WORKOUT OF THE WEEK # 003

Gymnastic Skill + metcon

Tuesday 12th October 2021

Bar MUscle-up Skill

• Intent: This section of the session is intended as a skill piece in which it will be thoroughly coach led through specific warm up/positional drills that are key for BMU strength + technique.

• Approach: Use this as a way to really understand what is required for achieving bar muscle ups and where you are personally in your journey to maybe getting your first ever or stringing 10 unbroken BMU together for the first time.

  • Beginners, follow the coaches instructions and carefully watch the movement demos provided, at this stage strength may be the key issue, if you don’t have multiple strict pull ups and dips then the BMU may feel a million miles away. First of all, identify if there is a strength issue, this should be looking at both bent arm & straight arm strength. Secondly, understand that there is still importance to learning the principles and positions of a solid glide kip that can be used later down the line.

  • Intermediate and advanced athletes, use this time to really dial in the technical aspects of the BMU, specifically the glide kip. The use of straight arm strength combined with momentum, the most efficient way of moving your body around the bar. Advanced, potentially use this as not only a good warmup for the workout but also try to feel out how much capacity you have in the movement and how repeatable the BMU is for yourself.

• Scaling: Due to this skill section of the session being coach run this should be relatively easy to do, the coach will demo each movement and you will repeat, this will continue until you get to a stage in which you can’t complete the certain progression. When you get to this stage, identify where the issue comes from i.e strength vs technique. Take a small step back and try to work on and nail that specific drill (the coach may see this and have a custom approach to try and help you improve).

Demo Video: Glide Kip BMU Progressions

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Workout

For Time

3 Rounds

• 5 BMU

• 7 Box Jump (30/24")

• Run 100m

2 Rounds

• 5 BMU

• 7 Box Jump

• Run 200m

1 Round

• 5 BMU

• 7 Box Jump

• Run 300m

Intent: This section of the workout is intended to test BMU under fatigue in a workout environment, this mixes in basic conditioning movements of box jumps and running combined with a descending number of BMU. The start of the workout will test BMU endurance rather quickly with only short runs in the first rounds. As the workout goes on the run volume increases slightly meaning there is more rest between the descending sets of BMU, accounting for the previous fatigue.

• Approach: Use this as a tester workout for how you deal with BMU with a high Heart Rate and how much you can push without breaking down the skill of the BMU.

  • Beginners, don’t worry too much about not having full bar muscle-ups yet, use a scaling option below that allows you to keep moving at a steady pace but still work on building some strength/ position that will ultimately provide you a stimulus that is going to replicate the full BMU.

  • Intermediate and advanced athletes, as previously stated, use this as a workout to see where your BMU ability is at. Advanced should try and push the pace on the runs and box jump as sets of 5r on the BMU should be manageable and unbroken, focus on linking the BMU in a smooth manner and utilising the Glide Kip to save the fatigue. Intermediate could potentially scale the reps to 3 instead of 5 as there will still be a good accumulation of reps over the course of the workout. In addition, don’t go out too hot on the run, if your only going to wait to catch your breath when getting back to the bar for the BMU just go steady on the runs and keep transitions smooth.

• Scaling: In terms of scaling, beginners could work on a jumping BMU using a fixed bar, this can be adjusted to any height so that each rep is easy enough to complete and there is limited time waiting around between reps. In addition, an alternative could be to just work on some strict pulling and pressing strength, i.e 5 Fixed bar rows + 5 Box Dips. Intermediate athletes that are very close but not quite there yet with BMU can use a high bar option combined with a box, this will encourage gaining confidence in the turnover and the top support position of the BMU.

Demo Video: BMU