Stuck at 5–8 Pull-Ups? What to Check Before Changing Your Program
You get five reps, try for six at the next workout and get five again. Before you add another training day, look at the sets that follow the first one, because a session of 5 / 2 / 1 points to a different problem than three steady sets of four.
Go through the checks in this article and choose one adjustment. If you have not kept a log, write down your usual sets and rest as well as you remember them, then record the next few sessions properly. It takes far less than a month of data to notice that you rush your rests or test your maximum every time.
Count the same rep every time
Decide in advance which reps count. We count a rep only when it starts from straight elbows in a comfortable hang, uses the same grip as every other rep, ends with the chin over the bar without craning the neck, and involves no deliberate leg swing. The same standard applies in training and in testing. If you are preparing for a particular assessment, its rules replace ours.
If you are unsure about your reps, film a set from the side and look for bent elbows at the bottom or a leg swing that grows toward the end of the set. The range-of-motion guide covers rep standards in more detail. Exercise order matters as well, since six pull-ups at the start of a workout and six after rows and climbing are different performances.
Your best set can stay at five while the rest of your training improves. More total reps across the same sets, with the same rest and technique, count as progress. So do reps that feel more controlled or leave more in reserve, and so does needing less assistance for comparable work. If you already track bodyweight, record it next to the reps, because you lift your whole body in a pull-up and a change in that load gives the rep count context. A heavier week does not automatically call for a diet change.
Why the usual advice contradicts itself
"Train more" is useless advice without context. If you keep missing pull-up sessions, the schedule is the problem. If progress stalled after you added climbing and muscle-up practice, the extra pulling is the first thing to review, before any new pulling day.
We would also question the assumption that a more exhausting set is a more productive one. In an eight-week pull-up trial, 29 trained men stopped their sets after either a smaller or a larger drop in rep speed. The group that stopped earlier improved more on several measures, although the gain in maximum reps did not differ significantly between the groups. Those men started at about 16 pull-ups, so the trial says nothing direct about sets and reps for someone stuck at five, and the sessions later in this article are our own proposal.
The U.S. Army's training manual describes the all-out habit in plain terms. In an unplanned program, it says, the trainee does whatever they feel like, the test instead of the task drives training choices, and hard effort tends to dominate. The manual calls this approach common among novices (FM 7-22, para 5-3).
Larger reviews point the same way. A 2023 meta-analysis of 15 studies found no evidence that training to momentary muscular failure builds more muscle than stopping short of it (Refalo et al.). The American College of Sports Medicine's 2026 position stand, which draws on 137 systematic reviews, concludes that sets to failure are unnecessary for gains in strength, size or power, and that ending sets two to three reps short can supply enough effort (Currier et al.).
Choose one change from your log
Start with the first issue in the table that matches your log. If pain is changing how you move, skip the experiments and deal with the pain first.
Change one factor at a time. Army training works the same way, and its ruck-march plan progresses a single factor each week, whether the load, the distance, the speed, the gradient or the roughness of the terrain (FM 7-22, para 7-9). If you change two things and your reps go up, you cannot tell which one worked.
| What your log shows | What to check | One adjustment to try |
|---|---|---|
| Your numbers change with grip, range or exercise order | Whether the sessions are comparable | Standardize those conditions before adding work |
| The first set holds, but later sets lose many reps | How long you rest, and whether the first set is an all-out effort | If your rests have been short, try three minutes with the same rep targets. If you already rest that long, stop the first set one rep earlier and keep the rest the same. |
| Most sessions turn into repeated maximum attempts | Whether each set leaves enough for the sets after it | With a maximum of five, use sets of three, or fewer if needed. Save the next maximum test for your review day. |
| You often miss planned sessions | Whether the schedule is realistic | Plan two days you can usually keep, and do not carry missed sessions into the next week |
| Progress stalled after you added climbing, rows or skill practice | How much pulling you do in total, and when | Reduce or move the new pulling work for now, keep the pull-up plan steady and compare the next sessions |
| Technique, attendance and effort are consistent, but the workload never changes | Whether your plan has a progression rule | Add one clean rep to the session once the current work is repeatable |
| Pain changes how you move | Whether normal training adjustments still apply | Stop the painful variation, and get an individual assessment if the pain persists |
If you rush between sets, try about three minutes of rest before you change the rep target. A trial of one- versus three-minute rests found that the longer breaks produced more squat and bench-press strength, while endurance gains were similar. The trial did not include pull-ups, and we use three minutes as a starting point that you can adjust.
Weighted pull-ups and grease the groove
Added weight makes sense once your working sets are repeatable and you want more resistance, but rushed rests and drifting technique need fixing first. When you add weight, let it replace some of your existing pulling and keep practicing the unweighted rep you want to improve. The reps, sets or weight guide explains that choice in detail.
