Band-Assisted Pull-Up
Trains the Lats.
- Equipment
- A pull-up bar and a resistance band
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Not recorded
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Loop a resistance band over a pull-up bar and pull one end through the other so it hangs in a loop.
- Take an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders.
- Put one knee or one foot into the band — a knee is easier to get into, a foot gives more help.
- Hang with straight arms and set your shoulders down away from your ears.
- Pull yourself up until your chin passes the bar, driving the elbows down toward your ribs.
- Lower under control all the way to straight arms.
Common mistakes
- Choosing a band that does most of the work. The band helps most at the bottom, where you are weakest, and least at the top — a band strong enough to make the whole repetition easy removes the part you are training for.
- Getting into the band without a plan for getting out. The band is under tension when your foot leaves it, and stepping out of a loaded band at the end of a set is worth thinking about before the first repetition rather than after the last.
- Cutting the bottom short. Stopping with the elbows bent avoids the hardest part, and the hardest part is the reason for the band.
- Staying on the same band. The band is a step, not a fixture: a lighter band, then fewer assisted repetitions, is the route to an unassisted pull-up, and staying on one band indefinitely means the exercise has stopped changing.