Struggling with the pull up, handstand, or muscle up? You are not alone these are very common movements that people struggle with. One common theme I see with people who struggle with this is their feet go flying everywhere. If you watch the best gymnasts in the world, they always seem very “organized”. What this means is that their movements always look very smooth.
Why should I keep my feet together?
The reason you want to keep your feet together is because it allows for full hip extension. The key to a muscle up or pull up is to access full hip extension. You should be able to “squeeze your butt” on your way up.
Try this quick test, stand with your feet a few feet apart (you should be an expert at how far 6 ft is) so go about 1-2 ft apart and put 1 foot back a little bit. Now try and squeeze your butt. Not easy to do, thats because its harder to achieve full hip extension with your feet apart. Your butts main responsibility in exercise (yes i know its other responsibilities) is to extend the hip. So next time you are doing handstands or pull ups work on keeping your feet together and staying “organized”.
How to make this easier
I like for people to master the basics before we advance. A good example of this is hollow holds, hollow rocks, C & Ds or arch to hollow swings. If you are unable to do a hollow rock without keeping your feet together or a kip swing without keeping your feet together its going to be hard to progress to a bar muscle up or handstand walk.
Try this circuit:
3 rounds
12 hollow rocks
12 kip swings
:20 HS hold
Feet together squeeze your butt squeeze your belly for each movement.
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