While you may be familiar with the push/pull/lower or PPL split, what goes into a pull day may not be as clear. What exercises go into a pull day? How do you organize the rest of the week’s workouts? How many exercises should you include?
Here are the 12 best exercises for a pull day workout:
- Pull-ups
- Lat pulldowns
- Straight-arm lat pulldowns
- Seated cable rows
- Bent-over barbell rows
- Pendlay rows
- Bent-over dumbbell flies
- Inverted barbell rows
- Single-arm dumbbell rows
- Seal rows
- Shrugs
- Biceps curls
A good pull day workout routine includes upper body pulling exercises to develop your back and bicep muscles for strength and/or size.
But how do you organize it with the rest of your week’s workouts? And how many exercises should you include?
Well, it’s not just a simple answer. Depending on your priorities, you can customize your workout to see the most benefits and avoid common mistakes.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about creating a pull day workout.
What Is Pull Day?
A pull day workout is a dedicated workout in the week focused on only training the upper body muscles responsible for pulling a load toward your body (which I’ll discuss below).
During the rest of the week, you would have a upper body push day workout where you train pushing muscles (the chest, triceps, and shoulders) and a lower body day to train lower body muscle groups (the quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, and sometimes the abs). These three training days are commonly doubled up for a six-day training week.
You can identify pull exercises by simply looking at them in most cases!
Imagine a pull-up, for example. In case the name didn’t give it away, you use your back and bicep muscles to pull your body closer to the bar overhead. Or a seated cable row, where you pull the cable attachment to your chest. Or even a barbell curl, where you pull the barbell to your chest and lower it back down.
Each of these exercises uses a pulling motion and muscles specifically designed to bring a load closer to your body (or your body closer to a stable object, like a pull-up or inverted row).
If you don’t want to follow a traditional PPL split, you can train your back and legs on the same day.
Muscles Used in a Pull Day Workout
Pull workouts focus on movements that train two key muscles—the back (including your lats, traps, and rhomboids) and biceps.
Lats
The latissimus dorsi is the large muscle covering most of your back, sweeping down the sides of your back. Vertical rowing exercises like pull-ups and lat pulldowns primarily train the lats.
Traps
Your traps are the back muscles that blend into your neck and enable you to shrug. They enable the last bit of range of motion in movements like upright rows and bent-over rows. They are obviously the primary muscle targeted in shrugging exercises.
Rhomboids
Your rhomboids are muscles in your upper back between your shoulder blades that enable you to pull your arms and shoulders backward toward your body, like in a bent-over row or bent-over fly.
Biceps
Every gym bro’s favorite muscle belongs to the pull day! Your biceps are the muscles you most commonly flex to show your strength. They contract your arm at the elbow by pulling your forearm toward you. These are trained with a variety of bicep curl variations.
Four Benefits of Including a Pull Day in Your Routine
The best pull day workout benefits you in four main ways:
- It’s an intuitive way to train
- It trains key muscle groups
- It can be applied to several goals
- It’s part of a larger training split
1. It’s an Intuitive Way To Train
Even new lifters who can’t identify lats versus traps or triceps versus biceps can look at an exercise and discern whether it’s a push or a pull exercise. With this understanding, you can put together a basic pull day without knowing too many specifics.
By incorporating a pull day into your workouts, you automatically check the box on training these upper body pulling muscles, just as part of the nature of the training split.
2. It Trains Key Muscle Groups
Pull day workouts aren’t the same as bro splits, where you train a specific muscle group individually within each workout. But by simply focusing on performing good, intense pulling exercises, you effectively train two key muscle groups simultaneously: your back and biceps.
By incorporating a pull day into your workouts, you automatically check the box on training these muscles, just as part of the nature of the training split.
3. It Can Be Applied to Several Goals
I love the pull workouts because they can be used to reach goals in strength, size, or weight loss!
If you’re focused on losing weight, a pull day will work a HUGE percentage of your muscles since the back contains several large muscle groups. As they rebuild themselves, you’ll increase your metabolism and burn more calories even after your workout.
If you’re focused on growing your back muscles for size and appearance, a pull day will be a key day for you to keep those back and biceps muscles under tension for maximal muscle growth.
If you’re training for strength, pull days will allow you to strengthen your back for bench presses and deadlifts!
No matter what your emphasis is in the gym, a pull day will be a great way to get there.
4. It’s Part of a Larger Training Split
The pull day is great by itself. But when you incorporate it as part of a PPL split, you get two other days to focus on the rest of your body (push and lower body).
