CrossFit Athletic Group

One of my unofficial goals for the Champions Club is to get the kids I feel are ready comfortable with butterfly pull-ups by the time Summer rolls around. If it doesn't happen, my heart won't be broken but I would really like to see it.

The butterfly pull-up is a movement that is unique to CrossFit and came about in 2007 when stud CF athlete Brett Marshall (known in the community as AFT) posted a video of a record Fran time using the style.. The standard of chin-over-bar done as fast as possible lead to this style being naturally adapted; meaning it was only a matter of time before someone figured it out. When I first found out about them I practiced and practiced and practiced until I could finally do them comfortably in workouts.

Then I tweaked up my shoulder in 2009 and had to resort to modifying many workouts. It was no fun.

I wonder why...and these were better than the ones I used to do

So it seems like a tricky place when it comes to butterfly pull-ups: they are a higher skill movement and requires a lot of practice to get the rhythm, but they also require more mobility and can wreck your shoulders and elbows if done incorrectly over and over.

This is where the concept of blocking movement comes in handy. When we flip our hands backwards (reverse grip) it automatically puts our shoulders in external rotation and therefore keeping them safe in that overhead range of motion. So recently we've been practicing with a few athletes during workouts. Below is Alyssa and Carter from earlier in December and Jay, JZ, Elizabeth, and Jackie from yesterday. For all of them this was their first time doing butterfly pull-ups in an actual workout.

The rhythm will take lots of reps of practice and the blocked position (hands backward) ensures that they'll stay safe doing it. Then when they have the rhythm down and their mobility allows for it they can flip their hands the normal way.

The butterfly pull-up catches probably more slack than anything else in CrossFit. I definitely get it; it's new, looks funny, and makes doing a pull-up much easier and seems to take away from the strength portion of it. But this kip actually requires a great deal more strength to perform than a regular kip - especially in the midline (abs and core). It's a great skill-transfer for the positional demands of the snatch and running, as well as throwing and kicking. Plus, it helps you do more work over a shorter period of time - meaning you'll often get more of a cardio feel.

The more I think about it, I really wish I had spent more time starting in 2014 teaching both butterfly pull-ups and strict pull-ups. But it's never too late. We've been doing a good amount of strict pull-ups in the past two years or so, and now I think it's time for the butterfly pull-up to be added to your skillbag.