Bar muscle ups are an incredibly challenging exercise. Here are some timing tips to help you nail your BMUs.
Read More
CrossFit gets a LOT of flack in the fitness industry… but is there any truth to the criticism?
Petr, 34, is an executive chef, husband, and father of a toddler. This is how he got his fitness back on track.
There are only a few key things to master when it comes to the kipping toes to bar:
- Shapes
- Timing
- Strength
You’ll find other articles on both ab strength and straight arm pulling strength on Ganbaru, but this one is all about the timing component. Timing makes kipping difficult – it’s not obvious for most people!
I’m a big fan of providing external feedback to force the timing issue in multiple ways, so I’ve developed a system of timing drills that hopefully end up working for everyone when learning their TTB.
Dead stop kipping variations
I love the dead stop kipping variations because they force an athlete to return quickly to the arch position. One of the most common faults in a kipping toes to bar is a lazy, slow return to the arch, and this messes up the kipping dynamic entirely. Dead stop variations require you to get back to position even faster than on the bar, and the arch must be tight and aggressive or the athlete will get thrown around as their heels hit the box.
We have 4 variations of this in our toes to bar program:
- Dead Stop Knee to Chest
- Dead Stop Knee To Elbow
- Dead Stop Single Leg TTB
- Dead Stop TTB
Where do I start?
Set the box up roughly 5-10cm in front of the bar you’re hanging from (it’s important that it’s slightly in front or the timing will suck). With your heels on the box, squeeze your glutes and keep a long body to form something similar to your arch position on the bar. It won’t feel exactly the same, but it’s close enough.
With an aggressive pull back on the bar (elbows straight), swing your body back into a compressed position. Here you will either do a knees to chest, knees to elbow, or a single or double leg toes to bar. Return quickly to the arch position without any juddering against the box.
Watch out for these mistakes:
- Bending the knees on the return to arch to “buy time” instead of driving the heels to the box
- Failing to push down into the bar with enough force
- Bending the arms
Jumping variations
Jumping variations, in my view, have less utility than the dead stop variations above. However, they are still very good for exposing an inability to move quickly into and out of position, so they can be helpful for some athletes who are struggling with the dead stop skills.
We have 3 variations of this in our toes to bar program:
- Jumping Knee to Chest
- Jumping Knee to Elbow
- Jumping Toe To Bar
What is it?
Just like your dead stop drills, you will need to quickly find the end position of your TTB variation, then return to the power position so you can reform the arch. The floor is a bit more forgiving for this, but the timing is still very fast – faster in fact than with an actual kipping toes to bar.
Set yourself on a bar that you can reach with your feet on the floor with a little bit of space to push your chest through to an arch position. You can stack plates or boxes up if you need more height.
Technique
Keeping a tight body, swing through to a small arch, then as you move back out of the arch, aggressively jump up to the end position (i.e. knees to chest, knees to elbow, or toes to bar) then return to the floor before your body swings to the other side. You should be able to return the feet to the floor, then pass back to the arch as you’d normally see in a toes to bar.
Kipping timing drills
There are 4 specific timing related drills in this program:
- Single Leg TTB w Half Box Support
- Kipping Knee to Elbow
- Single Leg TTB
- Toes to rings
Talk me through it, coach
Each of these forces something slightly different.
The half box support variation is the friendliest, as it allows you to determine your positions and regulate your timing. As you improve, you can reduce the amount of weight you put through the foot to allow you to do more work with the swing and the upper body.
The knee to elbow forces a relatively big straight arm pull on the bar and requires a good deal of compression as well. It is my favourite scaling option for the toes to bar.
The single leg toes to bar keeps the timing of the toes to bar very similar, but is less physically difficult to achieve.
The toes to rings helps with shapes more than timing for those struggling with compression.
Technique
These movements are all fairly self explanatory if you’ve been working through your toes to bar progressions. Watch the videos and make sure you’re using tight body lines, straight elbows and aggressive arch positions.
