Focus program
Pull-Up Progression: six weeks toward a strict rep
The only block in the app with an equipment gate. Hangs, negatives and assisted reps lead every session for six weeks, with lat and upper-back volume stacked behind them.
What is Pull-Up Progression: six weeks toward a strict rep?
Pull-Up Progression is a six-week BackMaxx focus block built around the bar, leading two of its three sessions with Lat Width and the middle one with Upper Back. It is the longest block in the app and the only one that checks your equipment first, because it needs a pull-up bar, a cable stack or an assisted machine.
| Length | 6 weeks |
|---|---|
| Leads with | Lat Width · Upper Back |
| Equipment | A pull-up bar, cable stack or assisted machine |
| Where | Gym, or home with a bar |
| In the app | Start it from the Train tab; your scan still fills the rest of each session |
What the block checks before it will start
Kit, at the location you actually train. The block accepts a pull-up bar, a cable stack or a machine, and any one of the three is enough to fill its lead slot.
That means a gym with an assisted pull-up machine and a lat pulldown can run it without a free bar in the building. A doorway bar at home can run it. Dumbbells, a kettlebell and a band cannot, and the app will say so on the card rather than handing you six weeks of substitutes.
Six of the 77 movements in the corpus are filed under the bar itself: Dead Hang, Active Hang, Scapular Pull-up, Negative Pull-up, Commando Pull-up and L-Sit Pull-up. Two of those six are rated advanced, so Commando and L-Sit only appear if your experience level is set that way. Everything else in the progression comes from the Bodyweight, Cable and Machine pools.
Who it is for, at both ends of the range
The block was written for the gap between zero strict reps and one, and it holds together at the other end too. Its tagline in the app names both: toward your first strict rep, or your tenth.
If you have no reps, the lead slot is hangs and negatives and the six weeks are a strength build. If you have eight or nine, the lead slot becomes weighted work at 3 x 4–6 and the block turns into a low-rep strength month with the same skeleton.
Do not take it as a shape block. Lat Width leads two sessions out of three, so width does get worked, but six weeks is a long time to spend on one pattern if what you actually want is a wider back rather than a better pull. V-Taper Sprint does the shape job in four.
The rungs the block climbs
| Rung | Movement | Default | Move on when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dead Hang | 3 x 20–40s | You can hold 40 seconds without the shoulders riding up |
| 2 | Active Hang | 3 x 15–30s | You can pull the blades down and keep them there for the full set |
| 3 | Scapular Pull-up | 3 x 8–12 | Twelve reps move the body without the elbows bending |
| 4 | Negative Pull-up | 3 x 4–6 | Every lower takes a slow count from top to full hang |
| 5 | Assisted Pull-up or Banded Lat Pulldown | 3 x 8–12 | The assistance is light enough that the last rep is a real fight |
| 6 | Pull-up | 3 x 6–10 | Ten strict reps, chin over the bar, no kick |
| 7 | Weighted Pull-up | 3 x 4–6 | You are running a strength block now |
Grip changes the difficulty of the same rung. Chin-up and Neutral-Grip Pull-up both sit at a slightly friendlier joint angle than the pronated Pull-up, so a stalled rung is sometimes a grip problem rather than a strength problem. Towel Pull-up is the opposite trade and turns the set into a grip test. Commando Pull-up is the one variation in the corpus that carries Symmetry as a secondary zone, because you pull to alternating sides of the bar.
Why the middle session leads with Upper Back
A pull-up rarely fails at the elbow. It fails at the start, in the inch before the arm does anything, where the shoulder blade has to pull down and in so the lat has a position to work from. Riding up into the shoulders at the bottom of a hang is that inch going missing.
Two movements train it directly and both are on the bar. Active Hang and Scapular Pull-up are the block’s rungs two and three, and both tag the Lower Traps as a primary muscle rather than the lats. That is not a coincidence in the design; it is the reason the middle session exists.
So the rotation goes Lat Width, Upper Back, Lat Width. Two sessions build the pull. The one in the middle builds the position the pull starts from.
How the six weeks get spent
Every session opens with a bar movement, then takes a second slot on the same lead zone before the scan’s priorities fill the rest. Six weeks is long enough for the rungs to move twice and short enough that nothing else in your back gets parked for a season.
Volume behind the lead is what makes the strength stick. A pull-up trained on its own gets better at being a pull-up; the lat and upper-back work in slots three and up is what puts muscle underneath the skill.
Two practical notes. Advanced-rated movements stay out of your sessions unless your experience is set to advanced, so a beginner profile will never be handed an L-Sit Pull-up at week one. And at 15-minute sessions the block carries only three main movements, which is enough for a rung plus two slots and nothing more.
What changes, and what may not
Reps move first. Six weeks of hangs, negatives and assisted work reliably changes what you can do on the bar, and that is the outcome the block is named for.
The Back Score may lag it. Lat Width is scored on the shape of your back in a photo, and a strict first pull-up is a strength event rather than a width event. Width follows the reps over the months after, once the new lead movement starts loading more muscle than the old one could.
Judge the block on two records. Your best strict set, written down every week, and the weekly scan. If the first is climbing and the second is flat, the block is working and the shape is still queued behind it.
Where to go after your first strict rep
Run the shape block next. With real pull-ups available, the six bar movements change roles: they stop being the goal and become the heaviest opener you own, which is exactly what a width block wants in slot one.
If your best set is still under three reps after six weeks, do not immediately repeat the block. Check that the lead compound was actually a rung you could complete, that the assistance was coming down week to week, and that the Upper Back session was not the one you kept skipping.
Six weeks is the longest block in the app because a strength target moves on a slower clock than a zone score. Nothing shorter gets the rungs done.
The movements this block leans on
Frequently asked questions
What equipment does Pull-Up Progression need?
A pull-up bar, a cable stack or a machine at the location you usually train. Any one of the three is enough, so an assisted pull-up machine and a lat pulldown can run the block without a free bar. Dumbbells and a band alone cannot fill the lead slot, and the app says so before you start.
How long does it take to get your first pull-up?
The block is six weeks, which is the length it commits to rather than a promise about your body. What is honest: the rungs move at different speeds for different people, and the marker to chase weekly is a longer active hang and a slower negative rather than a date.
Why does the program include hangs instead of just pull-ups?
Because a pull-up fails at the bottom inch, before the elbow bends. Dead Hang and Active Hang train the shoulder blade to pull down and hold, and Active Hang and Scapular Pull-up both tag the Lower Traps rather than the lats. Without that position, extra pull-up attempts just repeat the same failure.
Can experienced lifters run Pull-Up Progression?
Yes, with the rungs shifted up. At eight or nine strict reps the lead slot becomes Weighted Pull-up or Weighted Chin-up at 3 sets of 4 to 6, and the block runs as a low-rep strength month. Advanced-only movements like the L-Sit Pull-up appear once your experience level is set to advanced.
Will six weeks on the bar raise my Lat Width score?
It can, but slower than your rep count rises. The scan reads the width of your back in a photo, while the block trains a strength pattern. Expect the reps to move first and the width to follow in the months after, once pull-ups themselves become the heaviest thing you open a session with.
Run Pull-Up Progression: six weeks toward a strict rep in BackMaxx
Scan your back, start the block, and every session opens with lat width and upper back while your scan fills the rest of the week.
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