Fighter Pullup Program
Add pull-ups with a short ladder every day
A coach-voice timer counts every rep and calls every rest.
Day 1 · 5 sets · ~12 min
Free · No signup to try
StrongFirst · Pavel Tsatsouline
A powerful Russian pullup program adaptable to any level. Start with your max set, ladder down across 5 sets, and add one rep to the last set each session. 5 days on, 1 day off, over 10 weeks. Expect to 2–3× your pullup max in the first 30 days, then keep building.
- →Each day: 5 sets in a descending rep ladder (e.g. 7 · 6 · 5 · 4 · 3)
- →Rest 2–3 min between sets — quality over speed
- →Each session adds 1 rep to the last set. When sets equalise, the max increases.
- →Set your starting max when you enroll — the program adapts to your level.
- →If you fail a session twice, back off a week and rebuild.
This is Pavel Tsatsouline's "ladder" method applied to pull-ups — one of the highest-leverage ways to build pulling strength without adding weight, because it manages fatigue instead of just piling on volume.
A ladder is a set of rungs that climbs then resets: 1 rep, rest, 2 reps, rest, 3 reps, rest — that's a 3-rung ladder. You never do enough reps in one set to grind, so every rep stays crisp and fast. This program runs 5 rungs per session, descending from your top set down (e.g. 7 · 6 · 5 · 4 · 3), with 2-3 minutes of rest between each rung.
The progression is mechanical, not a feeling: each session, the bottom rung climbs 1 rep to match the rung above it. Once every rung has caught up to the top ("equalised"), the whole ladder shifts up 1 rep and the process repeats. Concretely, a 5-4-3-2-1 ladder climbs rung-by-rung across the week — 5-4-3-2-2, then 5-4-3-3-2, then 5-4-4-3-2, then 5-5-4-3-2 — until it hits 6-5-4-3-2, at which point you're training a new, higher top set. You never need to calculate this yourself — enrolling sets your ladder automatically for all 60 days.
Your starting max determines where you begin:
- •Max of 5-9 reps: you start directly on the matching day of the standard 5RM ladder (5 · 4 · 3 · 2 · 1 as the base, climbing weekly).
- •Max of 10-14 reps: you get a proportionally scaled ladder (roughly 80%, 67%, 53%, 40%, 27% of your max across the 5 rungs) so the top rung still challenges you without being a true 1RM attempt every session.
- •Max of 15+ reps: you get a flatter ladder spaced about 2 reps apart per rung, since very strong pullers don't need as much drop-off between rungs to manage fatigue.
- •Max of 4 or fewer: you run a 12-day ramp-up block first (a gentler 3-rep-max ladder) to build a real base before graduating into the standard program on day 13.
The weekly rhythm is fixed: 5 training days, 1 rest day, repeat for 10 weeks (60 days total). Do not do extra pull-up work on rest days or between rungs — recovery between sessions is what lets the ladder climb every single day without stalling.
Rules that make or break this program:
- 1.Every rep on every rung should look identical — same speed, same range of motion, dead hang at the bottom. If reps start slowing down or form breaks, stop the set early even if it's below the prescribed count; a ladder only works if the reps stay fast.
- 2.Rest the full 2-3 minutes between rungs. This isn't conditioning work — you're training near-maximal strength repeatedly, and cutting rest short just turns it into a fatigue contest you'll lose.
- 3.If you miss a rung two sessions in a row, back the whole ladder off by 1-2 reps across all rungs and rebuild from there rather than forcing it — this happens most often in weeks 6-10 once the ladder has climbed past where the program was originally tuned.
- 4.Most people hit 2-3× their starting max within the first 30 days; the back half of the program (weeks 6-10) is about consolidating that gain into real strength, not chasing another dramatic jump.
- 5.If your grip gives out before your lats do, that's normal early on — it usually resolves itself within the first 2-3 weeks as grip endurance catches up to pulling strength.