Splits like this are effective because they keep you focused for each workout, allow you to train a particular section of your body hard, and then let it rest while you go back to the gym to train something else. You get a great balance of rest and recovery to go with the intensity and focus.
As I mentioned earlier, most PPL splits require six workouts a week, two of each PPL day. You get two days of training the pull day muscles hard and five days to rest them (and the same goes for the two other groups).
If you don’t have time to work out six days a week, a full-body split may work better for you. I discuss the differences between full-body and PPL routines in Full Body vs PPL: Differences, Pros, Cons.
12 Best Pull Day Exercises
With an understanding of what muscles are used and how to identify exercises for a pull workout, you’re almost ready to head to the gym and knock out a great workout. But to help you make the most of it, I’ve compiled the 12 most effective exercises for any pull day routine:
- Pull-ups
- Lat pulldowns
- Straight-arm lat pulldowns
- Seated cable rows
- Bent-over barbell rows
- Pendlay rows
- Bent-over dumbbell flies
- Inverted barbell rows
- Single-arm dumbbell rows
- Seal rows
- Shrugs
- Biceps curls
Now, remember, 12 exercises are WAY more than you’d need in a single workout. Pick three to four of these to do within the same workout. I’ll share more details below about putting these pull day exercises together for a complete routine.
1. Pull-Ups
Pull-ups are underrated but are some of the best pull exercises, in my opinion—and I’m saying this as a powerlifter!
Many people avoid them because “they are hard,” but that’s what makes them great! Sure, you may need to start with a variation like a counterweight alternative or use a resistance band for assistance. But getting to a conventional pull-up will be well worth your effort to add this exercise to your regular pull day routine.
A warmup is needed for pull-ups to make sure your body is ready to use proper form and mechanics. Read more about The Most Effective Pull-Up Warm Up (Science Backed).
You can also easily do them in a home gym if you have a pull-up bar.
How To
- Grip an overhead bar with your hands about shoulder-width apart.
- Pull your body up to the bar so your head extends above the bar.
- Lower yourself back down.
- Repeat for reps.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
You may need some help getting strong enough to get your first pull up or your first set of several reps. Examples of assistance are elastic bands, counterweights, a spotter or friend pushing your legs up, or “kipping” to build momentum from your legs instead of making your arms and back do the work.
But avoid relying on any kind of assistance for too long! Forcing your body to learn how to do slow, controlled pull-up reps without assistance will help you strengthen and grow your back.
Kipping pull-ups have their place, but they aren’t particularly effective for building muscle or strengthening it the way slow, controlled reps will.
If you want to learn more upper body pulling exercises that will help with pull-up, check out his article: 14 Pull-Up Alternatives To Do With Machines or at Home.
2. Lat Pulldowns
Lat pulldowns are another one of the best pull workout exercises. They imitate the same movement pattern as pull-ups but require your body to be anchored to a bench while you pull an overhead cable attachment down toward your body.
They work the same muscles as pull-ups (the lats, biceps, and traps) but give you much greater control of the load so you can start lighter and build the strength needed to eventually do pull-ups. You can even add more than your body weight to progress beyond standard pull-ups.
How To
- Sit on a lat pulldown machine.
- Set the weight pin to the desired load.
- Grip the lat pulldown bar overhead.
- Secure your knees under the pad.
- Pull the bar to touch the top of your chest while staying upright.
- Return the bar back until your arms are fully extended.
- Repeat for reps.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
A common flaw I see a lot is leaning the torso back during the pull, especially when lifters throw their bodies back to build momentum.
Even if you don’t injure yourself by doing this, you take away the work your lats need to do to really grow and develop from this exercise. You should never sacrifice technique for more weight.
By changing the angle of your torso as you lean back, you put less emphasis on your lats and more on your rhomboids and traps. If you want to train your rhomboids and traps, there are other variations that target those muscles more effectively than a poorly executed lat pulldown.
Curious about the differences between lat pulldowns and pull-ups? Check out Lat Pulldown vs Pull-Up: Differences, Pros, Cons.
3. Straight-Arm Lat Pulldowns
Another great way to train your lats is with a stiff-arm or straight-arm lat pull-down. This variation doesn’t have you pull the bar down from above as much as “swing” your arms from high to low with the bar in your hands.
It targets the lats at a different angle to hit them in a way the standard pulldown and pull-up don’t.
