Exercise guide · Advanced · Compound

Weighted Muscle Up: How to Do It & Muscles Worked

The weighted muscle up is an advanced compound exercise that targets the lats and involves pulling your body above a bar with added resistance. It requires significant upper body strength, coordination, and technique, making it suitable for experienced athletes.

Primary muscles
Lats
Equipment
Weighted
Level · type
Advanced · Compound
Demonstration of the weighted muscle up
Front view: muscles worked by the weighted muscle up. Primary: lats. Secondary: biceps, chest, shoulders and triceps.
Back view: muscles worked by the weighted muscle up. Primary: lats. Secondary: biceps, chest, shoulders and triceps.
Primary Secondary

How to do the weighted muscle up

  1. Step 1: Start by hanging from a pull-up bar with your palms facing away from you and your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
  2. Step 2: Engage your core and pull your body up towards the bar, leading with your chest.
  3. Step 3: As you reach the top of the movement, transition your grip so that your palms are facing towards you.
  4. Step 4: Continue pulling yourself up until your chest reaches the bar, then pause for a moment.
  5. Step 5: Slowly lower yourself back down to the starting position, maintaining control throughout the movement.
  6. Step 6: Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Sets, reps and programming

Suggested sets, reps and rest for the weighted muscle up by training goal
Goal Sets Reps Rest Effort
Strength 3–5 3–6 3–5 min 1–3 reps in reserve
Muscle growth 3–4 6–12 2–3 min 1–2 reps in reserve
Muscular endurance 2–3 12–20 1–2 min 1–3 reps in reserve

Ranges follow the ACSM position stand on progression in resistance training. Muscle grows across a wide range of loads when sets end close to failure (Schoenfeld et al., 2017), longer rests between heavy sets support strength and size (Schoenfeld et al., 2016), and stopping a rep or two short of failure works about as well as training to failure (Grgic et al., 2022). Estimate your working weights with the strength calculators.

Weighted Muscle Up alternatives

More exercises that train the lats as their main target:

More lats exercises

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Sources

  1. American College of Sports Medicine. Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009;41(3):687-708.
  2. Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Strength and hypertrophy adaptations between low- vs. high-load resistance training. J Strength Cond Res. 2017;31(12):3508-3523.
  3. Schoenfeld BJ, Pope ZK, Benik FM, et al. Longer interset rest periods enhance muscle strength and hypertrophy in resistance-trained men. J Strength Cond Res. 2016;30(7):1805-1812.
  4. Grgic J, Schoenfeld BJ, Orazem J, Sabol F. Effects of resistance training performed to repetition failure or non-failure on muscular strength and hypertrophy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Sport Health Sci. 2022;11(2):202-211.

Step-by-step instructions and demonstration media are from the ExerciseDB exercise dataset.

This guide is general fitness information, not medical advice. Stop if an exercise causes pain and speak to a doctor or physiotherapist about injuries or health conditions before starting a new programme.