Frequent easy sets, usually called grease the groove, suit people whose day fits short bouts better than one long session. Those reps still count as training volume. The pull-up trial above did not compare this method with weighted training, so it cannot pick a winner between them. The combined-training guide shows how to spread repetitions through the day without quietly adding a second routine.
A two-session plan for a maximum of about five
If the table gave you one clear adjustment, try it inside your current plan before you replace anything. The two sessions here are for someone whose maximum is about five clean pull-ups and who needs a basic structure. They replace your existing pull-up work, and you can lower the targets.
In session A, warm up and then do three sets of three unassisted pull-ups with about three minutes of rest. End each set while you still expect another clean rep to be possible. That judgment takes practice, and the Army's effort scale puts numbers on it, since an effort of 8 out of 10 means about two reps left and 9 means about one (FM 7-22, table 6-3). If the third rep is already an all-out effort, or the next set falls apart, reduce the target or use assistance.
In session B, on another day, do three sets of five assisted pull-ups with the same equipment and setup each time. Use enough help to complete the movement without shortened, swinging final reps, and rest around three minutes. The bands-versus-negatives guide explains how to choose the assistance.
One workable arrangement is A on Monday and B on Thursday, with no other hard pulling in between during this first trial. If climbing or rows are already priorities, adjust the existing schedule instead of stacking these sessions on top of it. The choice of two days is a matter of scheduling. A small resistance-training trial found similar outcomes from two or four sessions with equal weekly work, although it did not test pull-ups, and the ACSM position stand lists at least two sessions a week among the factors that enhance strength (Currier et al.).
The progression rule is short. When you complete the planned work cleanly on two comparable occasions with a rep to spare, add one rep to one set at the next matching session, so that 3/3/3 becomes 4/3/3, and keep everything else steady. For assisted work, the eventual step is less assistance and a lower rep target, because adding reps indefinitely only makes the sets longer. If the extra rep changes your technique or wrecks the remaining sets, repeat or reduce the target. Nothing requires an increase at every workout.
When an extra rep costs you one later
The blank training log and its worked example give you a format. The entries in this table use the same grip, range and exercise order, and bodyweight does not change.
| Session | Work completed | Rest | Observation | Next decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Bodyweight, 3/3/3 | 3 minutes | Clean reps, another rep seemed available | Repeat before increasing |
| A2 | Bodyweight, 3/3/3 | 3 minutes | Similar control and effort | Try one extra rep in total |
| A3 | Bodyweight, 4/3/2 | 3 minutes | The last planned rep would have needed a swing | Return to 3/3/3 for now, since the planned total of ten was not reached |
| B1 | Same band and foot placement, 5/5/5 | 3 minutes | Full movement throughout | Keep the setup and repeat |
In session A3 the first set improved, but the session still totaled nine reps against a target of ten. We would return to 3/3/3 with the same rest. The harder first set was not wasted. It simply did not produce the planned increase, and adding another set at that point would change the plan a second time.
When Forma shows a stalled result
Treat a stalled result in the app as a reason to look at the sessions themselves. A lower recent number does not identify its cause, since assistance, exercise order, fatigue and one unusually good earlier session all affect the comparison. The table above helps you decide what to check.
The repeat-twice rule in this article is our own. Forma's standard automatic progression can advance after a single session reaches the total-rep target, and the progression-rule comparison explains how the two rules differ.
When to reassess
Set a review date when you start. Four weeks is a reasonable checkpoint, although nothing guarantees improvement by that date. Compare each A session with earlier A sessions and each B session with earlier B sessions, because assisted and unassisted totals are separate records.
At the review, look at attendance, total clean reps, assistance, rest and perceived effort. If you test a maximum set, do it after warming up and before any other pulling, under the same conditions as the previous test, and count it toward that day's work. If you missed several sessions, keep the exercise plan and fix the schedule first. If you trained consistently and neither reps nor effort improved, go back to the table and change one factor. One bad session is too little to go on, and persistent fatigue or pain needs more attention than another adjustment to the rep target.
If the current exercise is too hard to practice consistently, the pull-up progression guide helps you choose a more workable starting point. Forma's skill trees show how pull-ups connect to the skills that come after them.
Sources and further reading
- Low, Steven. Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength, second edition. Battle Ground Creative, 2016. Printed pp. 104–105 and 115–120, on rest, repetition progression and the workload that frequent practice adds. Author’s book information.
- U.S. Department of the Army. FM 7-22: Holistic Health and Fitness. Headquarters, Department of the Army, October 2020. Para 5-3 (p. 5-1) on unplanned training, table 6-3 (p. 6-6) on effort and reps in reserve, and para 7-9 (p. 7-4) on one progression factor per week. Approved for public release. Army Publishing Directorate.