, try doing one from a dead hang ie you hang from your hands first legs below you and then do a muscleup (swing as much as you want). It is quite a difference from doing the normal jumping off your feet with momentum one. Ultimately, you need to get enough strength to do a slow muscleup so dead hang ones are great.
It took me over a month to do 3 muscleups in a row (with swinging momentum) . IMO the first couple of weeks is crucial, you need to get your joints accustomed to the movement so I only did single muscleups 2x a week for 7 to 10 reps in the first 2 weeks then increased it to 3x a week 15 reps for next 2 weeks.
I would do the first 10 reps in as strict form as I could and the subsequent 5 muscleup reps were with air ie at the top of muscleup, I would touch right shoulder with left hand and left shoulder with right hand simultaneously, then when coming down grip the bar again and then do 5 pullups for one set.
Then the 5th week, I went to a park with a thin bar (thin bars are much easier than fat ones for all pullup/muscleup type exercises and did 3 muscleups in a row and still kept the total muscleups at 15 and then added more exercises such as high pullups reaching over the bar to touch knees at each rep for explosive strength development.
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ps If you are still struggling after reading all that, crossfit has some muscleup efficiency tips, sure they use momentum, but until you are strong enough, using momentum is OK while you build up your muscles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaRjG5BzDhM
more mup tips (this one is good if you cannot get back up)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=astSQRh1-i0
I am quite a fan of crossfit workouts
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I don't do many crunches but i do use the ab roller/ ab wheel. It cost only $10 at Kmart (in Australia) and I do the standing variation (as the knee variation fuks up your knees due to the immense pressure on the knees) If you are doing muscleups there is no reason why you cannot do the standing variation. focus on flexing your abs hard against your spine when lowering. If you do not have much fat on midsection, you will notice results after a few sessions with the ab roller.
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Found an interesting article about Nazi's inventing Water Fluoridation
http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?id=17791
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Now, if you want to train your abs hard, its either hanging leg raise or inverted hanging crunch (guess you can call it situps). My favorite park (Wentworth Park) at Ultimo in Sydney has both
The first 2 photos show the nice grip thing where you can do pullups and jumpup to fat bar and back. it moves back and forth so for hanging leg raise, you will love it.
And for this last picture, what I do is hold myself up with both hands from the 3rd to last one, then put my legs over the 2nd to last one and hook it under the first one, then let go of my hands and lean back so I am fully inverted with no hands and do my inverted situp/crunches as slow as possible and right hand touching the bar to the left of my leg and vice versa.
I also do a lot of back and forth ie just hanging by my hands and climb around the entire structure. Its really fun. Theres also a thinner metal pole which i love climbing up it (hands only).
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