How To
- Stand in front of a high pulley cable machine with a straight bar attachment.
- Facing the cable, place your hands on top of the bar at shoulder width or slighter wider.
- You can stand straight up and down or bend slightly forward at the hips (this will be more necessary as you increase load).
- Keeping your elbows straight, pull or swing the cable down to your hips until it touches your legs.
- Keeping your elbows straight, return the bar to the top position.
- Repeat for reps.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
This can be a tricky one to learn for someone who’s never done it before. Still, my advice applies to new and experienced lifters – don’t go too heavy and focus more on good technique with these! Just because you can do more weight with the regular lat pulldown doesn’t mean you need these to keep up pound for pound.
Your legs are unanchored, and your lats are more isolated in this version, so you don’t need as much load. Quite frankly, you probably can’t even handle as much load, which is fine.
Keep your elbows locked and your torso set, and focus on good, sweeping reps as your arms pull the bar down to your hips and back. The load will go up over time, but don’t sacrifice proper form to get there sooner.
If you’re unable to do lat pulldown variations, some of these lat pulldown alternatives may work better for you.
4. Seated Cable Rows
There are vertical rows (pulling a load in an up-and-down motion overhead to your chest), and there are horizontal rows (pulling a load perpendicular to your torso into your chest). The seated cable row is a great horizontal row for your pull workout.
Having your feet anchored against the footplate while you sit on a bench allows you to really isolate your back and rear shoulder muscles so they can do the work without sacrificing balance or stability.
How To
- Set the pin on the weight stack to the desired weight.
- Select and attach your preferred grip attachment.
- Sit on a cable row bench with your feet on the footplate.
- Set your knees in a locked position (they can be bent, just keep them in the same place).
- Set your upper body into an upright position and avoid leaning forward or backward during the rep.
- Pull the cable attachment into your chest.
- Extend your arms back to the starting position.
- Repeat for reps.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
Make your back and arms do all the work! Don’t let yourself change your torso or leg position during the set!
This is good advice for almost any lift, but set your body position and keep it still, so the muscles you want to train are the ones moving the weight. If you lean your torso forward and backward or push through your knees and change their position, you’ll get help from momentum and other muscles that aren’t intended to be used.
All that help means less emphasis on your back and biceps and fewer gains to take away from it.
Not sure which attachment to use for seated cable rows? Check out our review of the best cable attachments to use for cable rows. Or check out our article about 10 best cable back workouts and exercises for muscle mass.
5. Bent-Over Barbell Rows
With just a barbell, you can add a fantastic staple to your pull day with bent-over barbell rows! While they aren’t as stable as sitting down and putting your feet on a footplate, many people consider bent-over barbell rows one of the best pull day exercises.
How To
- Step up to a barbell on the floor with your feet slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart.
- Bend 90 degrees at the hip, so your torso is parallel or close to parallel with the floor.
- Grip the barbell about shoulder-width apart or slightly wider. Overhand or underhand grips are both appropriate options (an underhand grip will work your biceps more).
- If using an overhand grip, row the barbell to the bottom of your rib cage and back down.
- If using an underhand grip, row the barbell to your belly button and back down.
- Repeat for reps. Don’t let the weight touch the floor in between each rep.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
There is a difference between the barbell row and what’s called a Pendlay row. The barbell row is slow and controlled, and the Pendlay row is explosive and fast. Avoid turning your bent-over barbell row into a Pendlay row by keeping it slow and controlled.
Select a weight you can do for all the required barbell row reps and still get your last few reps without heaving or jerking the bar upward.
It may seem cool to bust out those last reps with explosive effort, but it’s not giving you the results you’re looking for unless you should have been doing a Pendlay row in the first place.
6. Pendlay Rows
As mentioned above, a Pendlay row is similar to the barbell row but calls for explosive, fast reps instead of steady, controlled reps. It’s used to develop explosive strength in powerlifters, Olympic weightlifters, and any other athlete looking to improve their back strength.
How To
- Step up to a barbell on the floor with your feet slightly narrower than shoulder-width apart.
- Bend 90 degrees at the hip, so your torso is parallel or close to parallel with the floor.
- Grip the barbell about shoulder-width apart or slightly wider. Your grip should be similar to your bench press grip.
- With the bar resting on the floor from the start, set your back position and tense all your muscles to perform a fast, explosive rep off the floor.
- Rowing the bar to your chest, about the same touch point as when you bench press.
- Return the bar to the floor so your muscles can relax entirely before repeating.
