Best Bands to Assist with your Pull up Progression

Pull up assist bands are great to help you work on your pull ups. If you have trouble doing a full pull or want to challenge yourself to more advanced pull up variations theses handy bands are a must.

Here we’ll go over what pull up assist bands are, how to use them, and which bands are the best.

If you are in a hurry, here is our summary table of the best pull up assist bands:

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Rogue Monster Bands
  • Variety of lengths and thickness
  • A leader in the industry providing quality products
  • Use for a variety of exercise
View on Rogue Fitness

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Victorem Pull Up Assist Bands
  • Resistance band made out of cotton
  • Soft on your skin
  • Lasts longer than latex resistance bands
View on Amazon

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Iron Bull Strength Pull Up Assist Band
  • Resistance level written on band
  • 100% lifetime warranty
  • Sold as single band or a set. 6 levels
View on Amazon

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Rubberbanditz Pull Up Assist Bands
  • Range from 30lbs to 250lbs
  • Great for developing children to begin
  • Lifetime warranty
View on Amazon

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Intent Sports Pull Up Assist Band
  • Has app to provide exercises
  • Innovative design for ease of use
  • Adjustable Lengths
View on Amazon

What are Pull Up Assist Bands?

Pull up assist bands are resistance bands which will assist you in your pull ups. These bands are great for a variety of things such as adding resistance to your stretching, bodyweight exercises, and mobility work. But for the purpose of this article we’ll stick with helping your pull ups.

Pull ups are a tough exercises as most people can’t perform them properly. For many people they don’t even attempt to do pull ups because it’s so discouraging when they see they can’t even pull themselves up a few inches.

Read Also: Best Outdoor Pull Up Bars

pull ups

So how can someone who can’t pull themselves up a few inches get to the point where they can do a pull up? They need some form of assistance. This is where these cool resistance bands come in.

They sort of act like a friend who spots you by pulling your feet upwards as you do your pull up. It’s very similar to an assisted pull up machine that you might find in your local gym. They’re able to give you the extra help you need to get all the way up in a pull up.

Read Also: Best Pull up Alternative exercises to build a strong upper body

Why Are Pull Ups Such an Effective Exercise?

If you are looking to get better at pull ups, you have likely had some thoughts around why you need to get better at them. You would be right in making pull ups a priority.

Pull ups are great for your lats, biceps, shoulders, grip, and even your core. Plus you’ll feel like a bad ass when others in the gym see you doing pull ups!

If you workout at home and don’t have access to a pull up bar there are other back exercises you can do like rows but they don’t compare to the pull up. For people who can’t do a pull up they could use a lat pulldown machine at their gym as an alternative.

Read Also: Best Power Towers with Pull Up and Dip Stations

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But the difference between the lat pull down and pull up is you’re also working your core and shoulder mobility in a pull up. Your core is working to balance your body, and shoulder mobility improves as you have to have your hand directly above your body.

One of the main benefits you get from pull ups that most people don’t consider is it will help keep your bodyweight down. The lighter you are the easier it’ll be to perform pull ups.

If you incorporate pull ups in your regular workout routine you understand that losing a few lbs will help in your pull ups. So subconsciously you’ll try to keep your bodyweight down. I’ve seen this effect happen on multiple clients. To do pull ups you need to get stronger AND lighter.

Related: Best Wall Mounted Pull Up Bars to Elevate Your Workouts

Our Top Pick: Best Wall or Ceiling Mounted Pull up bar

Rogue Fitness’ P-5V Garage pull up system is the most versatile pull up bar/system for any home gym. It is frequently seen in CrossFit Boxes as well.

It can be mounted to the ceiling, or wall, and to various joist widths. There are two slots for bars, and they can be 14″ or 22″ from the wall or ceiling.

The bar’s brackets can also be daisy chained for multiple bars side by side.

Read review of top wall mounted pull up bars.

How to Use Assist Bands for Pull Ups

pull up using resistance band and door pull up bar

Setting up to do your pull ups with and assist band can be just as hard as doing the pull up itself. But here’s a simple guide on how to do it properly and easily.

  • Take your band and put it over the pull up bar.
  • Take 1 end and put it through the loop of the other end.
  • Pull that end till the band firmly ties around the pull up bar.
  • Stand under the bar with the band hanging down in front of you down the middle of your body.
  • Jump up to grab onto the pull up bar. Now here’s the hard part. While hanging on the bar Put 1 foot in the loop and step down towards the ground.

If you want, you can put your 2nd foot in the loop also for even more assistance. Now you’re ready to do your pull ups! Focus on keeping your body straight up and down many people have the tendency to sway forward and back because of the band.

