coach sommer,
if your reading this, i wanted to ask if you had written an article about muscle-ups. theres a link at crossfit to an article written by you that is on that subject, but the link doesnt work. if you have, could you please PM me with it?
thanks alot
I’m looking forward to the day I can do full front lever pullups (and planche pushups). I’m wondering how difficult it would be to transition from that to a single arm version. I’ve seen a picture or two (one of them is Jon Gill, I think?) doing a one arm front lever. That’s impressive. So, today, I got to wondering about one arm planches and one arm handstand pushups as well.
Has anyone seen anyone capable of such things and have some pictures or video of it? I’m thinking if anyone can do any of that, it would likely be that bboy Junior, or whatever his name is. I think I found a link on this site from an old thread with a video of him doing some crazy stuff. There was a shot of him doing a one arm handstand and sort of hoping around a few times. Something to dream about (and of course pursue).
I believe this is the link:
http://www.style2ouf.com/english/videos/telecharger.php?ID_VIDEO=559
Enjoy, for those who haven’t seen it yet.
Take it easy,
Toby
I can hop once on one hand lol. I was trying about a month ago to get the planche pushups with legs straight but out to the side a little…almost got it but my legs weren’t parallel to the floor. The one thing I am proud of though is to be able to do 8 handstand pushups without any help or support…just start from sitting on the ground, push yourself out, and pump away :).
dl-
updating this thread because i now have both the full planche (legs together for 3-4 seconds) and full lever (short hold of about 2-3 seconds or so)
let me know how you guys are doing
Wow! That’s awesome. Congrats! But of course…pictures? (not because I doubt, but because it would be cool to see).
I took some reference photos of myself a week or two ago to check my progress. I was pleasantly surprised with my tuck planche, it’s just about an advanced tuck. My tuck front and straddle front levers didn’t look as pretty as they feel, but they are solid. Instead of sticking with the straddle or the one leg out, I’ve also started to just slowly push out both legs at the same time.
I’m almost at a point where my thighs are perpendicular to the floor (so if I was flipped around and on the floor, I’d be on my hands and knees). My cross was about as “deep” as it felt it was, but my elbows were too bent. I’ve had a flare up in my right elbow again (“tennis elbow” or something annoying) so I’ve halted practicing that for the time being.
I’m also trying to increase my range of motion on handstand pushups, thouching my forehead to the floor. I was able to bang out twenty or so handstand pushups, but when I started paying attention to what I was doing, I realized I was doing a very abbreviated motion. Trying to fix that.
I’m finally able to do some wall walking (as of a few weeks ago, though I don’t practice it consistently), I just need to work on the whole fear of snapping my neck if I lose balance thing.
Still no climbing rope 
Hope everyone is doing well and progressing nicely. Keep at it everyone.
Take it easy,
Toby
p.s. Coach…books? I know we keep pestering you, but dang it, we’re excited! Hope all is well otherwise.
back when I did gymnastics, guys were working on their iron crosses by using a rubber cord, holding each end with their hand on the ring and placing their feet in the middle of the cord. They were in a support position, lowered to an iron cross and pushed back up to support for reps.
Also, you can use parallel bars to work on crosses…forgot the terminology, support yourself w/ arms bent and perpendicular to torso on bars and push up. Gymnasts’ legs are pretty ripped, olympic guys do all events and to do floor one needs leg power, can’t have weak legs doing double back flips.
I currently have worked up to an advanced tuck planche and just recently have obtained a stiff arm, bent body press to handstand. I’m 5’6 and 173lbs right now, but I’m trying to shrink down to the 160’s to make this stuff easier.
cool picture, good luck progressing.
ill try to get some pictures of me up, but ive never been too great with those fancy cameras and “uploading” and such
-zach
Hey all. Getting back to the first question, what helps with the progresions to an Iron-cross?
on the rings with hands held at sides I would lower my self by coming down into the iron-cross and continue to do so right through my breaking point, ending up so I was just haning from the rings. I knew the slower I could lower my self the stonger I was getting and eventually being able to hold the mid point.
I also worked a lot with pulling chest exersieses, this seemed to help. It takes a long time and a lot of work but well worth it.
gymnastic leg training is highly reactive, so plyometric type work is definitely preferred and like low rep work it’s has a HUGE strength effect with minimal size gain.
I like coach sommers wonder what can be achieved through merging the training methodologies of lifting and gymnastics. And I aim to find out
…my little training secret:: Check out- BeastSkills.com
Guy has all sorts of tutorials and progresses all the skills he developed… the one I love to bust out at parties and stuff is doing handstands on multiple chairs hehehe
update
i looked at my planche in the mirror, and im bending my damned elbows a little, and it makes my planche look all retarded…so ill update when i fix it
I’m soon going to buy some rings. This type of training is badass! When first trying it I was like, damn, I’m a weak little bitch! Pissed me off!
Larry Scott was doing ring training back in the 60’s! He had & still does have amazing arms/entire upper body! It’s hard, but it builds muscle big time!
A. Jones always said the harder, the better. The guy knew his shit!
It has indeed become necessary to divide the book up into volumes; as it had become more of an encyclopedia than a book. At well over 700 plus pages of densely packed, mostly never before seen material, it was far too large to sell as a single volume.
The first volume will be available shortly at $20 for the ebook or $30 for print.
Also, the following provides some basic information on muscle-ups which you may find helpful.
Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=512003
"Training the Muscle Up Transition
For many trainees, the difficulty with the muscle-up is probably one of struggling with the transition from the pullup to the dip rather than a lack of either pullup or dip strength. Continuing to emphasize building more pullup and dip strength will generally
have very little carryover for the muscle-up as the area in need of attention will receive little direct stimulation from either of these movements.
A simple solution to this is to simply attempt to add a small portion of the transition to the top of each pullup and the bottom of each dip:
For the pullups don’t stress out too much about the amount of transition you
successfully achieve; just be consistent and smooth in trying to add more and more of the transition to the top of the pullup rep. Eventually you will be able to end each pullup rep in a bent arm position on top of the rings.
For the dips simply allow yourself to slip lower then the supported bottom of the dip. Be attentive and don’t allow yourself to go farther into the transition than you have the strength to press back out of. In this case
“less is more” as it will allow you to more thoroughly address your weakness.
Once you can dip down, lower all the way through the full transition ending at a pullup top position with a false grip and return, you will for all intensive purposes have developed a full muscle-up.
In addition, once you have achieved a single muscle-up, you can then additionally strengthen the movement by training transitions in a row. Begining from either a dip or a pullup, get to the transition and then simply work transition “reps” by moving up
and down thru the transition without ever letting your arms straighten.
Yours in Fitness,
Coach Sommer"
thank you very much for that coach, looking forward to your book