How To Use Resistance Bands for Assisted Pull Ups

Article 3- How to and Why section of Getstrength.com

How to use Resistance Bands for assisted pull ups. Band length loop 41 inches 1 meter  (2 meters full length)

The pull up exercise is one of the best movements for gaining upper back strength and muscle development.  There are several ways of preforming the exercise, i.e the first is with a pronated (overhand) grip and the second is with a supinated (underhand) grip.

The old fashion way to preform the pull up would completely rely on upper body strength with no swinging or “kipping”
Kipping is commonly used throughout the crossfit community when preforming the pull up. This article is not about the way one should go about performing the exercise. We are only focusing on how to assist the athlete to develop pull up strength by using Resistance Bands (Strength Bands)

Step one: The Resistance Band is choked around the pull up bar like we see in the picture below.

Step two: The athletes knee is put into the band loop as we see in the video below.

Its that simple. The best way to get stronger in the pull up is to start with the green number 4 resistance band (this would depend on your current strength level)

Once you can perform 8-10 full reps (good form), you could then move down one band size, blue number 3 resistance band. and repeat. Once you can perform 8-10 full reps (good form) you move on to the red number 2 resistance band etc. Once you can complete 8-10 reps with the red band you should be able to complete 2-4 full pull-ups with no band.

We have Assisted Band Packs available at the GS online store

Congratulations!

You could also train the pull-ups, with eccentric training, using the bands for concentric movement only. I will discuss this in another article.

Thanks for your time.

Steve Thompson