To Kip or not to kip: Let's talk about some muscle up technique.

     Now, I'm not going to go off on a really long debate about whether or not you should kip during your muscle ups and pull-ups. I do truly see the point of using the kip at specific times. for example, when you're first starting out and you don't quite have enough strength for the movement, kipping to the top and then using a very slow eccentric movement to get back o the bottom will very much help you out in building the strength and the technique to master either a pull-up or a muscle-up.

     Also, I understand that kipping pull-ups and kipping muscle-ups can be used as a pretty good conditioning tool. They allow you to do a lot more reps to help and develop stamina an endurance.

     What I don't get is the completely chaotic versions with a crap ton of kip and swing that don't resemble anything close to the actual movement. Yet, many people that perform their chaotic, frantic, swinging , kipping versions will some how still say that they are using proper body mechanics. It really makes you wonder.

Here are two videos that show, very nicely what a good muscle-up should look like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=W2qIBgbdH88

And, since the last video was on the high bar here's one on the rings. The gymnast starts out his routine with the muscle-up, check out how smooth this first move is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLNnJ5HuraRcWiqk_kVvm9dJpSJ6lEwI5S&v=2q8KMnWUsvg&feature=player_detailpage


So, while I can see the point in using the kip occasionally, try to make your muscle-ups look like the one's above and I can guarantee that you'll love the results even more.