Band Assisted Pull-Up

How to do the Band Assisted Pull-Up

1. 1Attach the band to a pull-up bar or sturdy anchor point.
2. 2Step onto the band and grip the bar with your palms facing away from you, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
3. 3Hang with your arms fully extended, keeping your core engaged and your shoulders down and back.
4. 4Pull your body up towards the bar by squeezing your shoulder blades together and driving your elbows down towards your hips.
5. 5Continue pulling until your chin is above the bar, then slowly lower yourself back down to the starting position.
6. 6Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Tip: Think of pulling your elbows toward your back pockets rather than pulling your chin over the bar.

Muscles worked

Common mistakes

• Skipping the dead hang — half reps from bent arms skip the hardest part; let the arms straighten fully at the bottom and initiate by pulling the shoulders down first.
• Kipping without meaning to — a swing from the hips makes the rep easier but tells you nothing about your strength; keep the legs still, or cross the ankles and squeeze the glutes.
• Chin poking forward — reaching with the neck is a way to fake the last inch; drive the elbows down and get the chest to the bar instead.
• Adding weight too early — get to eight or ten strict reps before you hang a plate off your belt.

Where it fits in a workout

Pull-ups and chin-ups go first or second in a pull session, before rows and pulldowns, while your grip is fresh. They superset well with dips on the same station for a push and pull block.

How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.

Variations and alternatives

When to talk to someone

• Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
• Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
• Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.

More exercises

• All back exercises
• All lats exercises
• All resistance band exercises
• Resistance Band lats exercises
• Archer Pull-Up
• Close Grip Chin-Up
• Close Grip Supinated Inverted Row
• L-Pull-Up
• Pull-Up
• Behind the Neck Pull-Up

Sources

1. ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
2. ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
3. ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
4. CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)

Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.