Direct scaling options for the toes to bar
If you’ve got the components of the toes to bar right, but haven’t quite got the movement yet, these are my favourite ways to regress the toes to bar.
- TTB Half TTB
- Toes to Target
- Toes to bar
What is it?
The TTB + half TTB allows you to feel the moment of contact and figure out just how hard you need to compress to reach the bar. I do not recommend this scaling option if you struggle to get your hips behind the bar. We want each rep to be rhythmic.
The toes to target is simply doing the same movement as the toes to bar with as much height as you’re currently able to achieve. Keep squeezing the gap closer and closer to the bar each week so you eventually tap the bar!
Ready to workout?
Follow proven programs written by expert coaches, delivered in an easy-to-use app built by lifters, for lifters.
Related Posts
10 tips for more leg strength and size
Building muscle and getting stronger isn’t rocket science. You train hard, eat well, and rest sufficiently, and you’ll see changes. But there are ways to make it more efficient. In…
5 tips for better back gains
There is a simple equation to building muscle. Adequately intense weight training + eating enough for growth + getting sufficient sleep = muscle growth! But it’s normal to face roadblocks….
Squat stronger with this 1 simple tip
No, we promise it’s not click bait. We know the world of social media, particularly in the fitness industry, loves quick fixes — but that isn’t always possible. In this…
Making the right shapes is the FIRST step in getting your toes to bar to work for you, and eventually do them efficiently in a workout setting.
Arch Lifts
Technique
Lying flat on the floor, squeeze your glutes and lift your arms off the floor. Keep your heels together as you do so. Your legs and arms should leave the ground.
Do not shove your belly into the ground and hyperextend the low back. This is not part of the arch position and it’s not a good habit to get into.
A nice arch is long and distributed, with tight lines and no one point in your back doing all the work.
Kip Swing variations
The kip swing itself can be tricky and a good kip swing sets up good habits for the future. Hugely bent knees do not contribute much power when moving from arch to hollow, and a longer body line is more helpful.
To combat common bad habits like a loss of tension and a large knee bend, we can use targeted positioning of resistance bands to make sure you are keeping your shapes all the way through the kip swing.
- Beat swing to band (heels)
- Beat swing to band (hollow)
- Beat swing to band (chest)
- Beat swing to bands (both sides)
- Beat swing
- Kip swing
How do I use these?
Try them all. Figure out which ones you find the hardest, and spend time on those. Remember that the things that make this hard are losing tension and length, or starting with a kip that’s bigger than you can currently control. Be okay with a smaller movement to start while you build confidence and ability here.
Technique
Set the band up according to the video. Start in a dead hang, and do a small beat swing. The band will throw you out of position, so you will have to fight back with extra tension and intention to make sure it doesn’t cause you to lose rhythm.
Hollow Rocks
Technique
From a hollow body hold, rock back and forth. Ensure that your whole spine rolls across the floor, you shouldn’t be going thud-thud between your shoulders and your hips because there should be a nice curved spine to roll across.
Entry Jump Sequence
We have 3 variations of this in our kipping bar muscle up program:
- Entry jump (banana jump)
- Entry jump to arch
- Entry jump to kip swing
What is it?
Watch the videos to understand the key components of the entry jump for a toes to bar:
- Fairly close behind the bar – no need to create lots of extra momentum here.
- Jump into a small pike position so your toes lift as you catch the bar (your body should not be in a straight line when you catch the bar
- Swing into a long, tight arch, so that your toes are behind the bar when your shoulders are in front of the bar
Practice good entry jumps – they will save you a lot of pain when doing higher rep sets in the future!
Ready to workout?
Follow proven programs written by expert coaches, delivered in an easy-to-use app built by lifters, for lifters.
Related Posts
10 tips for more leg strength and size
Building muscle and getting stronger isn’t rocket science. You train hard, eat well, and rest sufficiently, and you’ll see changes. But there are ways to make it more efficient. In…
5 tips for better back gains
There is a simple equation to building muscle. Adequately intense weight training + eating enough for growth + getting sufficient sleep = muscle growth! But it’s normal to face roadblocks….
