We love training the back muscles. Sure the chest and shoulders are cool but building a massively wide back is a sure way to show your size. In addition, the posterior chain is one of the most important muscle groups there is. In fact, it's probably the most important.
This makes the pull day one of our absolute favorite training routines. Unfortunately, you can screw this awesome workout up quite badly if you don't know how to optimally train these unified muscle groups. Don't worry: We've got your back (pun totally intended).
Table of Contents:
- What Is A Pull Day Workout?
- Lower & Upper Body Pulling Muscles
- Best Pull Day Workout Routine
- Programming Tips
- Benefits of Pull Day Workouts
- 8 Best Pull Day Exercises
There's a lot to cover. Let's get started!
What Is A Pull Day Workout Routine?
A pull day workout can mean one of two things depending on who you ask. The first example it could refer to is training all of your pulling muscles during the same session. These types of pulling exercises would include your lower body and upper body muscles. This type of split would be used primarily during push-pull training.
The other possibility would be to primarily train just the upper body pulling muscle group as well as the deadlift exercise. This type of training split would be used during what's known as a push pull legs split, otherwise known as a PPL split.
Over the past few years, the PPL split routine has gained significant popularity so this is the split we will primarily be focusing on in this article.
Regardless, the primary purpose of either of these splits is to simply provide organization in your training to optimize your workout routine.
Why Follow a Pull Day Workout Routine?
Instead of just walking into a gym and winging it, a training split simply provides guidance. A pull workout routine is just a part of this plan and will focus on your pulling muscles.
The muscle groups trained during your pull day workout routine will include your entire back and biceps as these are your upper body pulling muscles. In addition, you will also incorporate the deadlift. Don't forget to complement this session with a push day workout to ensure evenly developed muscles.
Pull Day Muscle Groups
The pulling muscles are the largest in the human body and there are a lot of them. As a whole, their primary purpose is pulling. To visualize this, a pulling motion generally consists of you pulling a load toward the body, such as in these bent over row variations. It works opposite of our pushing muscles, like the chest muscles for example, which push a load away from the body such as in the bench press.
Latissimus Dorsi:
The latissimus dorsi, or lats, are the largest muscle in the upper body making it one of the major muscle groups that make up the human body. In fact, the Latin meaning of lat's scientific name means "broadest muscle of the back".
Commonly known as "wings', this massive set of muscles attach directly to the spine and travel across the back to its widest point. The best latissimus dorsi exercises work to develop the back muscles so they protrude out to the side and can be seen easily from the front, hence its nickname "wings".
Its primary function is manipulating the shoulder joint in just about every movement pattern:
- Extensions
- Adduction
- Horizontal abduction
It also assists in lateral flexion of the spine and even expiration and respiration.
Trapezius:
After the lats, the trapezius, or traps, are the second most pronounced upper body pulling muscle. It runs from the base of the skull, expands out towards the shoulders, and then proceeds down toward the middle of the back.
The traps cover so much area that it's divided into 3 parts:
- Upper
- Middle
- Lower
Together, these three parts are the body's primary muscle that provides scapular control. This makes incorporating trapezius exercises extremely important, as it is an essential pulling muscle that ensures proper scapular stabilization and control.
In addition, it also provides stabilization for the neck as well as helps control neck movement.
Biceps:
Compared to the others, the biceps are one of the smaller muscle groups. This fact hasn't stopped it from becoming one of the most famous muscles there is.
The biceps brachii is a two-headed muscle that sits on the anterior of the upper arm between your elbow and shoulder joint. Together, this tiny muscle is a powerful flexor and supinator of the arm. Whether you work this muscle with biceps bodyweight exercises or dumbbell biceps exercises, one thing is for certain: make sure you work them.
Rear Deltoids:
The shoulder joint is manipulated by a muscle known as the deltoid. Due to the anatomical structure of the shoulder, it can be manipulated through a wide range of motion. To do this, the shoulder muscles are comprised of 3 different heads.
Unlike other muscles with various heads, the different heads of the shoulder muscles are relatively easy to isolate due to the polar opposition in their focus. Of these 3, the rear deltoid is the one primarily responsible for pulling movements.
The rear deltoid is involved with every single pulling exercise meaning it gets a lot of activation naturally. Regardless, you should involve at least one exercise to try and isolate it to optimize your training. For extra workout inspiration, these rear delt dumbbell exercises will help build your posterior shoulder muscle.
Erector Spinae:
The erector spinae is often confused by being called "your lower back". While the erector spinae is located in your lower back, this muscle runs all the way up your spine to the cervical spine!
Technically, the erector spinae consists of two sets of muscles that run up the back on either side of the spine. As it travels up, the erector spinae fingers off into 3 "fingers" that migrate towards the outside.
