Unless you’re already a trained gymnast, pull-ups are one of the most difficult bodyweight movements you can attempt. Muscle-ups require excellent mobility, body awareness, coordination and timing.

If you decide to add muscle to your gym repertoire, know that there is a right way and a wrong way to develop this skill.

• Wrong way: Repeatedly swing and slam your body against the bar until you are tired, frustrated and possibly injured.
• The right way: Muscle up progression.

The muscle-up progression is a series of increasingly difficult movements that gradually develop your muscle-up technique as you build your strength. Each stage of the progression includes benchmarks that indicate you are ready to move on to the next drill within the progression.

The last stage is of course the muscle that is performed safely and in perfect form.

6 step barbell muscle up progression

Dr. AS John Gallucci, Jr., MS, ATC, PT, DPT, CEO I Physiotherapyexplains that a muscle-up is actually a series of smaller movements linked together:

1. Kip swing
2. Lifting the knee
3. Leg up
4. Chest pull up
5. triceps

To perform a muscle-up, you must be comfortable repeating each of these movements. This is where muscle progression comes in.

Developed with input from Gallucci and Jeff Waters, USA Boxing Registered Trainer and Owner Watters performanceThe next muscle-up progression starts at the beginner level. Depending on your gymnastics experience and current strength level, you can progress.

Step 1: Hanging Knee/Leg Raise

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Hang at arm’s length with your arms straight (a position known as the dead hang) and your legs straight and together.
• Bend your knees 90 degrees and raise them to hip level. Hold for a second, then return to the starting position.
• When you are able to do three sets of 10 repetitions, do the same movement keeping your legs straight so that your body forms an L shape. Once you are able to do three sets of 10 straight leg reps, move on to the next step.

Tip: “Make sure you’re not swaying and that you’re using the momentum to lift your legs, and all the work is coming from your hip flexors and core,” says Gallucci.

Step 2: Assisted chest-to-bar pull-up

• Loop one end of a large resistance band around the pull-up bar. Grasp the bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and place one foot on the other end of the resistance band.
• Hang at arm’s length with your legs straight and core and glutes engaged.
• Without swinging or jumping (using momentum to push yourself up), engage your lats and squeeze your shoulder blades together as you pull them into your chest.
• Pause, then hang down.

Tip: “Start with a thicker band,” says Watters. “If you can do 10 full pull-ups, use a thinner band. As time goes on, keep going down until you can do 10 sharp pull-ups with the thinnest band. Then move on.”

Step 3: Sharp chest pull

• Grab a pull-up bar with a grip slightly beyond shoulder width.
• Hang at arm’s length with your arms straight and your ankles crossed behind you.
• Without swinging or kipping, engage your core, glutes, and lats as you squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull your chest up to the bar.
• Pause, then lower yourself back to a stop.
• After three sets of 10 reps, move on. But keep practicing chest pull-ups as you work on new skills.

Tip: “At this stage, it’s important to also work on the ‘push’ function you use in a muscle-up,” says Watters.

He recommends incorporating push-ups into your training plan, including push-ups, in which you lower yourself to the floor and temporarily raise your arms before pushing up into the plank to eliminate any momentum from the movement.

“Start from a floor position to a mid-rise, then lower back to the floor. This is the most difficult part of the push, and that’s why we emphasize it,” he says.

Step 4: Triceps

• Grab the handles of a dip station and jump or rise to the starting position: feet off the floor, arms straight and ankles crossed. (To make the movement easier, you can place a large resistance band across the handles and place your knees on top.)
• Keeping your forearms vertical and elbows tucked in (not bent), allow your body to bend forward as you lower until your elbows form an angle of about 90 degrees.
• Reverse the movement, returning to the starting position. After three sets of 10 reps, move on.

Step 5: Kip swing

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Hang at arm’s length with arms straight and legs straight and together.
• Assume a hollow body position: engage your core and lats, bend (round) your spine and tilt your pelvis back (hold your tailbone).
• Use your shoulders to push your chest forward and arch your spine, letting your legs swing behind you.
• Use your shoulders, lats, and core to return to a bare-body position and begin pulling the same way you would for chest pull-ups.
• Once you are able to complete three sets of 10 reps where your chest meets the level of the bar, move on to muscle ups.

Tip: Make sure you’re using your shoulders, not your hips, to create your swing.

Step 6: Muscle up

• Grab a pull-up bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Hang your arms straight and your core and glutes engaged.
• Start a kip swing: Starting from a bare-body position, use your shoulders to push your chest forward and arch your spine. Then use your shoulders, lats and core to return to the empty body position. (Once you’re behind the bar, lean back and pull down on the bar to get as high as you can.)
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together and pull your hips toward the bar. As your abs make contact with the bar, rotate your wrists forward, bend forward and straighten your elbows so that your torso is over the bar.
• Hold, then lower to a hanging position.