Planning an effective workout routine can be stressful. It’s important to optimize your results with different types of exercise, and pull day workouts are a key part of a good routine. Pull exercises target the muscles involved in pulling motions, like your back, biceps, and forearms, as opposed to push exercises, which involve pushing a weight or the ground away from your body. Push and pull day workouts are both important, but today we’re focusing on the best pull day workouts to target your back, biceps, and forearms.
What Are Pull Day Workouts?
Pull day workouts are a type of resistance training routine that primarily targets the muscles involved in pulling movements. Pull moves primarily engage the back of the body, which are key for posture, mobility, and functional strength. These workouts are typically part of a split routine, where different muscle groups are trained on separate days to allow for adequate recovery.
During a pull day workout, the emphasis is on exercises that involve pulling motions, such as pulling weight towards the body or retracting the shoulders. The main muscle groups targeted during pull day workouts are back muscles, biceps, and forearms.
Pull day workouts are typically complemented with push day workouts, where the focus is on exercises that involve pushing motions, such as chest presses, shoulder presses, and triceps exercises. By alternating between pull and push days, you can ensure that all major muscle groups are being trained while allowing for proper recovery and muscle growth.
How Often Should You Do Pull Day Workouts?
Many people find it beneficial to do pull day workouts about two times per week, mixed in with the rest of their exercise routine. This allows for adequate stimulation of the targeted muscle groups as well as sufficient time for recovery. For example, you might have a routine where you perform pull day workouts on Mondays and Thursdays, and engage in other types of workouts, such as push days or cardio, on other days.
However, it’s important to listen to your body and adjust the frequency if needed. If you’re a beginner or have limited training experience, you may want to start with one pull day workout per week and gradually increase the frequency as your strength and recovery capacity improve. On the other hand, more advanced individuals or those following specific training programs may incorporate pull day workouts more frequently, such as three times per week.
Remember that recovery is crucial for muscle growth and injury prevention. Allow at least one day of rest between pull day workouts to give your muscles time to repair and adapt.
3 Pull Day Workout Essentials to Invest In
- Dumbbells
- Workout mat
- Resistance band
7 Pull Day Workouts You Can Do At Home
1. Tone Your Upper Body – Pull Workout At Home (Back & Biceps) | MadFit
This 20 minute pull day workout targets your back and biceps, and is the perfect upper body shred. All you need is a couple of dumbbells (she uses one heavier 25 pound dumbbell and two 10 pound dumbbells) and you’ll tone your upper body with moves like single arm rows, back rows, cross body curls, and reverse flys.
2. 35-Minute Upper Body Pull Workout At Home (Back + Biceps + Cardio ) | nourishmovelove
This workout is the perfect mix of strength and cardio. You’ll do six pull day exercises, including dumbbell pullovers, hammer curls, and reverse grip back rows, paired with cardio tabata intervals to build muscle and burn calories. It consists of three circuits- one for back, one for biceps, and one combo back and biceps circuit. Get ready to work!
3. Back and Biceps | Resistance Band Workout At Home | Caroline Girvan
This resistance band workout combines five exercises that all target the back and biceps. Each movement focuses on the squeeze, slowing of the eccentric movement and control throughout, maximizing tension to the muscles. The workout primarily targets the middle and upper back muscles, but you’ll feel the burn in the biceps, with moves like seated rows, lat pulldowns, and bicep curls.
4. 10 Min Biceps Workout at Home with Dumbbells | No Repeat | Vera LaRo
This quick workout solely focuses on your biceps for a targeted pull day workout. You’ll tone and strengthen your arms with super effective bicep exercises like concentration curls, alternating twist-in curls, alternating lateral curls, hammer curls, and more. Pick weights that are suitable to you and remember to hold your core tight and your back straight, and lift the dumbbells slowly and with control.
5. Beastmode Back and Biceps – Intense Upper Body Workout | Caroline Girvan
This slow paced workout focuses on lengthening and contracting the back and biceps to build muscle. You’ll do 45 seconds of work with 15 seconds of rest for the back exercises, and 40 seconds of work with 20 seconds of rest for the bicep exercises. You’ll need dumbbells, and she takes you through exercises like landmine rows, palms up curls, and wide curls.
6. Sexy Back | Resistance Band Workout From Home | Heather Robertson
For this workout, you’ll need a resistance band. Follow along as she shows you how to sculpt your back with added resistance to help you gain strength, build lean muscle, and get rid of back fat. You’ll do moves like cat pull downs, bent over rows, single arm rows, and rear delt flys. You’ll also be down on the ground for one of the moves, so a workout mat would be helpful!
7. 12 Minute Back and Biceps Dumbbell Workout | HIIT | MrandMrsMuscle
This 12 minute workout is high intensity, and you’ll need dumbbells and a resistance band for it! Get ready to work up a sweat, burn lots of calories, torch fat, and build muscle. You’ll do two rounds of six exercises, 45 seconds of work, with 15 seconds rest. Get fit with exercises like bent over rows, banded pull-aparts, and bird dogs.
These pull day workouts target your upper body to build strength and muscle. You can easily do them at home with minimal equipment- just watch how your upper body transforms!
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