Assisted pull-ups, counted the right way around
On an assisted pull-up machine a bigger number means an easier set. Log that number as if it were load and the graph runs backwards: the harder you work, the worse it looks. In Mekimeki you tag the set as Assisted and that number counts against you instead of for you, so the trend points the way you are actually moving.
The arithmetic that runs backwards
On a barbell, the number you type is load you moved. On an assisted machine, the number is load the machine took off you. Those are opposites, and an app that treats them the same produces an estimate that climbs while you get stronger and falls while you get weaker.
Say you do assisted pull-ups with 25 kg of help for 8 reps. A few weeks later you need only 15 kg for the same 8 reps. That is unambiguous progress: ten kilos more of you, lifted by you. A tracker that reads the machine number as added weight will record it as your best set dropping from 25 kg to 15 kg, and quietly file it as a regression.
Which number goes in the weight field
The tag has one requirement, and it is worth stating before you use it: the number you enter has to be the assistance itself, not the load. On an assisted pull-up or dip machine that is the figure on the stack. With a band it is the band's rated assistance. Either way the value goes in the weight field and the tag makes it subtract.
Where no such figure exists, the tag does not apply. A training partner steadying the bar on your last bench press is assistance in the ordinary sense of the word, but nobody can put a number of kilos on it — and entering the bar weight with the Assisted tag would subtract your entire working load rather than the help. Log a spotted set as a normal set, and use the Failure tag if it went to failure.
What Mekimeki does instead
- Assisted is a per-set tag, chosen on the set itself, not a separate exercise you have to create.
- The weight enters your estimated 1RM with the opposite sign. More help means a lower estimate, less help means a higher one.
- Your bodyweight is not required. The direction is correct from the assistance alone, so there is one number to log and nothing to configure.
- The history stays continuous. Assisted and unassisted sets live under the same exercise, so the day you drop the machine entirely, your log does not restart.
What you no longer have to do
The usual workaround is to do the subtraction yourself, logging bodyweight minus assistance as if it were a weighted set, or to keep the real numbers in a notes field and hope you remember what they meant. Both work, and both fall apart the week your bodyweight changes or you forget the convention. Tagging the set removes the bookkeeping.
The other set tags work the same way
Assisted is one of six set types, and each one changes the scoring rather than just the colour of the row:
- Warm-up is kept out of your personal records and your volume, so ramp-up sets never pollute a PR.
- Assisted counts the weight as help, as described above.
- Per side counts both sides toward volume, so a single-arm row is not recorded as half a set.
- Drop set, failure and normal record what a set actually was, so your history says what happened rather than flattening it.
Why can assisted pull-ups end up recorded backwards?
Because a weight field is normally read as weight you added. On an assisted machine the number is help the machine gives you, so the more you type the easier the set was. Added to your load rather than subtracted from it, it makes your estimated 1RM rise as you get weaker.
How does Mekimeki handle it?
Tag the set as Assisted. The weight then counts against you instead of for you: it enters the estimated 1RM with the opposite sign, so less assistance produces a higher estimate and more assistance produces a lower one.
Do I have to enter my bodyweight for this to work?
No. Mekimeki reads the assistance as assistance, so the direction is right without knowing your bodyweight. You log the number on the machine and nothing else.
Do I need a separate custom exercise for assisted work?
No. It is a per-set tag, so the same exercise can hold assisted sets and unassisted sets, and the history stays in one place as you move from one to the other.
A training partner helped me finish a bench press. Is that an assisted set?
No. The Assisted tag subtracts the number you type, so it only works when that number is the assistance itself — a machine stack or a rated band. A spotter's help has no figure attached to it, and entering the bar weight with the tag would subtract your whole working load. Log it as a normal set, tagged Failure if the set went to failure.
Does this work for band-assisted pull-ups too?
The tag is about how the number is scored, not about the equipment. If you can express the help as a weight, tag the set Assisted and it is scored as assistance.
Log assisted work without doing the maths
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