Coaching the Bar Muscle-Up: Scaling Options for Every CrossFit Athlete

The bar muscle-up is a high-skill movement, but that doesn't mean athletes without one get left behind. In this video, Coach Pamela Gagnon breaks down how to assess your athletes, identify whether they're missing strength, technique, or both, and assign the right scaling option so everyone stays engaged, builds confidence, and makes real progress toward the full skill. What you'll learn: - Why the kipping bar muscle-up is two distinct parts — the pull and the press — and how to coach each one independently - How to use box get-overs and low-bar press-to-support drills for beginner athletes during a workout - Why "get out of the pools" is one of the most effective advanced progressions for developing the press phase - How to use the warm-up to assess and sort a class of 10–18 athletes into the right scaling tier before the workout begins - What coaches need to evaluate when a higher-level skill shows up in programming — and how to make the experience safe, effective, and fun for every athlete in the room Subscribe to the CrossFit YouTube channel for coaching education, methodology, and professional development content every week. ⬇️ Earn your CrossFit credentials: https://www.crossfit.com/certificate-courses #CrossFit #CrossFitCoach #BarMuscleUp #CrossFitCoaching #GymskillCoaching — CrossFit is the world’s leading platform for improving health and performance. In the 20 years since its founding, CrossFit has grown from a garage gym in Santa Cruz, California, into the world’s most effective program for improving health and performance through nutrition and exercise. CrossFit is the world’s leading provider of accredited performance-based training courses and certifications and has more than 125,000 credentialed coaches across the world. The program can be modified to welcome people of all ages and abilities and millions of people have already experienced CrossFit’s transformational benefits in more than 13,000 affiliated gyms across 158 countries. CrossFit also directs the CrossFit Games season, beginning with the annual CrossFit Open, through which athletes at every level compete worldwide, and culminating in the CrossFit Games, where top athletes compete for the title of Fittest on Earth®. Learn more about CrossFit → https://www.crossfit.com/what-is-crossfit/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=crossfit Find a CrossFit gym near you → https://www.crossfit.com/map?utm_source=social&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=crossfit Find CrossFit Courses near you → https://www.crossfit.com/courses-near-you?utm_source=social&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=crossfit View CrossFit workouts → https://www.crossfit.com/workout?utm_source=social&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=crossfit Subscribe to CrossFit email newsletters → https://www.crossfit.com/newsletters/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=crossfit Learn more about the CrossFit Games → https://cf.games/games-learn-more