Together, this amazing muscle acts as your torso's entire support system. It provides rigidness and protection for your spine. Erector spinae exercises are essential for a healthy trunk and back.
Posterior Chain: Erector Spinae, Glutes, Hamstrings:
While we just talked about the erector spinae, we're going to talk about it again. This time in more detail concerning its role in the posterior chain.
We're going to address these muscles together as they will be trained together during the deadlift. The posterior chain is made up of 3 primary muscles that work in unison to provide stability to the spinal column as well as hip extension.
Having a strong posterior chain is essential for injury prevention as well as improving your other lifts and overall human performance. For example, squats, jumping, and Olympic lifts are just a few movements in which hip extension is vital.
The Best Pull Day Workout Routine
Before we go any further, let's get into the routine. We're going to lay out the best pull day workout for maximal muscle growth and strength.
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
|
Deadlift |
5 |
5 |
|
Chin Up |
3 |
6-8 |
|
T-Bar Row |
3 |
6-8 |
|
Sitting One Arm Cable Row |
3 |
8-10 |
|
Cable Face Pulls |
3 |
10-12 |
|
Cable Rear Delt Fly |
3 |
10-12 |
|
Back Extensions |
2 |
15-20 |
|
Arm Curl |
3 |
8-12 |
Using Progressive Overload
Assuming you're going to run this program for more than one session, you'll need to know how to manipulate your training for consistent growth. To do this, you'll use progressive overload by manipulating the load and reps.
For the deadlifts, you'll simply add weight to the load consistently once you're able to perform the 5X5 with the previous load.
For all other movements in this pull day program, you'll use a combination of adding reps and load. As you see, the other exercises have a range of repetitions such as 6 to 8. For these, you will always want to be in this range as you increase weight.
As you're able to perform more reps, you'll add weight to bring your reps down. You'll then simply continue this cycle.
For arm curls, you'll have a bit of freedom in this pull day routine with a big rep range of 8 to 15. Depending on how you feel, you will be able to work within this rep range with the only requirement being you bring your sets to RPE9 or even muscle failure. You'll still want to have the mindset of progression though so always have the intention of adding load, it will just be more subtle.
What If I Stall?
You will eventually stall out and stop seeing progress in your pull day routine. When this happens, simply swap out the exercises with others that share a similar movement pattern. For example:
- Deadlift-->Deficit Deadlift
- T-Bar Row-->Bent Over Row
- Single Arm Pulley --> Wide Grip Pulley
And so on. Your pull day exercise options are endless so you'll not have anything to do except build muscle and strength!
Why train deadlifts in your pull workouts?
One point that causes some confusion is training the deadlift during your PPL split; doesn't the deadlift belong on an ultimate leg workout day? It could but there are a few reasons we want to put the deadlift alongside the other back muscle exercises in this pull day routine.
1. The deadlift also trains the back muscles.
It is an awesome exercise that hits the entire posterior chain, which includes the glutes, hamstrings, and erector spinae. In addition, it also targets all of the upper back muscles including the lats and traps.
2. Performing the deadlift and squat on the same day can be challenging.
Because you are already performing a squat exercise (or several) on leg day, performing the deadlift afterward can be very challenging. Even though you technically can do it, you will suffer in the exercises due to fatigue from the other.
Therefore, separating the two of them is better for recovery, and adding the deadlift to your pull day routine makes the most sense.
Benefits Of Using A Pull Day Workout
So, now we know what pull day workouts are and the basis for their existence. The next step is to dive in and look at some of the more specific benefits of a pull day routine.
1) Pull Day Programs Keep Your Training Routine Organized:
One of the biggest killers for new lifters is not being organized as well as plain not knowing what to do. This routine fixes that as it at least has a blueprint of what you're going to do.
To be fair, any of the best workout splits will do this so it's not necessarily unique to a pull split but we still want to emphasize the importance of organization.
2) A Smart Set-Up:
Perhaps we're biased but we think the PPL split is a very smart way to train. The concept of adding the deadlift with the upper body pulling muscles works together beautifully.
A pull day allows you to train sufficiently hard on all the big moves while being able to recover fully. You've probably heard us speak of recovery more than once which should illustrate to you its importance.
Using a push-pull workout routine separates the training for your muscle groups allowing them to recover as you train the other muscles. In addition, you also have a rest day or two every week to give time for optimal recovery.
In other words, this type of training method allows you to train hard consistently.
3) A Pull Day Allows The Deadlift To Be Trained Separate From The Squat:
One reason we love using this pull day program in this fashion is it allows you to focus on the squat and deadlift on your own day. These are your most taxing exercises by far so training them separately seems to be the way to go.
This allows you to give these big lifts 100% focus which is important as these will carry over into your entire fitness routine as well as fitness level, especially the deadlift.
