Assisted Pull-Up Machine: How to Use It, How the Weight Works, and When to Move to the Bar (2026)

2026.10.7

An assisted pull-up is a pull-up done with part of your bodyweight supported for you, and this guide covers one way to do it: on the assisted pull-up machine at the gym, which holds your body up with a counterweight. The first thing to know is which way the numbers run. On this machine, the higher you set the assistance number, the easier it gets, and the lower you set it, the harder it gets.

The pull-up guide from NASM (the National Academy of Sports Medicine) tells people who can't yet do a bodyweight pull-up to build pulling strength with band-assisted pull-ups or an assisted pull-up machine, and to gradually reduce the assistance as their strength improves until they can do full pull-ups on their own. What follows is that process laid out in order, step by step, in front of the machine.

Assisted pull-up machine weight: a higher number makes it easier #

The weight you select on an assisted pull-up machine is not weight you lift. It is weight that pushes you up. The plates you pin push the pad that supports your body upward, and the more plates you pin, the bigger that push. While you hang still, your bodyweight is split between the share your arms hold and the share the pad supports, so the more the pad supports, the smaller the share left for your arms.

The numbers run the opposite way from a weight machine where you pull the plates up yourself. On a machine like the lat pulldown, where you pull the stack up with a handle, the weight you pin is the weight you lift, so a higher number is heavier. On the assisted pull-up machine, a higher number is lighter. On this machine, "adding weight" means making the exercise easier.

Here is how it works out in numbers. Say you weigh 70 kg, and the machine supports you with exactly the number shown. Pinned at 30, your arms hold 40 kg; pinned at 20, they hold 50 kg (hanging still). Moving the pin from 30 down to 20 made the exercise 10 kg harder.

Don't assume a number means the same force on every machine #

That math carries an assumption: "if the machine supports you with exactly the number shown." The force the plates put on the pad is not set by their weight alone. Depending on the ratio of the pulleys or levers linking them, it can reach the pad as less than the plate weight, or as more. So you can't assume the number on the machine equals the force actually holding you up, and you can't compare it with the numbers on a machine at a different gym.

Within one machine, though, the number is your reference. Emerson et al. (2014), presented at the conference of the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports (ISBS), list it as an advantage of machine assistance that you know the training load as a number, and note that with bands or a spotter the load can't be quantified. Pin the same number on the same machine and you get the same assistance you got last time. So log it as "which machine, what number, how many reps," and copy the unit down exactly as it is written on that machine.

Picking your starting number: the one where you just barely finish set 1 #

PULL UP KING has no guideline for setting a machine number. What the app does have is a guideline for choosing band thickness, and since it is a rule for sizing the assistance, you can carry it over to the machine number. Do one set of the reps you planned. If you just barely got there, that is the right number. If it was much easier than that, lower the number. If you could not get even half, raise it.

The app's band guidance says that if you can't do a single rep, you will usually start on the thickest band you own. On the machine, that means starting from the high end of the numbers. NASM's band-assisted pull-up guide also says to use thicker bands, with more assistance, at first.

How to use an assisted pull-up machine, from getting on to getting off #

If there is an instruction diagram on the machine, look at that first. Then go in this order.

1. Set the number before you get on. When you put your weight on the pad, the pinned plates lift, so move the pin while you are off the pad.
2. Climb up and take hold of the handles first, then put your weight on the pad.
3. Start with your arms fully straight. NASM's pull-up guide uses a hang with your arms fully extended as the starting position. With your weight on the pad, lower yourself slowly until your arms are fully straight, then begin.
4. Bring your shoulders down first, then pull. The same guide says to depress your shoulder blades, then pull by driving your elbows down until your chin clears the bar or your chest approaches it.
5. Lower yourself under control to the starting position. Don't drop down with a jolt. Come back slowly until your arms are fully straight, and start the next rep from there.
6. Keep hold of the handles when you get off. Hold on while you take your body off the pad. Once your weight is completely off the pad, the plates push the pad back up.

Stepping the assistance down: fewer reps on the day you lower the number is still progress #

NASM's band-assisted pull-up guide lists two mistakes to avoid: using a band that is too thick, which reduces the challenge and limits strength progression, and failing to gradually reduce the assistance as your strength improves. On the machine, the equivalent is staying on a high number.

Lower the number and your arms hold a bigger share of the same movement, so your rep count may drop that day. PULL UP KING's guidance for the band stage says the same thing. Fewer reps is not going backward; you are lifting more of your own weight because the assistance shrank. Progress in this stage means reducing help, not adding reps.

