Originally Posted by
Greg Esres
The lat pulldown and the assisted pull-up machine got me about 80% of the way to doing a pull-up and I seemed close to a plateau for many weeks. So I started trying real pull-ups and made more progress. First session I did several 1/2 pullups, next couple of sessions several 3/4 pull ups, and then finally a full one. Right now, I can do four pull-ups.
I seemed to make a lot faster progress when attempting real pull-ups as compared to using the machines, even when I was able to only achieve a partial range of motion.