8 Best Pull Exercises For Pulling Muscles
There are a ton of awesome pulling exercises and it's impossible to do all of them in the same pull day session. That said, this is a great assortment of pulling exercises to get started.
Be sure to pay attention to how to perform these as good form is vital. Using proper form won't just help activate the correct muscles but also help to mitigate injury.
1. Deadlift:
You shouldn't be too surprised that the deadlift is on this list of pull day exercises. It's going to lead off the entire list of pulling exercises as it's the king of exercises.
While a "lower body" exercise, the deadlift trains the entire body including your pulling muscles. Pay special attention to the starting position as it's especially vital for proper form. Looking for some extra hamstring attention? Give the sumo deadlift a shot.
How to do the Deadlift:
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and with the bar over your mid-foot. Grab the bar outside your shins with an overhand grip.
- Sink your hips and keep your shoulders pulled back with your arms straight down as well as your shins. Keep your back straight and pull back your shoulders. Your hips should be above your knees and below your shoulders.
- Begin the movement by pushing your feet into the ground to propel your body upward. As the bar hits your knees, you then begin extending your hips to complete the movement.
- Always keep the bar on your body and aim to maintain a vertical bar path.
2. Chin-Up (Pull Up):
Even though they're bodyweight exercises, the chin-up and pull-up are top-notch pulling exercise as they hit all of the back muscles. If you can't do pull ups, it's time to learn with this pull up progression plan.
They function as a vertical pulling movement and require an individual to lift their entire body weight upwards.
Not only must you be strong enough to retract your shoulder blades under dead weight, but you must also be able to maintain this position for an extended period as you raise and lower your body weight.
If that's not enough, you also get a great bicep workout (it includes a massive bicep curl) and you'll strengthen your grip.
While they both do a great job of hitting the same muscles we like doing chin-ups as they involve more muscle mass and cause much higher activation levels in the biceps. When comparing chin ups vs. pull ups, the latter move is also awesome and both should be included in your pulling training program. If you perform pull ups, start with a shoulder width overhand grip for your hands.
How to do Chin Ups:
- Grab the pull-up bar with an underhand shoulder width grip. Your starting position will have your arms straight down in a dead hang.
- Retract your scapula and pull your shoulder blades back. Pull your body up until your chin crosses the pull-up bar, and then lower yourself in a slow and controlled motion.
3. T-Bar Row:
There are so many different row variations and all of them will build a massive back. Bent-over row, Pendlay rows, Kroc rows, and the list of this great exercise goes on. While you'd be wise to incorporate all of these in your training program from time to time, we love the T-Bar row for building muscle.
Its mixture of machine and free weights allows you to safely lift a significant load while still requiring full activation from all your stabilizer muscles. Even the "non-stabilizing" muscles fire harder to stabilize and control the load.
Further, the handle of most T-Bar row machines allows multiple grips. While you'll generally use an overhand grip with a standard grip width of slightly outside shoulder width apart, both the neutral grip and underhand grip will provide a new stimulus.
How to do T-Bar Rows:
- Stand on the foot platform and bend down to grab the handles with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and feet hip width apart.
- Stand up with the weight similar to a deadlift, and then push your hips back slightly and lean forward so your arms hang straight down and in front of your knees. You want your torso to be leaned over at a 45-degree angle or greater. This is the starting position.
- Brace your core and pull your elbows back. Think about driving your elbows to the ceiling. Pull the load up as high as you can go.
- Allow the load to be lowered slowly and controlled.
4. Sitting One Arm Cable Row:
Including at least one compound movement that utilizes unilateral movement is a fantastic idea for anybody. We have chosen the sitting one-arm cable row as it allows you to fully concentrate on your upper back.
Since your program already includes the deadlift and T-Bar row, your posterior chain is probably sufficiently stressed already. Therefore, in our pull day routine, we're going to do these sitting down.
How to do Sitting One Arm Cable Rows:
- Set up a pulley flat bench with a single-hand attachment. Sit on the bench with your feet on the footrest. Your legs should be nearly straight with knees slightly bent.
- Bend over to grab the handle. Come back until your torso is erect. Retract your scapula and drive your elbow straight back.
- Maintain a ridged torso the whole movement.
5. Cable Face Pulls:
Face pulls are an extremely simple pulling exercise yet are one of the most effective movements there is to strengthen the entire upper back and shoulders. Still, the cable face pull is an extremely effective exercise for rehab and injury prevention of the shoulder girdle.
We always perform face pulls and even have them as a part of our daily mobility routine, with a lighter load of course. This little exercise is going to blow up your upper back while ensuring your shoulder is bulletproof. Looking to switch things up in your pull day routine? These face pull alternatives work the same muscles.
How to do Cable Face Pulls:
- Set up a rope attachment on the cable pulley machine at a height slightly higher than your head. Stand back and grab the rope handle with your thumbs on top.
