About Us

False Grips was founded in March 2016 by CrossFit Games athlete, Pat Burke. Read Pat’s personal message to learn more:

The False Grips idea happened at our affiliate, MBS CrossFit, as I was training one of our athletes in the kipping muscle up. I was finding myself in the same boat I had been in so many times before. Standing there with puckered butt cheeks every time the athlete attempted their first kipping muscle up (fearing they would fly through the rings and either get injured or lose confidence) and the athlete getting more and more frustrated after each missed attempt.

I knew there had to be a better way!

As a coach, I knew the answer was that the athlete should learn the strict muscle up first. This would show that the athlete has the strength necessary to do the movement with the proper form and muscle groups versus using a body kip to get assistance to the top of the rings. Additionally, it is much safer training the strict version because there is no violent swinging of the body and gravity-defying transitions done over the top of 8' rings!

The strict muscle up has its drawbacks though. The (insert bad-guy is coming sound effects) FALSE GRIP scares people away. The false grip requires you to have the arm strength to hang your entire body weight on your wrists maintaining a nearly 90-degree flexion. If you don't have that strength, you rely on skin friction and a high pain tolerance to work on your muscle up. In nearly all situations, the athlete will last 10-15 minutes before they are peeling skin off their wrists from ring abrasions! That is not confidence building, nor is it efficient. Getting your muscle up is going to take a long time if you're only getting to train for 10 minutes every two weeks while having to wait until your sores heal.

That is where the idea was born. An effective way for athletes to train the false grip, WHILE they trained for their muscle up! Additionally, reducing the risk of injury while increasing the effectiveness of the training!

After 14 months of testing several different prototypes, we came up with our current design. We are very pleased with what we've created with the False Grips. We hope that you get some good training sessions in and have fun working for your first muscle up!

Thank you,

Pat Burke and the False Grips team