- Repeat for reps.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
The Pendlay row is not a barbell row that simply starts on the floor, so my advice is the opposite of what I told you above with bent-over rows. Avoid moving too slowly and do these bad boys fast and explosively so you can get the strength training benefits from them!
Slow and steady reps increase the muscle’s time under tension, so barbell rows are great for building muscle. The Pendlay row’s explosive reps encourage you to build tension, generate explosive force from nothing, and move a barbell with great force and acceleration.
If Pendlay rows are included in your program’s pull workout exercises, do them right to get the stated benefits!
7. Bent-Over Dumbbell Flies
Your rhomboids can get some extra love on your pull day with bent-over flies as they pull your shoulder blades together with each rep!
Although some may call these shoulder exercises because of the rear delt involvement. In fact, they are excellent for improving underdeveloped rear delts. However, they can easily be incorporated into a pull day as well. You decide!
How To
- Hold a dumbbell in each hand.
- Bend 90 degrees at the waist, so your chest is parallel to the floor or close to it. You can also do these against a bench for a chest-supported variation.
- Without bending your elbows, extend your arms straight out to the sides until your shoulder blades are as close together as you can stretch them.
- Return to the starting position.
- Repeat for reps.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
Bent-over dumbbell flies are kind of like a row, but they’re not the same as bent-over rows with dumbbells. We don’t pull the dumbbells into our chest and bend our elbows—we fly our arms out to the sides by contracting our rhomboids.
Think about keeping your elbows straight (or at least in the same slightly bent position without moving them) and only using your back muscles to move your shoulder blades together. Think of your arms as just following the movement your back initiates.
Pay attention to the movement of your arms to ensure you do these right!
8. Inverted Barbell Rows
As the name suggests, this is a barbell row but inverted. The barbell is above your body, and you are below it! It’s like a horizontal pull-up.
I love that these allow you to get the benefits of a barbell row without having to hold yourself in that bent-over position the whole time. You can simply climb on a bench press, leave the barbell in the rack, and row your body up to the bar and back down to get a great back workout over a few sets.
How To
- Lie under a secured barbell that is within your reach but high enough that you can fully extend your arms without your back resting on the floor or a bench below you.
- Grip the bar the same as you would with a bench press, about shoulder-width apart.
- Row your upper body up to the barbell until it touches your chest.
- Return to the starting position.
- Repeat for reps.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
You can adjust the load of your inverted row similarly to how you make push-ups easier or harder—with your foot placement!
For example, we’ve all seen people do push-ups from the knees to make them easier. Well, the same principle applies here. The further out your heels are from your body, the more load you’ll need to row. The closer your feet are to your body, the easier it will be with your knees bent.
But avoid doing easier regressions for too long! Sure, you may need to start with your knees bent 90 degrees and feet closer to your body, but progress this movement like any other lift. Gradually bring your feet further out so you can put more load on your rows each time you do them over several weeks.
If you get to a point where these are easy, spice them up with static holds for a few seconds as your chest touches the bar. Or add a three-second tempo to your descent to exaggerate the time under tension.
9. Single-Arm Dumbbell Rows
Even without a barbell, you can train your lats effectively with just a dumbbell by performing single-arm dumbbell rows.
You can do these horizontally by kneeling on a bench or keep your torso at a 45-degree angle while leaning against the dumbbell rack or other stable surface. Each angle will slightly alter what part of the lat is emphasized, so incorporate both over time!
How To
- Kneel on a flat bench with one leg and keep the other foot planted on the floor next to the bench.
- Grab a dumbbell with the hand opposite your kneeling leg.
- Set your back parallel to the floor and brace your position with your empty hand on the bench.
- Row the dumbbell to the side of your torso, ideally to your hip.
- Return the dumbbell downward until your arm is fully extended.
- Repeat for reps.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
Similar to a barbell row, pick a weight that you can manage to control for all the reps in your set. Avoid heaving, twisting, or jerking motions to get the dumbbell moving or get it all the way to your hip with each rep.
This exercise will give you better results if you let it suck a little by doing it in a controlled fashion to maximize your lats’ time under tension.
10. Seal Row
The seal row is commonly called the ultimate horizontal row because it’s perfectly stabilized. In this exercise, your chest is flat against a bench and parallel to the floor. A custom barbell designed to accommodate the bench underneath you will allow for a full range of motion. You never have to sacrifice load for balance and stability!