Read Also: Top 6 Best Push Up Bars

What to Consider Before Making a Purchase

Resistance bands come in different colors which indicate the level of resistance of the band. The more resistance the band has the more it will assistance it will give you in your pull ups. There’s no universal color/resistance combination among the different brand names but the most common colors are

Black – most resistance

Green – medium resistance

Blue – less resistance

Red – least resistance

Rouge Monster Bands

A black band from 1 company doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll offer more resistance than a red band from another company. A simple eye test can also tell you if a band offers more resistance. The thicker the band the more resistance it provides.

It’s important when comparing bands to see how heavy of a load it can carry. Some companies provide color charts indicating how much assisted weight it can provide in your pull ps. Use this information to help decide what color of a band works best for you.

Pull up bands last 6 months – 2 years depending on how much you use them. For safety you should always check to make sure there’s no tears in the band when performing pull ups. A tear in the band can tear more and snap in the middle of your pull up so it means it’s time to get a new band.

Read Also: Upper Body CrossFit Workouts – WODs and Circuits

Product Reviews – Best Pull Up Assist Bands

Overall #1 Pick

Rogue Monster Bands

  • Variety of lengths and thickness
  • A leader in the industry providing quality products
  • Use for a variety of exercise
Rogue Monster Bands for pull up assist

The best overall band are the Rogue Monster Bands. Rogue delivers high quality fitness products and has been an official partner of CrossFit up until June 2020. These bands are the most expensive of these 5 but you pay for quality. Their assortment of bands give you so many options that go beyond just doing pull ups.

You can use it for strength training with their thick silver bands providing 200 lbs resistance or you can use it for pull ups and speed training with their mini orange bands proving 15 lbs of resistance.

These unique 41″ closed loop bands can stretch up to two and a half times their original length without fear of snapping!

We also recommend getting their door strap, that allows you to convert any door into an anchor for resistance band training. This gives you the ability to truly get a great workout on the go and when traveling. Simply stick the door strap in the hotel room door and use your resistance bands to workout.

Also check out our best resistance band workouts here.

Victorem Pull Up Assist Bands

  • Resistance band made out of cotton
  • Soft on your skin
  • Lasts longer than latex resistance bands
Victorem Pull Up Assist Bands

These bands are truly unique in that they are made from cotton. The cloth material is a great option if you have irritable or dry skin that can be irritated by the latex material, which most bands are made from. These also last a long time.

Victorem has created their niche in this space by creating products with cloth, and they have a range of products. Their booty band is also a great option for your outdoor backyard workouts after you are done with the pull ups.

Even though I own various resistance bands, I find myself using these more often. The cloth material simply makes sense to me.

Iron Bull Strength Pull Up Assist Band

  • Resistance level written on band
  • 100% lifetime warranty
  • Sold as single band or a set. 6 levels
Pull up capacity vs body weight chart for choosing pull bands

Iron Bull is all about value. You can purchase one band for as low as $12.99 the last time we checked on Amazon. It’s a great price for a decent quality band. The fact it also has a lifetime warranty is also a good sign of how durable these bands are.

Use the chart above to choose the right band for you. It is well organized to show which color band you should choose if you know how many pull ups you can do un assisted, and then your body weight. This is truly a great and useful tool.

Rubberbanditz Pull Up Assist Bands

  • Range from 30lbs to 250lbs
  • Great for developing children to begin
  • Lifetime warranty
how to use pull up assist bands

Rubberbandiitz Pull Up Bands are a great economical option. If you’re just looking for a decent pull up band and not going to put a lot of wear and tear on your band then this could be a good enough option. It gets the job done and for as low as $21 for a set of 3 bands with lower weight capacity.

There are two sets of 3 loop bands, offering a combined range of 30-250 lbs (12-98kg) tension.

Intent Sports Pull Up Assist Band

  • Has app to provide exercises
  • Innovative design for ease of use
  • Adjustable Lengths
how to change resistance level on band

This is the most different and unique option. This band is adjustable, and easy to use. There is only one band for all weights. You simply modify the length of the band to create or ease up on the resistance level.

It has indicators on the black straps for assistance level for easy memory. This is also great for you to see your own progression. As you get better, lower the assistance level by making the band longer. This is truly a well thought out product for the sole purpose of helping you with your progression in pull ups.

This resistance band was made for ease of use. You simply snap on the latch to the horizontal bar instead of having to create a loop.

Lastly, they also have an app called “fitbanx app” that has variety of exercises, including pull up exercises that provide how to videos. The app is highly rated with a 4.8 out of 5 score on the Apple app store, although there are only 20 reviewers.

Conclusion

Pull up assist bands are great to help you build enough strength so you can do full pull ups. All the pull up bands we reviewed will help your pull ups. Depending how often you plan on using the bands and your budget will determine which brand is best for you. Whatever pull up band