Kristian started training with us in April 2024, joining alongside his wife. He was already fit and active, but hadn’t done a huge amount of strength-focused training. At the time, he could manage a few chin-ups — a solid starting point, but still early days in his calisthenics journey.
By June, he was progressing through uneven chin-ups. By September, he was confidently hitting Uneven Pull-Ups and even gave Negative One-Arm Chin-Ups a go during the MPC Games, a bold move that showed just how far he’d come.
Like many of our students, training took a back seat over the holiday period and into early 2025. However, Kristian and his wife still stayed connected, attending group classes when they could and maintaining their foundation.
Then, in March, Kristian came in for a one-on-one session with me with a goal in mind. By the end of that session, he got his first-ever muscle-up.
Inside the Session: Drilling the Transition with Purpose
While it might seem like the muscle-up just “happened” at the end of the session, almost the entire 45 minutes was carefully structured to build up to that one clean rep.
We didn’t start with full muscle-up attempts; we began with Jump Muscle-Ups.
This drill lets you practise the trickiest part of the muscle-up, the transition, without needing the full pulling power to get there on your own. It’s one of the best ways to develop the timing, coordination, and confidence needed to turn a high pull into a smooth press-out.
Since we were training at an outdoor gym, we used bars of different heights instead of boxes. We started on lower bars where Kristian could comfortably assist the movement with his legs, and gradually worked our way up to higher bars where that assistance became minimal.
Each level forced him to rely more on technique and upper-body strength:
- Pull high enough
- Keep the elbows tight
- Commit to the transition
With each variation, his movement became more fluid. His timing sharpened. His confidence grew.
And at the end of the session, with no assistance, he got it.
A clean, powerful, first-ever muscle-up.
Why the Foundation Mattered
It’s easy to look at the final result, the clean muscle-up, and forget what came before it. But Kristian’s success didn’t happen in 45 minutes. It was built on nearly a year of consistent work.
When he first started, Kristian could manage a few chin-ups. But over time, he developed the key pieces that make a muscle-up possible:
- Chest-to-bar pulling strength
- Straight bar dip control
- Scapular mechanics and shoulder mobility
- Confidence under load
He also had something less obvious: patience. He never rushed through progressions. He built up uneven pulling strength, tested his limits with advanced regressions like Negative One-Arm Chin-Ups, and kept showing up, even when life got busy.
Because of this foundation, when we drilled the transition, it wasn’t foreign. His body already knew how to pull explosively. He had the control to move smoothly, and when it was time to go, he had the tools to get over the bar.
Coaching, Cueing, and the Power of an Outside Eye
One of the most significant turning points in Kristian’s session wasn’t a sudden strength gain; it was clarity.
When you’re working on something as technical as a muscle-up, the smallest detail can make all the difference:
- Pulling too early or too late
- Flaring the elbows
- Transitioning too close or too far from the bar
Having a coach on hand meant we could spot those details in real time. We made micro-adjustments to his timing, reinforced good reps, and gave him simple, actionable cues he could apply on the next attempt.
Videoing his attempts and re-watching them in slow motion, as well as doing the same with my demonstrations to see where he could improve, also helped a lot.
The Takeaway: How Fast Progress Really Happens
Kristian’s story might sound like a rapid transformation, and in some ways, it was. But the real lesson isn’t that muscle-ups can happen in 45 minutes. It’s when the foundation is there, combined with smart progressions, clear feedback, and a focused mindset, that big breakthroughs can happen fast.
Progress isn’t always flashy. It’s built on consistent reps, good form, and quiet persistence.
Then one day, it all clicks, and you do something you’ve never done before.
