Max pull-ups test
Pull-ups measure strength relative to your own bodyweight, which is why they carry over to sport better than an absolute number like a bench press. Getting heavier makes them harder — exactly as it does on a football field.
Nine to fourteen strict pull-ups — dead hang, chin clearly over the bar, no kipping — is a strong range for an adult field-sport athlete. Past about twelve to fifteen, add weight instead of reps.
Bodyweight changes what the number means: a 110kg forward doing eight strict reps may be considerably stronger in absolute terms than a 75kg winger doing fifteen.
The point of the test
Relative pulling strength and upper-back endurance. One set to failure, dead hang, chin clearly over the bar, no kipping.
Why it is in the Train Smart battery: Relative pulling strength — the best upper-body number there is for a field athlete.
How to run it
Dead hang, chin clearly over the bar, no kipping. One set to failure. Record clean reps only.
- What you need
- A pull-up bar · Someone honest enough to count only the clean reps
What is a good score?
The honest answer is that the score that matters is your own previous one. But you want a number to sit against, so here is one — with its limits stated.
| Reps | Roughly indicates |
|---|---|
| 0 – 3 | A clear development priority. Start with assisted and eccentric work. |
| 4 – 8 | A working base. |
| 9 – 14 | Strong community to semi-professional range. |
| 15+ | Excellent relative strength, and the point at which weighted chin-ups become the more useful test. |
What people get wrong
Most of the variation between two tests is protocol, not fitness. These are the faults that make one score incomparable to the last.
- Kipping.
- The most common way a pull-up score becomes fiction. If the hips are swinging, it is a different exercise.
- Not reaching a dead hang.
- A half rep at the bottom is the other half of the same problem. Arms straight, shoulders loaded, every rep.
- Chin at the bar rather than over it.
- Pick a standard — chin clearly above — and hold it across every test.
How to actually move the number
If you cannot yet do one, the fastest route is eccentrics: jump to the top and lower yourself as slowly as you can, 4–5 sets of 3. Slow lowering builds the strength to come back up.
If you can do a few, the fastest route is volume you can actually recover from — several sets short of failure, several times a week, rather than one all-out set. Training to failure every session is the most common reason a pull-up number sits still for a year.
Once you are past about twelve strict reps, add weight instead of reps: the test that tells you something useful becomes the weighted chin-up.
max pull-ups test — questions
How many pull-ups should I be able to do?
Do chin-ups count?
Related tests and guides
weighted chin-up test
Once you can do fifteen strict pull-ups the rep count stops telling you anything. The weighted chin-up 3RM rep…
Openmax push-ups test
Pressing endurance and trunk control with no equipment at all. The form standard that decides the score, and h…
Openbench press 1RM test
How to test a bench press one-rep max properly, why a 3RM is usually the better choice, what the number is act…
OpenKnow your number. Now train for it.
Train Smart re-tests you every eight weeks on your sport’s own battery — and the results re-price your training weights and reset your conditioning paces automatically.
One month free, then A$24.99/month. Cancel any time. iPhone and iPad.