Assisted pull-up machine taken or missing? What to do instead

The assisted pull-up machine does two jobs: it helps you build toward a pull-up, and it lets you train your back with a vertical pull before you can lift your full body weight. When it’s taken or your gym doesn’t have one, you can do both jobs with a band, a bar and a lat pulldown. You just need different numbers for each.

If the machine is taken right now

It’s often the same station people use for dips, so ask how many sets they have left. If it’s a long wait, take the first option that’s free:

Rest about 2 minutes between pull-up sets and 60 to 90 seconds on pulldowns and rows.

Pick by why you were using the machine

If you do use the machine: setting the assist

On most assisted pull-up machines, the weight on the stack helps you up. More weight means more help, so the number goes down as you get stronger.

• Starting point. Set the assist to about half your body weight and do 8 reps. If you had more than 3 left, take a plate off. If you couldn’t finish 8 clean reps, add one.
• Working assist. Use the setting that lets you do 8 reps with 2 to 3 left in reserve, with your chin over the bar and your arms straight at the bottom.
• Step it down. Once you can do 3 sets of 10, take one plate off the assist, usually 5 to 7 kg (10 to 15 lb). Your reps will drop; build them back up to 3 × 10, then step down again.
• Test a real pull-up. When you can do 3 × 8 with the lightest assist, try an unassisted pull-up at the start of your next session.

The four swaps, with progressions

Band-assisted pull-up. Loop a band over the bar and put one foot or knee in it. A thicker band gives more help. The band helps most at the bottom, where it’s stretched, and least at the top, which is where many people stall, so pause for a second with your chin over the bar. Do 3 × 5 to 8. When you hit 3 × 8, move to a thinner band.

Negative pull-up. Step up from a box or bench so your chin is already over the bar, then lower yourself for 3 to 5 seconds until your arms are straight. Jump only if there’s no box, and don’t snatch the bar on the way up. Step down and repeat. Start with 3 × 3, because negatives are tiring and can leave you sore for a few days. Progress to 3 × 5, then aim for the full 5 seconds on every rep. Strength from lowering work shows up most when you lower, so pair negatives with band-assisted or pulldown work rather than doing them alone.

Lat pulldown. Pull the bar to your upper chest with your chest up, and let your arms straighten fully at the top. Do 3 × 8 to 12. Add reps first, then the next plate on the stack. A pulldown builds back size well, but it doesn’t practice holding your body on a bar, so keep some bar work in your week if a pull-up is the goal.

Inverted row. Set a Smith bar or a rack bar at about hip height, hang under it with straight arms, keep your body in a straight line from heels to shoulders and your glutes tight, then pull your chest to the bar. It’s a row, not a vertical pull, but it uses your body weight and works the lats hard. To make it easier, bend your knees (bent-knee inverted row) or raise the bar. To make it harder, lower the bar, then put your feet on a bench (feet-elevated inverted row). Do 3 × 8 to 12.

The numbers don’t carry over

The machine, the band, the pulldown and a real pull-up all use different numbers, so don’t convert one into another:

• Body weight minus the assist is only a rough guide to the load you’re pulling, because the kneeling pad also steadies you.
• A band’s help changes through each rep, so 8 band-assisted reps aren’t the same as 8 machine reps.
• Pulldown strength doesn’t reliably predict pull-ups. In a study of 58 college students, pulldown and pull-up maxes tracked closely in men but weakly, and not significantly, in women.

So log each one as its own exercise, start each swap 2 to 3 reps short of failure, and judge progress within the same exercise.

A simple plan for your first pull-up

Two or three sessions a week, at the start of your workout while you’re fresh. Do two exercises a session, not all three, because slow negatives on top of more pulling is a common way to annoy an elbow:

• Day A: negative pull-up, 3 × 3, lowering for 3 to 5 seconds, then band-assisted pull-ups, 3 × 5 to 8.
• Day B: band-assisted or assisted pull-up, 3 × 5 to 8, then a lat pulldown or inverted row, 3 × 8 to 12.

After a couple of weeks, if your elbows feel fine, you can add the third exercise.

There’s no reliable timeline. It depends on your body weight and how strong your back is to start with. Judge progress by your numbers instead: a lighter assist, a thinner band or more slow negatives every couple of weeks means you’re on track. If your shoulder or elbow hurts, stop the exercise and see a qualified professional if it’s sharp or lasting.

What the research says

• In 34 active college men, 8 weeks of lat pulldown training raised the number of pull-ups they could do in both training groups (Li and colleagues, 2025). They were tested on pull-up reps before the study, so this doesn’t show pulldowns alone get you a first pull-up; the abstract doesn’t say how many they could do at the start.
• In a meta-analysis of 20 trials, lowering-only training loaded heavier than lifting-only training gave larger strength gains, which showed up most when people were tested on lowering at the speed they trained. Size rose more when measured as girth; scans showed only a trend (Roig and colleagues, 2009). That isn’t evidence that negatives beat ordinary reps.
• In 58 college students, pulldown and pull-up maxes correlated well in men but not in women (Johnson and colleagues, 2009).
• In 19 trained men, four pull-up grips gave similar overall muscle activity; the overhand grip used more middle trap than the neutral grip (Dickie and colleagues, 2017).

None of these tested the assisted machine or this mix. Mixing bar work with pulldowns is our coaching recommendation.