The short answer
Assisted pull-up machine or Lat pulldown?
For a first pull-up, the assisted machine carries over better: you hang from a bar and lift your own body, which is the pull-up itself with some of your weight taken away. The lat pulldown is the easier place to learn the pull and a fine back builder, but its numbers do not translate to the bar. Do both, assisted pull-ups first while you are fresh, pulldowns second. And read the assisted machine backwards: the more weight you pin, the less you lift.
Side by side
| Question | Assisted pull-up machine | Lat pulldown |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Kneel or stand on a platform that a counterweight pushes upward, and pull your chin over a fixed bar. | Sit with your thighs under a roller and pull a bar from overhead down to your upper chest. |
| Equipment | An assisted pull-up and dip machine | A lat pulldown station, or a cable with a high pulley |
| What moves | You do: your body rises to a fixed bar | The bar does: you stay seated and pull it to your chest |
| What the weight means | Help. Body weight minus the counterweight is what you lift | Load. The stack is what you pull |
| To make it harder | Less counterweight | More weight on the stack |
| Body position | Hanging, with a pad under the knees or feet | Seated, thighs pinned under a roller |
| Carry-over to the bar | Close: same grip, same path, the same straight-arm start | Partial: in one study it tracked pull-up strength well in men, less well in women |
| Muscle emphasis | Lats, upper back, biceps; in one comparison, chin-ups used more biceps and lower back than pulldowns | Lats, upper back, biceps, with the legs pinned out of it |
| Typical mistake | Adding weight to make progress | Leaning far back until it turns into a row |
Choose the assisted pull-up machine when
- Your goal is a strict pull-up and your gym has the machine.
- You want every rep to start from a full hang, the way a pull-up does.
- You want a running score: body weight minus the help is how much of yourself you already lift.
- Your pulldown has gone up for months and you still have no pull-up.
Choose the lat pulldown when
- You are new to the gym and want to learn to pull with the shoulders down before you hang from anything.
- A bigger back matters more to you than the pull-up, and you want small weight steps and longer sets.
- Your gym has no assisted machine, or it is always taken by someone doing dips.
- Hanging bothers your grip, wrists or elbows; seated, you can let go at any point.
Using both in one week
One session can hold both. Assisted pull-ups open it, 3 sets of 5 to 8 at a counterweight that leaves a rep or two in reserve, and the lat pulldown follows for 2 or 3 sets of 8 to 12. Whatever sits closest to your goal goes first. Early placement is one of the strength conditions in the 2026 ACSM position stand, along with training at least twice a week. From there the two machines move in opposite directions. Once every assisted set reaches 8, the smallest step of counterweight comes off; once every pulldown set reaches 12, the smallest plate goes on.
From the machines to the bar
- Lat pulldown, 3 sets of 8 to 12, until you can pull the bar to your upper chest with the shoulders down and the torso nearly still.
- Assisted pull-ups first in the session: 3 sets of 5 to 8 with enough counterweight to finish every rep from straight arms.
- Take one small step of counterweight off whenever all three sets reach 8 reps.
- When the help is down to the machine's last step or two, open each session with one strict attempt or a slow negative on a real bar.
- After the first clean rep: singles and doubles on the bar, assisted sets after them, until sets of 3 come. Then 4 sets of 3 to 8 pull-ups, with the pulldown kept as the second pull.
The numbers
- Best pull-up vs best pulldown, men
- 1.16 vs 0.93 x body weight1RM pull-up with added or counterweighted load against 1RM pulldown, 35 college men (Johnson 2009).
- Best pull-up vs best pulldown, women
- 0.73 vs 0.55 x body weight23 college women. On average they needed about a quarter of their weight in assistance for one rep (same study).
- Pulldown 1RM and pull-ups
- r = 0.34Only a moderate link in 28 NCAA women swimmers; the authors advise against substituting one for the other (Halet 2009).
- Pulldown reps at body weight and pull-ups
- r = 0.62In 25 trained men. Their 1RM pulldown showed almost no link with pull-ups, r = 0.09 (Sanchez-Moreno 2016).
Mistakes that cost the most
- Pinning more weight to make progress. On this machine extra weight is extra help, so that is going backwards.
- Reading your pulldown as your pull-up. In one study, people's best pull-up was a quarter to a third heavier, relative to body weight, than their best pulldown, so the two scales do not line up.
- Short reps on the machine, stopping before the arms straighten. The bottom is where a pull-up starts.
- A big lean back on the pulldown to shift more weight. A slight lean is fine; much more and you are rowing.
Questions people ask
Lat pulldown or assisted pull-ups?
For a pull-up, assisted pull-ups: the same movement with less weight. For a bigger back, either works, and the pulldown makes small steps easier. Most beginners do best with both.
Is the lat pulldown or the assisted pull-up better for a first pull-up?
The assisted pull-up. In a study of 28 women swimmers, pull-up reps and pulldown strength were only moderately related, and a comparison of chin-ups and pulldowns found the chin-up moved the shoulder and upper spine more and used more biceps and lower back. The pulldown still helps; it just does not stand in for the bar.
Lat pulldowns or assisted pull-ups first?
Assisted pull-ups first, while you are fresh, because they are closest to the goal. Pulldowns after, for volume. The exception is your first few weeks in a gym, when pulldowns alone can teach the shoulders-down start before you add the hang.
How much assistance should I use?
Enough to finish 5 to 8 clean reps from straight arms with a rep or two to spare. Body weight minus counterweight is your working load: 80 kg (176 lb) minus 35 kg is 45 kg, a little over half of you. A 2016 motion-capture study of pull-up grips suggested weight-assisted pull-ups for weaker trainees, while noting they needed more study.
Sources
- Relationship of lat-pull repetitions and pull-ups to maximal lat-pull and pull-up strength in men and womenJournal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2009
- Relationship of 1 repetition maximum lat-pull to pull-up and lat-pull repetitions in elite collegiate women swimmersJournal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2009
- Determinant factors of pull-up performance in trained athletesThe Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 2016
- Kinematic and electromyographic comparisons between chin-ups and lat-pull down exercisesSports Biomechanics, 2013
- Scapula kinematics of pull-up techniques: Avoiding impingement risk with training changesJournal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2016
- Resistance Training Prescription for Muscle Function, Hypertrophy, and Physical Performance in Healthy AdultsMedicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (ACSM position stand), 2026
Figures on this page come from the studies above or from the arithmetic shown. Read how claims are reviewed and updated in How the guides are written.