A Pull-Up Program That Takes You From One Rep to Thirty

2026.9.20

A common way to train for more pull-ups goes like this: walk to the bar, do as many as possible, rest a bit, repeat until the arms quit. Nothing in that routine says what to do next time, so the only way to find out whether anything changed is to test your max again.

"As many as you can" is a test, not a plan. It gives you no answer to the only question that matters on a Wednesday: what am I doing today? A program answers that before you touch the bar.

What follows is the structure of the program I train with, the 83-level one built into PULL UP KING. None of the ideas are proprietary. It is descending sets, small fixed increments, rest that steps up with the level, and a one-set test before you move up. You can run it in a notebook if you prefer. The point is to run something with numbers in it.

What a pull-up program does that max sets don't #

A max set tells you where you are today. It does not tell you what to do on the next set, or in the next session. This program decides both in advance.

It starts with placement. If you can already do pull-ups, the level test puts you at the level whose top set is closest to 75 percent of your tested max. The program's design notes give the reason: a first set taken to failure leaves nothing for the four sets after it. So the first set is deliberately held back, and a session is judged on all five sets, not on the first one.

Then it moves in small, fixed steps. There are 83 levels, and each one asks for three sessions that fill every set. From level 20 on, every level adds exactly two reps to the session total, one each to two of the five sets. Level 21 is 8-7-5-5-5, level 22 is 9-7-6-5-5, level 23 is 10-7-6-6-5. You always know the next number, and it is never far from the last one.

The shape of one session: five descending sets #

Every session is five sets, and no set is bigger than the one before it. The first set is the top set, done fresh. The four that follow are back-off sets, and together they carry most of the session: at level 53, where the top set reaches 30, the other four add 64 more.

Rest between sets is not one fixed number. It steps up as the levels go on. On the band levels it is 90 seconds. At level 13, the first bodyweight level, it goes to 120. From level 18 on, it follows the size of the top set: 150 seconds while the top set is 12 or fewer, and 180 above that. The design notes give the reason here too: as the sets get longer, the same short rest would leave the later sets unfilled, and the app would read that as a level that is too heavy.

You can also set the rest yourself in the app's settings. If you leave it alone, it follows the level.

Where it starts: bands, then the real starting line #

Levels 1 through 12 use a resistance band. The band gets weaker every three levels, strong, medium, light, then mixed, and the prescribed reps go down with it: 31 total reps per session on the strong band, then 27, 23, and 19. That looks backwards until you remember that the band is doing less each stage. In this stretch, progress means less help from the band, not more reps. The mixed stage, levels 10 to 12, is the last step: the early sets are done without the band, and the light band goes on only from the first set where the reps won't come.

When you clear level 12, the app asks for a bodyweight test. One rep puts you at level 13, more can place you higher, and zero sends you back to level 10, the start of the mixed stage.

Level 13 is where bodyweight begins, and it begins at 1-1-1-1-1. Five single reps with rest between them. That is not a warm-up level. It is the real starting line, and it is designed so that the first day you can do one honest pull-up, you have a session waiting for you.

A level test after three filled sessions #

From level 18 on, three sessions that fill every set do not move you up on their own. They open a level test. The test is one set: as many reps as you can, and it ends when your hands come off the bar. If that set beats the next level's first set by two or more, you move up, and the count of filled sessions starts again from zero. Level 23 is 10-7-6-6-5 and level 24 opens with 10, so the mark at level 23 is 12. Levels 1 to 17, the band levels and the first bodyweight levels, have no test: three filled sessions move you up.

If you fall short, you keep your level, the test is not counted as a missed session, and it stays open, so you can take it again next session. The design notes give the reason for the test: moving up after just three sessions would make the prescription heavier faster than you get stronger, pinning the first set at your limit. The test keeps the first set a little below your max.

The clip below was filmed in September 2026 on a home power tower, before the test existed: 6-4-3-3-3, nineteen reps. That was what was then level 21, a light level that came every fourth level. Version 1.4.26 of the app removed those light levels and renumbered the levels after them, so today's level 21 is 8-7-5-5-5.

If the test shows you are far ahead of the next level, the app suggests skipping further on the home screen. It does not move you there on its own.

What the finish line looks like #

Level 53 is 30-17-16-16-15. Ninety-four reps in one session, with a top set of thirty, the number this app is built around. Put it next to level 13's five singles and the whole shape of the program is visible: there are still five sets, none bigger than the one before it, and the rest has stepped up from 120 seconds to 180. Only the numbers have changed, one small step at a time. The program keeps going past thirty for anyone who wants more, by the same rule, and ends at level 83: 50-27-26-26-25, 154 reps.

There is one session a day, so the test comes on its own day, after your third filled session. From level 18 until the last level, each level takes at least four sessions. Starting at level 1 with no repeats and every test passed on the first try, reaching level 53 takes 191 sessions, about 64 weeks at three a week, and finishing level 83 takes 314, about two years. Repeats and retakes add time. What the length buys you is a next level that always has its numbers written down already.

Running the pull-up program yourself, and what an app changes #

You can run this with a notebook. The rules fit on an index card:

• Five descending sets per session.
• Three sessions that fill every set: on levels 1 to 17, move up. A missed session doesn't count toward those three.
• From level 18, those three open a level test: one set, as many as you can. Beat the next level's first set by two or more to move up; fall short and keep your level, then try again next session.
• Miss twice at the same level, consecutive or not, even after the test opens: start the level over. A test you fall short on doesn't count as a miss.
• Start the same level over twice in a row: drop one level.
• Rest by phase, as in the table above.

Write down the numbers before the session, not after.

The app adds a few rules around those. Pull-up sessions are limited to one a day, locked until midnight, and it recommends three a week with a day off in between, without blocking back-to-back days. A miss on the day right after another session is not counted, either as a miss or as progress. A session you stop before three of the five sets is logged but not used for the level. And if you clearly beat the prescription in two sessions in a row, it asks whether you want to skip ahead; it does not move you on its own.

Two things are hard to do consistently on your own. The first is counting. It is easy to be generous with a tired rep when you are the one counting. If you count yourself, pick your standard before the set; the strict one is chin over the bar. The second is rest. Two and a half minutes on a phone timer can drift into four minutes and a scroll.

That is the part PULL UP KING is built around. The camera counts a rep when the chin crosses the judging line, a dashed line drawn a little below the bar at about elbow height. The line sits below the bar on purpose: camera angle and joint detection carry some error, and judging exactly at the bar would throw away good reps. The app does not check for kipping separately. It only checks whether the chin crossed the line and came back down, and a rep that stops short of the line is not counted. After each set the rest countdown speaks the last ten seconds out loud, 10, 9, 8, down to 1, and then a bell rings, so you are not staring at a screen between sets. Every session is saved, each set is recorded to video by default, and you can save a vertical clip with the reps and time burned in. The program sets the numbers, level by level, up to a top set of thirty and on to fifty. The app counts by one fixed rule, the same on every set, so the number you write down is the number the camera saw.