Oh Muscle Ups How I Falter to Love Thee

Muscle Up Frames, CrossFit Britt
Santa Cruz Strength
So Close, Yet so Far Away

This week there was yet, another great blog post on Orange Coast CrossFit by Berkleigh of Golden State CrossFit on her Muscle Up Journey.  Check it out below!  Worth the read!

 

 

Wouldn’t it be so rad if I told you that I just hopped on those rings and got a muscle up my first try? It would probably really impress you and you’d think, “wow, what a natural.”

Well, my journey was a long one. It all started when I moved from Brick Crossfit in West Hollywood to Golden State Crossfit in April 2012. It was at Golden State that my coach, Nick Phillips told me my first week that I needed to learn how to do a muscle up. I was like sweet, show me. Before that moment, I thought the advanced and elite athletes do muscle ups and they were so cool to watch.
 

Nick showed me how to kip and some progressions I could do like using the box under the rings and jumping into the catch position. I would work on them every week. I actually had fun trying and failing. The weeks progressed on and I practiced the progressions but no muscle up. By June I was really starting to get frustrated. I would watch members at my gym effortlessly get up on the rings and I still couldn’t get it. I was confused as to why it was so hard for me. I would ask questions of people that had already gotten them. “How do you know when to transition?” “How high do your hips have to be?” “What’s the best progression for the transition?” My members saw me in there almost everyday working on my muscle up and they would ask with anticipation in their voice, “did you get your muscle up yet?” I’d say dude, if I got my muscle up you’d see me running around her like a naked maniac.” We would laugh, but inside it was really getting to me that I couldn’t get over the rings and I was practicing.

I got certified July 1^st and Khalipa taught my cert. We got to the part with muscle ups and I was like, “I’m gonna get my first one here and Khalipa is totally gonna be the one that teaches me!” Well, we worked progressions and I pulled him aside and said, can you please work with me for a few minutes. I really want to get my muscle up. We worked for a few minutes and he said, you have to keep practicing but you will get it. I was a little sad I didn’t get it that day, but it only pushed me to keep practicing.

 

I started coaching the month of July and it motivated me work even harder. It was also time for regionals in July. I saw the competitors flying through their muscle ups and my muscle up just seemed worlds away. Pause-this was the moment when I got in the way. I stopped believing it could be me up there and I honestly didn’t even see myself up on those rings. After the games, I made a commitment that I would get on the rings everyday. Before I would go to bed I’d watch you tube videos of Carl Paoli and the countless progressions and I’d watch them over and over. It sounds funny and crazy that it took me this long, but I really think that a major part of not getting my muscle up was mental. I over complicated the movement and didn’t always see myself up there over the rings.

 

For the month of August, I continued to practice but got frustrated I had to modify Wods because I couldn’t do a muscle up yet. I hated that it was the one thing I couldn’t do. I would work the progressions with the band going into the situp postion, do C2B pull-ups, then ring dips and I just was getting discouraged. I began to get embarrassed that I didn’t have it yet, and then the worst part was watching everyone else get his or her first one. ERGH!!!! It wasn’t that I couldn’t be happy for them, I just wanted it for myself. The middle of September I went down to OCCF to train and I told Jimmy Gonzales I wanted to work on my muscle up. He worked with me on hollow rock and my kip, then he had Kenny work with me on the transition on the rings. Then I got into the trainer and that day I didn’t get a muscle up but something switched in me. I saw myself up on those rings and I got hungry again for it.

 

By the beginning of October I started speaking life into getting my first muscle up! I talked to Joe Garcia and told him I was coming down to OCCF to get my first muscle up. I declared it and posted a photo on instagram saying October 4^th would be the day I would get my first muscle up and it happened to fall on the same day I started crossfit the year before so it was perfect timing!

That day I worked with Joe, Kenny, Jimmy and Dave Driskell. They all knew I was there to get it and even members that didn’t know me stuck by my side coaching me through. It was so cool. I tried about 30 times that night and just when I was about to give up, Ryan Fischer stepped in and said,” are you just going to lick the glass like a jolly rancher or are you going to break the glass.” I was like, “I’m going to break the glass!” So I got up on the rings, did 2 kips and sent my head through that glass fast. I screamed with joy and surprise because it was the first time I had ever gotten over those rings. I fought to lock it out for like a good 10 seconds, cause my little body was wiped from practicing. Everyone was shouting and I was blown away. I came down from the rings and started crying. The guys were like, “is that a good cry or a bad cry?” The battle was over and I won.
 

http://games.crossfit.com/media-gallery/detail/2934/15002

Jenny Labaw at the 2012 CrossFit Games Struggled with Bar Muscle Ups

 

 

For the rest of the month, I didn’t really get on the rings. Fear had me, I was afraid to fail or that I couldn’t get it again. By the beginning of November I was over that mentality and my closest friends at my box were getting on my case. I got my first muscle up and it was time to practice and that’s exactly what I did. I sometimes would cry when I got one….it’s just that I was so grateful. Then the OC Throwdown got under way and I committed to doing all the wods. When the 3^rd one was released I was stoked. I get to do this, 20 minute amrap of 3 muscle ups, 6 ohs, 9 t2b. I spent the whole week before I did the wod practicing. I even came into my box on Thanksgiving and drilled my muscle up, studying what I needed to do so I got it every time. I did the qualifier wod Black Friday and my goal was 3 rounds and to give myself adequate rest to do all my muscle ups without failing and do my ohs and toes to bar unbroken. I ended up doing 4 rounds and only broke up my last set of t2b. I felt like a rock star and my confidence sky-rocketed. My goal now is to do 5 muscle ups a day, and I actually keep a running tally of all the muscle ups I’ve done. It motivates me and I love doing wods with muscle ups! They are sooooo fun!!!!!!

 

 

My encouragement to anyone that doesn’t have a muscle up is you have to be HUNGRY for it. The desire for it has to be bigger than your fear of failure. Fear is your enemy and you must eliminate it. Practice everyday and pick a date that you’re committed to getting it on. The majority of the battle is mental, so you need to speak life into getting your first muscle up. Write it down, say it out loud, tell friends and coaches to keep you accountable. Stay Positive and Ask questions, try different progressions and get on the RINGS daily, even if it’s just kipping. The only thing standing in the way of you not getting a muscle up is YOU. Everyone else believes in YOU and wants you to get it, now you have to want it! If I can do it as someone without a gymnastics background and only doing crossfit for a year, then you can do it! Now go get on those rings TODAY and stop putting it off!