Levels 1–12 in the app are built on this principle. Every three levels, the assistance drops one step, from a strong band to a medium band to a light band, and the last three levels (10–12) are "mixed with bodyweight." You do the early sets without a band, and the light band goes on from the first set where the reps stop coming. It is not a stage for adding reps. It is a stage for cutting down the sets that use a band. You can step the machine number down with the same framework.

• Start at the number where you just barely finish set 1.
• Once you are hitting your planned reps much more easily, move the pin down one notch.
• If your reps dropped on the day you moved it down, stay at that number until you are hitting them again.
• Once you reach the lowest number, do the early sets with bodyweight on the bar, and move to the machine from the first set where the reps stop coming.

Assisted pull-up machine vs bands: they support you in different ways #

The machine and a band both carry part of your bodyweight for you. What differs is how that force is produced.

A band stretches the most at the bottom, with your arms straight, so it pushes hard there, and as your chin gets closer to the bar it shortens and the help shrinks with it. The same band also stretches further and helps more with your foot in it, and helps less with your knee in it. The machine's plates are weight, not rubber, so wherever the pad is, the weight of the plates themselves stays the same. If you move up and down quickly, though, the inertia of the plates moving along with you can change the force from moment to moment.

Where you can train differs too. Emerson et al. noted that machines are expensive and may not be available. A band only needs a bar to hang from. So you can follow the same progression with the machine number at the gym and with band thickness at home. How to pick a band thickness and wrap it around the bar is covered in the pull-up bands guide.

When to move to bodyweight: not zero on the machine, but one rep on the bar #

However low you take the number, those reps are still reps done on the machine. NASM's pull-up guide starts from a hang on the bar with your arms fully extended and your body hanging freely. On the machine, your body is supported by the pad. There is also no guarantee that the machine's number matches the force actually holding you up. So the only way to know whether you can do a bodyweight pull-up is to try it on the bar.

PULL UP KING also measures you again with bodyweight at the point where the assisted stage ends. After you finish level 12, the home screen tells you it is "time to see how many you can do unassisted." If you get one or more, you go to level 13 or higher depending on your count; at zero, you go back to level 10, where mixing with bodyweight begins. Level 13 is 1-1-1-1-1, one bodyweight rep for five sets, and the app tells you there: "The drop is expected — you are now lifting the weight the band used to take." The day you move from the machine to the bar is the same. Your arms now lift the share the machine used to carry.

If you have only ever used the machine and you are opening the app for the first time, the reference is still the bar. The level test sets your starting level from the number of reps you do without assistance, to failure, and if you can't use the camera, you can enter that number yourself. At zero bodyweight reps, you start at level 1, the strong band stage. The app's assisted stage is built around band or step assistance, and there is no separate guidance for an assisted machine.

The camera does the counting. It counts based on the movement, not on whether you used a band, and it counts one rep when your chin crosses the judging line (a dashed line just below the bar, around elbow height). It does not judge whether you used momentum or whether your arms fully straightened at the bottom, so those two are on you. What counts as one full rep is covered in the pull-up form guide, and how you build reps from level 13 on continues in the pull-up program guide.

FAQ #

What weight should I start with on an assisted pull-up machine? #

There is no number that is right for everyone. Even the same number can give different support depending on how the machine is built, so you can't bring over a number from a different machine either. Do one set of your planned reps and start at the number where you just barely finish it. If you can't do a single bodyweight rep, start from the high end of the numbers.

How low does the assistance have to go before I can do a bodyweight pull-up? #

None of the sources checked for this guide gives a "this number and you're there" threshold. The most direct check is to try one bodyweight rep on the bar every so often as you bring the number down. PULL UP KING also measures you again with bodyweight at level 12, where the assisted stage ends.

Do assisted pull-up reps count as pull-ups? #

It depends on which record you mean. PULL UP KING's levels 1–12 are prescribed on the assumption that you are using assistance, and the camera counts based on the movement, not on whether you used a band. But the level test sets your starting level from a count done without assistance, and from level 13 you build back up with bodyweight. When you keep your own record, too, write down machine reps and bar reps separately so you can compare against last time. If you try the camera in front of the machine, first check this: if any one of your face, shoulders, elbows, or wrists leaves the frame, the app won't count.

What if there is no assisted pull-up machine? #

If you have a bar, you can follow the same progression with bands. If you don't have a band either, PULL UP KING recommends two options: put one foot on a low chair or step and push with your leg, or jump to get your chin up and then lower yourself slowly over three seconds. The app counts both as reps. The steps from hanging to your first rep are laid out in the guide for when you can't do a pull-up.