Squat stronger with this 1 simple tip
No, we promise it’s not click bait. We know the world of social media, particularly in the fitness industry, loves quick fixes — but that isn’t always possible. In this…
As much as kipping, rhythm, and tension matter for having a good kipping toes to bar, there’s one key thing you need for them to work: core strength.
This means building strong abs in a deep compressive crunch, strong hip flexors at their end range, and the ability to leverage those muscles in a hang with and without momentum.
These exercises each train one or more of these components, and are excellent all-rounders for building core strength for toes to bar.
Hanging Knee to Chest
Technique
From a dead hang, pull your knees toward your chest. Keep pulling until you feel your spine round and your pelvis roll under you like you’re tucking your tail. Control the descent back to a dead hang.
Don’t stop the rep early – if you stay in a dead hang and your pelvis is spilled forward, you won’t get the gains from this movement that you want!
Hanging Leg Raise
Technique
From a dead hang, pull your toes up with straight legs as high as you can. Keep pulling them upuntil you feel your spine round and your pelvis roll under you like you’re tucking your tail. Control the descent back to a dead hang.
Don’t stop the rep early – if you stay in a dead hang and your pelvis is spilled forward, you won’t get the gains from this movement that you want!
Single Leg Raise
What is it?
The same as the above, scaled down to use just one leg at a time.
Lumbar Band Hollow body Hold
Setup
Secure a resistance band to an upright, squat rack or heavy weight, and stretch it out. Lie down (face up) on the stretched out band, lining it up below your belly button under your lower back. Press down into the band with your back.
Technique
Lift your arms straight up toward the ceiling, and do the same with your toes. Reach up so that your shoulders peel off the floor. Now, extend your arms up toward the ceiling and your toes down toward the wall at the same time, lengthening the levers adding weight to your abs.
Hold this position without letting your lower back lift (if you do, the band will snap away from you). Use the band to help you keep a good position where your bottom ribs are always pulling toward your pelvis.
Medball Knee Raise
Setup
Tuck a big (4-10kg) medball in between your ankles and climb or hop up to a bar in a dead hang.
Technique
Pull your knees toward your chest, with the medball staying between the ankles. Keep pulling until you feel your spine round and your pelvis roll under you like you’re tucking your tail. Control the descent back to a dead hang.
Don’t stop the rep early – if you stay in a dead hang and your pelvis is spilled forward, you won’t get the gains from this movement that you want!
Single Leg Pike Lifts
What is it?
A deep core compression exercise that loads up the lower abs and quads.
Technique
From a seated pike position on the floor, walk your hands as far forward as you can. In this position, lift one leg at a time without bending the knee.
V-Up
Technique
Lying flat on the floor, reach your hands and legs toward each other to tap your toes with both hands. This should make the shape of a V with your body. Keep your legs as straight as you can.
Single Leg V-Up
Technique
Just like the above – but only tap one hand to the opposite foot, then lie back down and switch sides as you come back up.
GHD Sit up
What is it?
A great all-rounder heavy ab exercise.
Technique
Sitting on the GHD so that your butt and hamstrings hang off the edge, set your eyes on something high on the wall in front of you. Lean back, keeping your ribs pulled down toward your belt line for as long as you can, reaching back at the last minute to tap the floor with your hands. At this point your focal point may be blocked by your own torso. Aggressively throw your hands back toward your feet, crunch your abs and snap the quads to find your way back to a tall seated position as fast as possible.
Ready to workout?
Follow proven programs written by expert coaches, delivered in an easy-to-use app built by lifters, for lifters.
Related Posts
10 tips for more leg strength and size
Building muscle and getting stronger isn’t rocket science. You train hard, eat well, and rest sufficiently, and you’ll see changes. But there are ways to make it more efficient. In…
5 tips for better back gains
There is a simple equation to building muscle. Adequately intense weight training + eating enough for growth + getting sufficient sleep = muscle growth! But it’s normal to face roadblocks….