Some gyms have specialized seal row benches, which can easily allow you to incorporate these into your pull workouts at the gym. But seal rows can still be done with most gym equipment and a little creativity if you don’t have access to a seal row bench!
How To
- Lie flat on a bench face down with a barbell or dumbbells underneath.
- Ensure the bench is high enough that your arms can fully extend without the barbell or dumbbells resting fully on the floor.
- Grip the barbell or dumbbells in your hands. If using a barbell, keep your hands about shoulder-width apart.
- Row the weights to your chest, about the same touch point as when you bench press.
- Lower the weights until your arms are fully extended.
- Repeat for reps.
Mistakes to avoid
I see people trying to set up seal rows on their own in the gym all the time, and the biggest mistake I see is not elevating the bench to allow the arms to fully extend.
Most people run out of room on a normal flat bench before their arms hit the floor. To avoid this, you’ll need to set the bench on plates, boxes, or some other secure surface.
While the stability of having your chest against a bench is great, it’s worthless if you can’t extend your arms all the way out to get the full range of motion. You’d be better off doing a bent-over row every day over this poor attempt at a seal row.
11. Shrugs
Shrugs are a great inclusion in a pull day workout to isolate those traps!
How To
- Hold a dumbbell in each hand as you stand upright.
- Moving only your shoulders, shrug your arms up toward your ears as high as you can.
- Lower the dumbbells back down.
- Repeat for reps.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
Neck bobbing! It looks hilarious, and I see it all the time—people who mistake the shrugging motion for moving their head forward and backward while they hold a dumbbell in each hand. It’s doing nothing but making you look silly!
This is usually a symptom of holding weights you can’t actually shrug. Go down several 5lb increments on the dumbbells and pick a weight you can actually hold while you shrug your shoulders up to your ears. Focus more on your shoulders and less on your neck, and you’ll be all set!
12. Biceps Curls
No list of the best pull day workouts would be complete without bicep exercises! I cannot possibly list every biceps curl variation out there, so I’m going to sum them up generally as just biceps curls.
But truthfully, there are barbell curls, dumbbell curls, hammer curls (which you do with your palms facing each other), double-arm curls, single-arm curls, preacher curls, preacher dumbbell curls, preacher dumbbell hammer curls, concentration curls, cable rope hammer curls, d-grip cable hammer curls—the list goes on and on and on.
Whatever variations you choose, biceps curls and all their variations are a KEY element to the best pull workouts. They are what makes it a pull day and not just a back day!
How To
- Hold a dumbbell or barbell in your hands.
- Standing or sitting upright, bend your arm at the elbow, curling the weight upward until you can’t bend your elbow anymore.
- Lower the weight back down.
- Repeat for reps.
Common Mistakes To Avoid
No matter the variation, the BIGGEST mistake to avoid is letting any other muscle help you!
Don’t heave, don’t do a half jump with your legs to build momentum, and don’t tip your torso back. Also, don’t swing your shoulders, or let your arms become pendulums that swing the dumbbell way behind you and then speed up as they come forward! All of that is taking away from the big biceps you are trying to grow!
This is an isolated exercise, which means you want your biceps to work alone. All of the strain should stay in your biceps. So take your ego out of it, lower the weight, and do these effectively.
At the end of the day, actual big biceps are way cooler than a guy swinging heavy dumbbells wildly trying to look like he has big biceps.
Sample Pull Day Workout Routines
When building a pull day workout, you really can just pick three to six pulling exercises and do them for three to five sets of 5-16 reps each and call it good. But there are a few more things to think about to really make the routine effective.
Keep your pull workout balanced and effective by incorporating at least one vertical row, one horizontal row, and one bicep curl variation. More than likely, you’ll have time to do two of each and maybe even add some trap shrugs.
After warming up, start with the heavy, more difficult exercises first (like heavy barbell rows). Use your fresh energy and focus to do those effectively, as they will be the heaviest and most taxing you’ll do that day.
As you get fatigued, your workout should move you to exercises with lighter loads and end with isolated muscle exercises, like the biceps curl or trap shrugs.
Below are three example workouts of pull day routines—one with a strength focus, one with a hypertrophy focus, and one for an at-home pull day routine.