- Retract your scapula and pull the load toward your face. Keep your elbows high. As you get close to your head, rotate your arms so your arms come up. Your hands should be on either side of your head at the end of the movement with your thumbs facing behind you.
6. Cable Rear Delt Fly:
Another simple yet very effective exercise, the cable rear delt fly hits the entire upper back. The rear cable fly will hit the rear delts along with every other upper back muscle including the traps and rhomboids
We love using the cables in our pull day program as they provide a resistance load that's consistent throughout the entire range of motion. In addition, you have the freedom to alter the height of the cable to add some variation for optimized muscle activation.
How to do Cable Rear Delt Flys:
- Set up a cable pulley with double attachment at a height slightly higher than your shoulders. Grab the right handle with the left hand and vice-versa.
- Stand back so you're not in line with the cable machine. Allow your arms to be pulled in front of you crossing your body.
- Keeping a slight bend in your elbows, perform a "reverse hug" and swoop your arms out to your side. Your arms should be pulled back until the back of your arms is in line with each other.
7. Back Extensions:
Can you ever have a lower back that's too strong? No.
Back extensions are yet another extremely simple yet very effective back exercise. In this case, you're going to be training the lower back, specifically the erector spinae.
Back extensions work awesome. However, most people get this wrong so pay attention to its proper form to hit the erector spinae. Most people perform hip extensions which aren't bad, it just won't train the erector spinae the way we want.
How to do Back Extensions:
- Set up a back extension machine so the thigh pad is at your hip joint or slightly lower. Don't have it too low or you will recruit your hamstrings.
- Keeping a straight back, lean forward, and drop your torso. Your torso should flex, or curl, as it moves around the pad. This invokes real hip flexion and extension.
- Once you hit the bottom, extend your back until it's straight again.
8. Arm Curls:
Arm curls are plentiful and we don't like picking just one, and we certainly don't think you should limit yourself to standard bicep curls. When we look at our arm training, we like to mix it up often. That said, here are some of our favorite arm curls you can cycle through.
- Spider curls
- Drag curls
- EZ-Bar Curls
- Hammer Curls (Rope)
- Incline Curls
- Preacher Curls
Pull Workout Routine: Focus On Sleep, Diet, & Recovery
Have you heard the mantra that fitness is 80% diet and 20% gym? While inspirational, it misses the mark.
Instead of thinking of all the different fitness variables as a pyramid, view it as the most awesome Greek Colosseum you've ever seen built with each pillar being a variable. Do you see the difference?
In the 80/20 scenario, it's implied that as long as you're eating right, what you do in the gym doesn't make a huge difference. In the coliseum scenario, gym and nutrition are of the same importance and if one crumbles, the whole structure (your fitness) suffers.
Still, there are other variables such as sleep, recovery, mental health, stress, social life, and others. If any of these are out of whack, you will suffer.
The three big ones that you can control are sleep, diet, and muscle recovery. Here's a brief breakdown of each.
1) Sleep:
Don't shoot yourselves in the foot. Sleep is literally the time your body recharges itself. Further, it's also the time your body releases several anabolic hormones like testosterone and human growth hormone.
Be sure to get sleep if you're interested in muscle recovery and muscle growth.
2) Diet:
As mentioned, we don't believe nutrition is 80% of the fitness pyramid as we believe it's 100% of a separate column. Being so, if you don't have the proper nutrition to support your training session, you will topple. If you want to build muscle or strength, you need to be following a proper diet.
Be sure to be in a slight caloric surplus which includes plenty of protein (1.6-2.2g/kg), healthy fats (25-35% of your total calories), and then fill in the rest with carbs.
3) Recovery:
A bit odd but on your rest day, you need to recover! Don't get trapped in doing a "light jog" only for it to turn into an extended HIIT session. Not that HITT is bad for you but it's intense; hence it being called HITT.
While you should participate in some active recovery, keep it light so you can recover. This is essential for avoiding overtraining and burnout.
Pull Day Workout Split Summary
This pull day routine is awesome and we guarantee it will help you reach your goals. If you're interested in building muscle, gaining strength, or just improving your knowledge of lifting, you'll be extremely happy with your results after running this program for a few months.
We have used this program, or a variation of it, to train everybody. Advanced lifters, beginners, bodybuilders, general pops, and even ourselves have benefited from this training method.
Just be sure to pair this awesome split with the best push exercises and a mix of core exercises for some core stability training. And that's what we call the perfect push pull workout split.
That said, be smart with your training. If you have any questions please find a qualified personal trainer, or even shoot us a message. Here's to having the best muscle-building pull day program!
Don't forget to check out this Push Day Workout to pair with your pull routine! Interested in more push-pull programming? Head to our Ultimate Push-Pull Workout Routine.
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