Squat stronger with this 1 simple tip
No, we promise it’s not click bait. We know the world of social media, particularly in the fitness industry, loves quick fixes — but that isn’t always possible. In this…
Even though a kipping bar muscle up is driven primarily by momentum and good mechanics, it still requires a good strength base to do them well and safely. These basic bent-arm pushing and pulling drills will help lay the foundation for the strength you need to kip to the top of the bar.
Baby Skin the cat
What it does
The skin the cat, or even a half skin the cat like this one, helps you gently explore range through the shoulders and strength with arms straight.
Technique
From a dead hang on the rings, lift your legs in a pike then pull your toes over the top of your body through the rings until your hips are next to your wrists. Carry on as far past this point as feels safe. Then, reverse the movement to come back to the dead hang.
Straight Arm Pulldown
Technique
Set up a band on a bar above you and grab either side of the loop. With locked elbows, pull the band down to your sides. Try to keep a long neck and avoid shrugging in this position.
Banded Straight Arm Pull
Technique
Set up a band in a rack directly in front of you tied to a rack or upright. With your elbows locked, pull the band toward your side. It should be very difficult when you reach your side with your arm straight. Slowly control the band back to where it was.
Hollow Body Box Slide
What is it?
A hanging straight arm pull that is accessible even to those with minimal straight arm strength
What You’ll Need
A box and a bar to hang from. Se the box about 10cm in front of the bar you’re hanging from.
Technique
Jump to the bar so that you’re in a dead hang. Your toes should be able to touch the box. Form a hollow body position by slightly tucking down the ribs and pelvis and squeezing the legs and glutes tight.
Push down into the bar with your elbows locked. This should cause your toes to slide up the box. Retain the hollow body so that your hips don’t shoot back. Only your shoulders should move further back, the rest of your body should just elevate.
Common Mistakes
Letting the hips push back instead of the shoulders. If you stand from the side and draw a line from your shoulders to the floor, it shouldn’t pass through your bum or legs.
L Sit on Parallettes (Tuck)
Technique
With your hands on dumbbells or parallettes, lock the elbows and lift your knees to your chest. Push back on the parallettes so that your hips are next to your wrists, not behind them. This will require you to work harder through the triceps and abs.
Strict Knee to Elbow
Technique
From a dead hang, push down into the bar, lean back, and pull your knees up. Continue pushing through the bar and pulling the knees until they tap your elbow, or tricep if you’re not strong enough for elbow yet.
Ball Up/Ball up negative
Technique
From a dead hang, push down into the bar, lean back, and pull your knees into your chest. Continue pushing through the bar and pulling the toes high until they tap the bar, then descend slowly.
If you’re doing a negative, you can kip your way to the top and catch your feet in the bar. Then, unhook them before you slowly descend.
Low bar lever (regressions)
Technique
Attach a barbell to a low rack so that it doesn’t roll around. Attach a third band to the middle of the bar and loop it under your low back.
Hanging below the bar with the band strung around your back, push down HARD into the barbell so that your shoulders drift behind the bar and your hips lift to the height of your shoulders.
Hold that position as well as you can!
Ready to workout?
Follow proven programs written by expert coaches, delivered in an easy-to-use app built by lifters, for lifters.
Related Posts
10 tips for more leg strength and size
Building muscle and getting stronger isn’t rocket science. You train hard, eat well, and rest sufficiently, and you’ll see changes. But there are ways to make it more efficient. In…
5 tips for better back gains
There is a simple equation to building muscle. Adequately intense weight training + eating enough for growth + getting sufficient sleep = muscle growth! But it’s normal to face roadblocks….
Squat stronger with this 1 simple tip
No, we promise it’s not click bait. We know the world of social media, particularly in the fitness industry, loves quick fixes — but that isn’t always possible. In this…
Confused with different fitness monikers? Let’s break down the differences between combining training styles, hybrid training, cross training, and CrossFit.
