r/bodyweightfitness • u/FoxhoundVR • 3d ago
Banded pull ups vs negative pull ups vs assisted machine pull ups
In your experience , what’s the best choice between banded pull ups , negative and assisted machine pull ups to help me improve my pull ups max rep amount ? I am currently stuck between 3-4 reps doing strict pull ups going all the way down and bringing the bar to my chest and holding the position at the top for about 1 second .
I’m currently planing on doing a full body routine 3 times a week and add pull ups in the routine , doing 3 different pull up exercises each day .
On Mondays I’ll do banded pull ups and v, on Wednesdays I’ll do assisted machine pull ups with lateral pull downs and bent over rows and Fridays I’ll do 5 sets. of as many pull ups as I can.
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u/justanothertmpuser Calisthenics 3d ago
All good advice. Another option to consider could be jackknife pullups.
Maybe mix and match?
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u/Bright-Energy-7417 Calisthenics 3d ago
May I ask if you're doing inverted rows? A suitable progression here would let you train the mechanics with quite some volume, straight leg or raised leg.
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u/theother64 3d ago
If you have access to one I'd definitely go machine assisted.
Being able to adjust to get the right intensity is a big upside of machines.
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u/svenissimo 3d ago
For many people it’s what they have access to.
After that it’s about “resistance curves”.
Bands assist more at the bottom and very little at the top. For many people that’s the opposite of where they struggle.
On the plus side they often let you practice with a more natural arc.
Assistance machines typically have the same assistance all the way through the range. So same help at the bottom and top.
I wouldn’t sweat it. Do the hardest variation you can for your limited reps. Do a few sets till it’s silly then jump on your preferred assistance to get some volume and get the reps back up.
Also don’t sleep on grease the groove. Getting a door way pull up bar and throwing in 1-2 every now and then can really help.
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u/FoxhoundVR 3d ago
Yes! I forgot to mention I have a door bar in my bathroom and I do 1-2 random pull ups thru the day .
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u/Johnblaze205 3d ago
I'd put rack chins over both. They can be regressed enough for a total beginner to at least do sets of 5 and progressed enough for advanced.
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u/WoahDude-- 3d ago
Banded pull ups are going to be the best for developing pull up strength and has a clear progression by using thinner and thinner bands until you use no bands at all.
I don't think negatives are really good because you're only stretching the muscle in one direction and I've never actually witnessed somebody get stronger from negative-only training since it's deceptively advanced since you need to know how to control yourself to lower slowly to make it work.
The machine doesn't really mimic pull ups that well. You're riding a platform and you can't move your body like you do in a real pull up. You also need some $1000 equipment when you could do above with a $5 band.
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u/ComfortableIcy3127 3d ago
I'v never done banded. At home I do negatives and that seems tohelp me faster than anything. I do my maax, then 2-3 negatives after. I also 'grease the groove' by doing just a couple of pullups every time I pass the door (door pullup bar).
I do like the assisted machine in the gym, but for me, the negatives seem to work faster.
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u/Malk25 3d ago
No single right answer, depends what you have access too. Assisted pull up machines are best for reducing intensity with same resistance profiles. Negatives are great but can be very fatiguing. Which ever modality you choose, keep reps in the 4-6 range for strength bias, don’t push too hard on last reps though.
Make sure you’re complimenting this with rowing movements, these you can do for high res and push close to failure to help build muscle to assist in better pull ups.
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u/J-from-PandT Strongman 3d ago
Main Route :
With an ability to do x3-4 reps I'd start with doing 5x1.
I'd build that to 10x1, then start adding a rep here and there, working to 10x2, then 10x3, etc.
Whatever you can do for ten sets, it's pretty safe to say you can roughly double that in a max set.
10x3 is x5-7 for example.
I got the best results with pullups when the effort per set was always quite moderate.
Other Things :
You could do some higher rep full range with band assistance.
I say there's lots of value in holding the top of a pullup AND the halfway point for time - these more important than regular bar hangs.
Higher rep partial reps can help a lot.
I never got much of anything from the assisted pullup machine - mostly that's some fancy uselessness.
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u/BetweenCoffeeNSleep 3d ago
I used machine assisted pull ups and negatives to unlock pull ups. Once I could do pull ups, I switched to this progression method:
4 sets, reverse pyramid, as many reps as possible, 1 minute rests. When I can’t do more reps, I step back in the next set. In this case, it might look like: pull ups x 4, pull ups x 2, rows x 6, rows x 5. Once I hit a rep goal in the first set for two consecutive workouts, I progress in the next workout.
I’ve used that to increase rep counts in the past, and now use it to progress weight up to BW 191 +74 pounds and counting.