Pull-Up Program
A dedicated eight-week progression from wherever you are, assisted machine, half reps, or zero, to full pull-ups, with every plate drop planned.
Program Overview
The pull-up is the most honest exercise in the gym: it lifts exactly you, assisted by nothing, and that is why earning the first one changes how people train forever. This program is the path. Three short sessions a week for eight weeks, built on the assisted machine's greatest feature, assistance you can reduce one plate at a time, plus pulldowns matched to your bodyweight, slow negatives that build strength in the exact range you will use, and chin-up grips that let the biceps help early. Already have reps? The same structure runs you from three to ten. Every exercise includes a form video.
This slots neatly alongside any plan whose pulling day it can replace, including our pull day workout. For general back size beyond the bar, our back workout is the broader session.
Who Is This For?
This plan suits you if:
- You have never done a pull-up and want the first one
- You have a few and want double figures
- You have access to an assisted machine, a pulldown, and a bar
- You can give it three 25-minute sessions a week
Every plan this can slot into lives on our beginner programs page.
Weekly Schedule
Phase 1: Reduce the Assistance (Weeks 1-4)
Three sessions a week, alternating emphasis: assisted chin-ups with their friendlier underhand grip, assisted pull-ups overhand, and pulldowns rowed at honest loads. The single rule that runs the phase: clear the top of the rep range, drop one assistance plate next session. Write the plate number down every visit; it is the plot of this whole story.
Full hang at the bottom, chin clearly over at the top, every rep. Half reps produce half a pull-up, which rounds down to none.
Underhand grip on the assisted machine, pull your chin over the bar.
Pull the bar down to your upper chest by driving the elbows down and back.
Use the counterweighted machine to perform pull ups with assistance.
Hold a band at shoulder height and pull it apart until your arms are wide.
A brisk walk on your rest days to aid recovery and keep you active.
Light stretching and mobility for anything that felt tight in your last session.
Phase 2: Negatives and the First Rep (Weeks 5-8)
Negatives arrive: jump or step to the top of the bar and lower yourself for a slow five seconds, because you are strongest lowering and that strength converts. Each session now opens with an attempt, one honest try at a full pull-up before fatigue, then the assisted work continues. The day it goes, and on this program it goes, log it in capitals.
Attempt first, always, while fresh. The rep arrives on an ordinary Tuesday when the assistance stack finally has nothing left to give you.
Hang from the bar with an overhand grip and pull your chin above the bar.
Underhand grip on the assisted machine, pull your chin over the bar.
Pull the bar down to your upper chest by driving the elbows down and back.
Hinged at the hips, open the arms wide and squeeze the shoulder blades together.
Twenty to thirty minutes of easy walking, outdoors if you can manage it.
Five to ten minutes on hips, ankles, and the upper back.
Pull-Up Program PDF
From assisted machine to unassisted rep, one plate at a time, with every session mapped.
This is a 3-day program you run for 8 weeks, sessions around 25 minutes, built for the journey to a first pull-up or from a few to many. Phase 1 (weeks 1-4) runs assisted chin-ups, assisted pull-ups, and pulldowns with one governing rule: clear the rep range, drop one assistance plate. Phase 2 (weeks 5-8) adds five-second negatives and opens every session with a fresh attempt at the full rep, with the plate-by-plate log that turns eight weeks into a visible countdown.
- One Plate At A Time The assisted machine's stack is a literal countdown to your first rep, and the PDF's log makes the countdown visible session by session.
- Negatives Do The Converting You are strongest lowering, and slow negatives spend that strength exactly where the pull-up needs it. Phase 2 is built on the fact.
- Attempt-First Sessions Every Phase 2 session opens with one fresh try, because first reps arrive unannounced and the program refuses to let fatigue steal the moment.
Get Your Pull-Up Program
Includes both training phases, the plate-countdown log, and exercise cues for the full session. Download instantly after you submit the form.
Unsubscribe any time.
Nutrition Guidance
The pull-up has two levers: pulling strength up, bodyweight anywhere it honestly belongs. Our macro calculator sorts the second lever and our recipes keep it painless. For more depth, read why your tracking might be off and choosing the right plan for your goals.
What Actually Matters Here
- Protein: 1.6 to 2.2g per kg daily. Lats and biceps trained three times weekly are building something; supply the materials.
- Calories: If you carry spare weight, a gentle deficit is the quiet second program here: every kilo lost is a kilo unlifted at the bar, three sessions a week.
- No crash cuts: aggressive deficits cost the very strength this program is accumulating. Half a percent a week maximum, and only if it applies.
A stronger pull and an honest bodyweight meet in the middle at your first rep. Most people underestimate how much the second lever moves the date.
