A quick introduction to Elias:
He could already do Muscle-Ups — around 2–5 reps — but his technique was still quite swing-heavy. After around 5 months of coaching, he was able to perform up to 11 Muscle-Ups with noticeably better explosiveness, stronger High Pull-Ups, and much cleaner form.

How Elias Improved His Muscle-Ups from 2 to 11 Reps

When Elias started coaching with me, he could already do Muscle-Ups. So he wasn’t a complete beginner trying to achieve his first rep.

He already had solid reps, could get over the bar, and generally understood how the movement worked. But it quickly became clear that there was still a lot of potential to improve.

At the beginning, his Muscle-Ups were still relatively swing-heavy. The reps weren’t bad, but they weren’t as explosive or controlled as they could have been. His pulling height in particular was lacking, which meant he had to compensate more during the transition.

After around five months of coaching, things looked very different. Elias had developed much stronger High Pull-Ups, more explosive Muscle-Ups, and cleaner reps with significantly less swing. His personal best reached 11 Muscle-Ups.You can also see the before-and-after video on my website. Especially in the “after” clip, it’s clear that not only the number of reps improved — the quality of the movement improved as well.

And that was exactly the point of the coaching: not simply doing “more Muscle-Ups,” but building stronger, more controlled, and more explosive Muscle-Ups.

Elias Could Do Muscle-Ups — But the Real Problem Was the Quality

A lot of people make the mistake of focusing only on the number of Muscle-Up reps. Of course, doing more reps is great — but the more important question is: What do those reps actually look like?

If every rep is done with a lot of swing, very little pulling height, and you’re basically fighting your way over the bar, then it’s a different level than an explosive Muscle-Up with clean control.

For Elias, the goal wasn’t simply to add even more Muscle-Ups to his program. That probably would have improved his rep count in the short term, but it wouldn’t have solved the real issue.

We wanted to increase his pulling strength, improve his explosiveness, and keep his Muscle-Up technique consistently clean. Because a better Muscle-Up doesn’t come from simply doing it more often — it comes from specifically training the weaknesses behind it.

Phase 1: Build More Strength with Weighted Pull-Ups

At the beginning, the focus was clearly on Weighted Pull-Ups.

The reason is simple: the stronger your pull becomes, the less you have to compensate with momentum during the Muscle-Up. You can pull higher, give yourself more time for the transition, and the whole movement becomes more controlled.

Of course, Elias still trained Muscle-Ups so his technique wouldn’t disappear, but the main focus was initially on building more pulling strength.

We included Weighted Pull-Ups around twice per week. Because Elias didn’t always have perfect weight increments available, we had to work flexibly. The goal wasn’t to increase the weight by an exact amount every single week, but to adjust the stimulus intelligently.

We mainly worked in the range of 4 sets of 5 reps — heavy enough to build strength, but still controlled enough to keep the reps technically consistent.This phase was extremely important because it gave Elias a stronger foundation. A lot of people want to work directly on the skill itself, but if your pulling strength isn’t high enough, the Muscle-Up will always be limited in some way.

That’s exactly what we wanted to reduce.

Phase 2: Explosive Pull-Ups for More Height

In addition to the Weighted Pull-Ups, we added one weekly session with explosive bodyweight Pull-Ups.

The goal wasn’t to simply accumulate as many Pull-Ups as possible. The focus was on making every rep as fast, high, and clean as possible. Quality over quantity.

Elias usually performed several sets — around 5 sets — but always with the goal of maintaining explosiveness. As soon as the reps started getting slower or the pulling height clearly dropped, the set was no longer very useful for our goal.

For Muscle-Ups, you don’t just need strength. You also need the ability to apply that strength quickly.That later carried over strongly to his High Pull-Ups. The higher you can pull, the easier the transition over the bar becomes. You have to fight less, use less swing, and enter the dip position with much better control.

For Elias, this was one of the biggest factors in making his Muscle-Ups look and feel significantly better.

Phase 3: Keep Practicing Muscle-Ups — Without Mindlessly Grinding Reps

Even though the main focus at the beginning was on Pull-Ups, we never removed Muscle-Ups completely from the program.

That wouldn’t have made sense, because the Muscle-Up is still a skill. You need to practice the movement regularly to maintain your timing, rhythm, and confidence through the transition.

The difference was that Elias didn’t take his Muscle-Ups to complete failure every session. That’s a common mistake.A lot of people keep doing clean reps until the technique completely breaks down — and then wonder why they always have to rely on more swing.

If you constantly practice poor-quality reps, your body gets better at exactly that.That’s why we usually placed his Muscle-Ups at the beginning of the workout while he was still fresh. A few clean sets, no unnecessary grinding, and then we moved on to the actual strength or explosiveness work.

This kept his technique sharp without reinforcing bad reps every session.

Phase 4: Weighted Muscle-Ups as the Next Step

After around three months, the foundation was noticeably stronger. Elias had improved his Pull-Up strength, became more explosive in the pull, and his regular Muscle-Ups were already much cleaner. At that point, we were able to shift more of the focus toward Weighted Muscle-Ups.

This made sense because the Weighted Pull-Ups had already helped his body adapt to additional load. So he wasn’t suddenly being thrown into heavy loading — we could transfer the strength he had built more specifically to the Muscle-Up.

Weighted Pull-Ups stayed in the plan, but with less emphasis. The main priority now became Weighted Muscle-Ups.We worked with roughly three sessions per week: two moderate sessions and one heavier session. In the moderate sessions, we focused on around 3 sets of 4 reps. In the heavier session, the focus was closer to 3 sets of 2 reps.

The goal wasn’t simply to keep adding more weight. It was to stay explosive and technically clean even with extra load.Weighted Muscle-Ups are obviously not a beginner exercise. If your regular Muscle-Up is still inconsistent, you first need to build that base. But for Elias, this was the right step at the right time because the foundation was already there.

And that made his bodyweight Muscle-Ups even more explosive, because after training with extra weight, his own bodyweight naturally felt lighter.

What You Can Learn From Elias’ Progress

Elias didn’t improve because of one secret trick. He improved because the training had a clear structure.

First, we built more pulling strength with Weighted Pull-Ups. Then we developed more explosiveness with fast, high-quality Pull-Ups. At the same time, we kept practicing Muscle-Ups to maintain and improve the skill itself. Later, we introduced Weighted Muscle-Ups to make the movement even stronger.

That’s the point a lot of people miss.

If your Muscle-Up progress has stalled, you don’t automatically need more attempts. You may need a better plan. Maybe you’re missing strength. Maybe explosiveness. Maybe technical control. Or maybe you simply need a clearer training structure.For Elias, it was the combination of all of these factors that made the difference.

After five months, he could not only do more Muscle-Ups — he could do better Muscle-Ups. Less swing, more height, stronger High Pull-Ups, and much more control.

And that’s what Calisthenics is really about: not just achieving a skill somehow, but actually mastering it.

Conclusion

If you want to improve your Muscle-Ups, simply doing more and more Muscle-Ups usually isn’t enough. You need to understand why your reps are breaking down, whether your pull is too weak, whether you lack explosiveness, or whether your technique becomes inconsistent.

Elias’ progress shows how much is possible when strength, explosiveness, and technique are trained together in a structured way.

If you’re not sure whether your main limitation is strength, technique, or training structure, a personalized training plan or 1-on-1 coaching can help you build a plan that actually matches your current level.