Bench Assisted Pull-Up

Secondary muscles
Biceps, Forearms
Body part
Back
Position
Hanging
Laterality
Bilateral (both sides together)
Category
Strength

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Setting up under a chest-height bar with your feet on the floor lets your legs carry part of the load, scaling the pull to whatever strength you have today. Nothing but a rack is required, and walking the feet farther under the bar or straightening the body makes each set progressively harder.

How to do the Bench Assisted Pull-Up

  1. Position yourself under a bar or a sturdy horizontal surface that is at chest height.
  2. Grab the bar or surface with an overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
  3. Hang with your arms fully extended and your body straight.
  4. Pull your chest towards the bar or surface by squeezing your shoulder blades together and bending your elbows.
  5. Continue pulling until your chin is above the bar or surface.
  6. Lower yourself back down to the starting position with control.
  7. Repeat 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

Primary

Lats · Back

The lats are the main engine, pulling the upper arm down and into the body; you should feel them at the bottom of each rep when you pull the shoulders down before the elbows bend.

Secondary

  • Biceps — The biceps bend the elbow and get more work with a supinated chin-up grip; on pull-ups they are secondary.
  • Forearms — Grip is often what fails first, so if the forearms give out before the back does, add some dead hangs or use chalk.

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

Similar exercises

Without bodyweight

Easier and harder

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.

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More exercises

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.

Animation and exercise data: ExerciseDB, licensed to SetGrip. General information, not medical or coaching advice.