Pull Day Workout for Strength
- Pendlay Row – 5×5 @ 80% of 1 rep max (1RM)
- Paused Barbell Row – 5×3, 2-second pause at the top @ 75% of 1RM
- Lat Pulldown – 4×6 @ 65% of 1RM
- Pull-ups – 4xAMRAP (bodyweight)
- Standing Barbell Curl – 4×12
- Seated Dumbbell Curl – 4×12
Pull Day Workout for Hypertrophy
- Bent-Over Barbell Row – 4×10 @ 65% of 1RM
- Negative Tempo Inverted Row – 5×4, 5-second downward tempo
- Pull-Ups – 3×10
- Straight-Arm Lat Pulldown – 3×10
- Preacher Barbell Curl – 3×12
- Dumbbell Hammer Curl – 3×12
- Trap Shrugs – 4xAMRAP
Home Pull Day Workout
- Pull-Ups – 4xAMRAP
- Bent-Over Flies – 4×12 (hold cans of food or jugs of water in each hand)
- Milk Jug Biceps Curls – 4×12 (hold a jug in each hand like a dumbbell)
- Milk Jug Bent Over Rows – 4×10 (hold a jug in each hand like a dumbbell)
Repeat this workout twice, if desired.
5 Tips for Maximizing Your Pull Day Workout
Whatever your focus, however, you want to arrange your pull day, I’ve got three tips to help you get the most out of it:
- Pay attention your macros
- Load up on protein
- Follow a progressive overload
- Consistency is key
1. Pay Attention to Your Macros
You will get different results from any workout based on what you eat! Pull days can be used to build muscle or cut fat, depending on your diet.
Above all, you must define your nutritional needs with a proper diet to meet your goals.
If you want these pull days to build muscle, keep your protein high and eat in a caloric surplus. If you want these pull days to shred fat, keep your protein high and eat in a caloric deficit. If you want these pull days to get you strong, keep both your carb and protein intake high so you have the energy to power through them.
It all comes down to how you eat to get the results you want!
2. Load Up on Protein
Protein supplements are an effective way to support muscle repair and recovery after a pull day workout. They may also help increase muscle mass, improve strength and performance, and are convenient and easy to digest.
Protein is essential for building and maintaining muscle tissue, making protein supplements a popular choice for athletes and fitness enthusiasts looking to optimize their muscle gains.
Consuming protein supplements after your pull day workout can speed up the recovery process and reduce muscle soreness, allowing you to get back to your training routine more quickly.
Our Favorite Protein Supplement:
3. Follow a Progressive Overload
Strength training is only effective if it’s hard for us. Your body will adapt to a workout over time, so it’s up to you to keep pushing the reps, weight, intensity, and total sets to keep them unfamiliar to your body, so it keeps responding to the stress.
Your body will only adapt if the stress put on it is enough to spark a change, so progressing your pull days is the only way to keep making gains!
4. Consistency Is Key
You can have a great pull day one time, but if that’s it, or if you only have a good pull day once a month, you’ll never see results. Give yourself the time and consistency to see the benefits of it.
These adaptations take time! Especially for people who have been at it for a while, it gets harder and harder to make big strides. Play the long game and be consistent so you can see those desired outcomes.
5. Rest and Recovery
Your body needs to recover after doing a big pull day workout with rest and good sleep. You can not train the same large muscle groups every day and expect to see results. Your body needs a rest day. Because you will have time for muscle recovery, you can go hard in your sessions and push towards muscle failure to see benefits.
48-72 hours will be enough time for your muscles to recover before you do another pull day.
That is why a PPL split works so well, your body will have time to rest and recover.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Exercises Should You Include on Pull Day?
As with any workout, a pull day should consist of 3-6 unique exercises, each done for 3-5 sets of 5-16 reps. Exercises should cover vertical pulls like pull-ups, horizontal pulls like seat cable rows, and bicep exercises like preacher curls.
Are Biceps Pull or Push?
The biceps are a pull muscle because they assist the back muscles in pulling weight toward your body or pulling your body toward an object. For this reason, the best pull workouts should always include bicep exercises.
How Do You Structure a Pull Day?
Typical pull days include 3-6 back and biceps exercises. Start with the heaviest, most intense lift, and progress to lighter loads with each subsequent exercise until you end with isolation exercises, like biceps curls or trap shrugs. This ensures that maximal energy is spent early on the most technical, difficult lifts.
About The Author
Adam Gardner is a proud resident of Utah, where he lives with his wife and two kids. He has been competing in powerlifting since 2016 in both the USPA and the APF. For the past three years, he and his wife, Merrili, have coached beginning lifters to learn the fundamentals of powerlifting and compete in their first powerlifting competitions.
