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.
The movements that build a max pull-ups test
Testing tells you where you are; these are what change it. Each one carries the coaching cues, the sets and reps Train Smart prescribes it at, and ranked alternatives — and in the app the weight is calculated from your own last top set.
| Movement | Why it is programmed |
|---|---|
| Romanian Deadlift | Posterior chain for driving legs |
| Weighted Chin-Up | Contested marking + tackle strength |
| Weighted Dead Hang | Decompresses the spine and loads the shoulder at full overhead range — the cheapest overhead flexibility work there is |
| Jefferson Curl (light KB) | Loads spinal flexion and hamstring length together, then holds there — the range you land and bend in, owned rather than avoided |
| DB Pullover — stretch hold | Lat length and thoracic extension held at end range — overhead room for reaching, marking and throwing |
| Farmer Carry | Grip and a braced trunk under a load that is genuinely heavy |
| Trap Bar Deadlift | Foundational power output |
| Weighted Pull-Up | Wrestle + grip strength |
More: back exercises · bicep exercises
max pull-ups test — questions
How many pull-ups should I be able to do?
Do chin-ups count?
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