Less than 4 pullups

If you did 0-5 pullups during the test, increasing this number will be initially difficult. We have 2 options here:

Use Pullup assistve bands

Using the bands will be very helpful especially when you cannot do a single pullup or just barely manage one or two. It is generally the best choice for people who do just a few pushups.

When you use the bands, they will essentially take on some of your weight and make it easier for you to do multiple series of reps and you have to do series of reps to effectively increase your strength and develop muscles.

You can easily get a whole set of such bands on Amazon or elsewhere.

How to train with bands

Chose a band which will allow you to do 5-10 consecutive pullps in a test and go through the program for a while with the band. Once you get to 20 pullps with the band, remove the band or chose a lighter one.

Continue untill you do not need a band at all

Alternatively, use descending training

Alternatively, if you do not want to use bands, you can use the the training of descending presented below. It will develop your muscles and raise your endurance and strength.

Durign the descending training you'll develop your strength and endurance better than while doing normal pullups (because you would be doing only few of them). You will do more descends and will work your muscles more.

How to perform the exercise of descending:

Instead of pulling yourself up, stand on a stool and hang yourself on the horizontal pullup bar (with your chin just above it).
Then get off the stool and descend slowly until your hands are straight.
Repeat.

You have to descend as slowly as possible. You will achieve best results when descending from the stool until your arms are straight. It should take you about 3 seconds to do a full descend.

Good luck!

If you did less than 4 pullups in the test
Day 1 120 seconds (or more) between sets		Day 4 120 seconds (or more) between sets
set 1	2	set 1	5
set 2	7	set 2	9
set 3	5	set 3	7
set 4	5	set 4	7
set 5	Exactly 7	set 5	Exactly 9
Minimum 1 day break		Minimum 1 day break
Day 2 120 seconds (or more) between sets		Day 5 120 seconds (or more) between sets
set 1	3	set 1	5
set 2	8	set 2	10
set 3	6	set 3	8
set 4	6	set 4	8
set 5	Exactly 8	set 5	Exactly 10
Minimum 1 day break		Minimum 1 day break
Day 3 120 seconds (or more) between sets		Day 6 120 seconds (or more) between sets
set 1	4	set 1	6
set 2	9	set 2	10
set 3	6	set 3	8
set 4	6	set 4	8
set 5	Exactly 8	set 5	Exactly 12
Minimum 2 day break		Minimum 2 day break

A Short History of the Pull-Up

The pull-up feels timeless, and in a way it is. Long before anyone counted reps or filmed themselves grinding out a set, people were grabbing overhead bars, branches, and beams and hauling themselves up. The movement is about as old as the human shoulder, and the exercise we do today is really just a tidied-up version of something our ancestors did to climb, fight, and survive.

Ancient Greek athletes and soldiers trained on horizontal bars, pulling the chest toward the bar in a way that would look familiar in any gym now. Roman soldiers did much the same on wooden beams, using the movement to build the upper-body strength their work demanded. The pattern shows up again and again across cultures: martial artists in Asia used bar and beam work to strengthen their pulling muscles, and the exercise kept resurfacing wherever physical readiness mattered.

The version most of us picture took shape in the 19th century, when gymnastics turned the horizontal bar into a stage. Gymnasts made pulling strength look like art, and their routines helped standardize the movements. Not long after, calisthenics emerged as a formal discipline, and bodyweight staples like push-ups, squats, and pull-ups found their way into schools and training halls.

The military did the rest. Through the early 20th century and the two World Wars, armed forces adopted pull-ups as a simple, honest test of upper-body strength. No machine could fake it: you either pulled your chin over the bar or you didn't. That clarity is a big part of why the exercise stuck around in fitness testing long after the wars ended.

Today the pull-up is everywhere, from garage door frames to CrossFit boxes, and it has spawned a whole family of variations, chin-ups, wide-grip, chest-to-bar, and the divisive kipping pull-up among them. The appeal hasn't really changed in a couple of thousand years. It needs almost no equipment, it works several muscle groups at once, including the lats, biceps, and shoulders, and it scales to nearly anyone. Beginners can use bands or an assisted machine; stronger athletes can hang weight from a belt. If you're just starting out, you're picking up a very old habit.