Ring muscle up workouts crop up regularly in CrossFit. Muscle ups are an advanced bodyweight gymnastics skill and one dedicated athletes spend countless hours on trying to perfect.
They require specific training, dedication, and persistence and are a fantastic display of strength, coordination, and skill.
The ring muscle-up will see you transition from a hanging position below the rings to a supported position, arms extended and locked, above the rings. The exercise combines a pull-up and a dip.
As a functional movement, the ring muscle up will allow you to get up onto/over any object on which you can get a finger hold.
Improve your ring muscle-up efficiency
- Develop or train your false grip – to see improvements in your false grip, you should train it like you train any of your major lifts. Take the time to work on this individual part of the muscle-up. The reason the false grip is so important is because it puts your wrist in an optimal position to allow the ‘turnover’ to take place and get you about the rings. The false grip is your biggest weapon in getting your first ring muscle-up, but also making that big jump from 10 to 20+ ring muscle-ups.
- Practice the transition – transitions are the link between the pull-up and the dip. The best way to practice transitions is to do them, so get the reps in and develop muscle memory for the ring muscle-up. Floor transitions, box transitions and banded ring pull-downs are all great to train for the coordination and speed required to make the transition successful.
- Practice, practice, practice – by keeping practicing you’ll make consistent progress. Attempt strict muscle-ups, kipping muscle-ups, add accessory work to your training. Constantly try ring muscle-ups out and don’t let yourself rust.
Read more: How to Get Your First Ring Muscle Up
Improve your mental and physical strength with these ring muscle up workouts.
RING MUSCLE UP WORKOUTS
1. Double Trouble
EMOM for As Long As Possible
- 3 Muscle-Ups
- 5 Shoulder-to-Overheads (135/95 lb)*
*Add one rep every minute.
At the start of the clock, you have a 1 min window to complete the tree muscle-ups and the reps of shoulder-to-overheads (starting with 5), if you complete the given amount of reps in the minute, then you add 1 rep to the shoulder-to-overhead in the next minute.
Your score is the total reps you completed in the entire workout.
These movement combined are deadly – you’ll find yourself fighting physically and mentally to advance to the next round throughout the workout.
This workout is meant to test your shoulder endurance with high skill level gymnastics, along with some barbell cycling. Ideally, we will be able to get 7+ minutes in, so make sure to scale accordingly.
2. Muscle-Up Complex
Every 2:30 Minutes for 20 Minutes:
- 1 Strict Muscle-Up
- 2 Kipping Muscle-Ups
- 3 Ring Dips
Total of 8 rounds.
This is a hard sequence as you start with strict work. This is a complex, so perform the set unbroken, without letting go of the rings.
For the strict ring muscle-up, lean back and maintain a strong hollow position. For the kipping muscle-ups, keep your body as long as possible and look up throughout the transition.
3. Hero WOD James Prosser
For Time:
- 100 Muscle-Ups
No many other workouts will require you to perform 100 ring muscle-ups.
It’s a good idea to come up with a strategy before attempting this workout. Think how you’d like to partition the reps to keep you moving efficiently and resting as little as possible.
Ring muscle up workouts – 4. Harvest
EMOM in 6 Minutes:
- 4 Ring Muscle-Ups
- 20 Wall Ball Shots
This is shoulder-heavy ring muscle up workout and one with little rest. The 20 wall ball shots, in addition to the four ring muscle-ups, can be a push to complete within a minute. Reduce the number of reps if this is the case.
Read more: 5 Ways to Perfect Your Muscle Up Technique
5. Quick Burn
5 Rounds for Time:
- 3 Deadlifts (365/225lb)
- 4 Ring Muscle-Ups
Time cap: 7 minutes
This is a sprint couplet with a very low rep range, so athletes should go all out. Scale the deadlifts to 75-80% of your 1 rep max if the prescribed weight will make you move slow or prevent you from going unbroken.
6. American Dream
20 Minute AMRAP ascending ladder of:
- Power Cleans (200/140 lb)
- Ring Muscle-Ups
Start with one rep of each movement in the first round and add one rep per round until the time is up. Score is the number of rounds completed.
RING MUSCLE UP WORKOUTS – 7. Nate Hero WOD
AMRAP in 20 Minutes
- 2 Ring Muscle-Ups
- 4 Handstand Push-Ups
- 8 Kettlebell Swings (2/1.5 pood)
Pace yourself from the beginning, as you creep towards the later rounds of the workout your shoulders will start burning, especially after the kettlebell swings and handstand push-ups.
Give yourself time to recover but keep your breaks short and efficient.
8. AIRBORNE
20 Minute AMRAP
- 400 meter Weighted Run (30 lb)
- 5 Ring Muscle-Ups
Only the run is weighted in this workout, you can drop the vest for the muscle-ups.
9. Amanda
9-7-5 Reps for Time:
- Ring Muscle-Ups
- Squat Snatches (135/95 lbs)
Amanda is one of the CrossFit Girl WODs, used over time to assess an athlete’s progress.
With two highly technical movements – the gymnastics movement of the muscle-up and the Olympic lift movement of the squat snatch – and low rep volume, the Amanda workout is one of the more complex and challenging CrossFit workouts.
This workout is designed to be a sprint, so perfecting your technique for a strong base will help you with efficiency and speed.
Good Times for “Amanda”
- Beginner: 13-15 minutes
- Intermediate: 10-12 minutes
- Advanced: 8-9 minutes
- Elite: 5-7 minutes
10. Ring Muscle-Up AMRAP
AMRAP in 7 Minutes:
- 3 Ring Muscle-Ups
- 6 Shoulder-to-Overheads (115/85 lb)
- 9 Box Jumps (24/20 in)
This is a sprint-style workout. Most athletes should aim to do the ring muscle-ups unbroken and pace the box jumps nicely, as they can get the heart rape up fast.
With such a short workout you’ll really have to push yourself, but this will develop your mental toughness.
11.Nasty Girls V2
3 Rounds for Time
- 50 Pistols (alternating legs)
- 7 Ring Muscle-Ups
- 10 Hang Power Cleans (175/125 lb)
This “Nasty Girls v2” triplet was originally created as a CrossFit Games Regional workout (2014 Individual Event #3), and was named for the original “Nasty Girls” workout from 2005.
