Pull Day Exercises

The Complete Guide to Getting a Strong Back, Biceps, and Posterior Chain

If you’ve ever looked at fitness content online or talked to people who go to the gym a lot, you’ve probably heard the term “pull day.” But what does it mean, and why is it such an important part of good workout programming?

Listen up: “pull day” isn’t just another fitness buzzword. It’s a planned way to work out that works all the muscles that pull, like your back, biceps, rear delts, and even your forearms. If you do your pull day exercises correctly, they can change the way you look, help you stand up straighter, and build strength that you can use in your daily life.

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This complete guide will cover everything you need to know about pull day exercises in great detail. You’ll find useful tips based on science and real-world experience, whether you’re a complete beginner trying to figure out where to start or an experienced lifter looking to improve your routine.

What Is Pull Day, Exactly?

Let’s get started with the basics. Pull day is part of a popular training split that divides your workouts by movement patterns instead of muscle groups. The “push/pull/legs” split is the most common way to divide your workouts into three groups:

• Push day: Exercises where you push weight away from your body, like with your chest, shoulders, and triceps.
• Pull day: Workouts that involve pulling weight towards your body, like your back, biceps, and rear delts.
• Leg day: exercises for the lower body, like the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves

This method is very logical from both a practical and a physiological point of view. A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that organising training by movement patterns helps muscles recover better between sessions while still keeping up a good training frequency for growth. When you work out all of your pulling muscles at once, they can rest and recover while you work on other muscle groups.

Why Pull Day Is More Important Than You Think

You might be surprised to learn that most Americans have much weaker back muscles than chest and shoulder muscles. A study from 2019 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that sitting for long periods of time and leaning forward—like when you work at a desk or scroll through your phone—can cause muscle imbalances that can lead to pain and injuries that last a long time.

Pull exercises directly fix these problems. Strengthening your back muscles not only gives you a great body, but it also helps you stay healthy and functional for a long time. Strong pulling muscles help you stand up straighter, ease pain in your shoulders and neck, and even help you lift more weight in other lifts.

Also, let’s be honest: a well-built back looks amazing. That V-taper body that makes people look twice? That comes from working hard on pull day.

What You Need to Know About the Most Important Pull Day Exercises

Now let’s get to the heart of pull day training. These exercises are the most important parts of any good pull workout, and if you learn them well, you’ll be able to use them for years to come.

Deadlifts are the best pull exercise.

The deadlift is the best exercise for overall back development and functional strength. This compound movement works all of the muscles in your back, from your traps to your hamstrings.

The American Council on Exercise says that deadlifts are one of the best exercises for building strength all over your body. Deadlifts work out your lats, traps, rhomboids, erector spinae, glutes, and hamstrings all at the same time if you do them right.

How to do it correctly: Put your feet hip-width apart and the barbell over the middle of your feet. Hinge at your hips, hold the bar just outside your legs, and keep your spine straight. As you stand up, push through your heels and keep the bar close to your body. The most important thing is to keep your spine straight the whole time. Don’t round your lower back.

Do 3 to 4 sets of 5 to 8 reps, making sure your form is perfect before adding weight. Mark Rippetoe, a strength coach, says that most beginners can add 10 to 15 pounds to their deadlift each week if they follow the right program.

Pull-ups and chin-ups are great bodyweight exercises.

Pull-ups are the best way to measure your relative strength, which is how well you can move your own body weight through space. The Journal of Human Kinetics says that pull-ups work the lats, biceps, and middle back muscles better than many machines do.

Pull-ups and chin-ups are different because pull-ups use an overhand grip (palms facing away) and chin-ups use an underhand grip (palms facing you). Chin-ups are usually a little easier and work the biceps more, while pull-ups work the lats harder.

Progression strategy: Can’t do a full pull-up yet? You’re not the only one; studies show that only about 30% of American adults can do even one correct pull-up. You can start with assisted pull-ups on a machine or with a resistance band, or you can do negative pull-ups, which means jumping to the top and then slowly lowering yourself down. These strange contractions are a great way to build strength.

Try to do 3–4 sets, each with as many good reps as you can. If you can do 10–12 clean pull-ups, you might want to add weight with a dip belt.

Barbell Rows: Making Things Thicker

Pull-ups make your muscles wider, while barbell rows make them thicker. This exercise works your core for stability and hits your middle back, lats, and rear delts hard.

A 2020 study in the European Journal of Sport Science found that barbell rows really work the latissimus dorsi, trapezius, and rhomboids. This makes them very important for fully developing the back.

How to do it right: Bend your knees slightly and hinge at your hips while keeping your back flat and your core tight. Pull the bar down to your lower chest or upper abdomen, and at the top, squeeze your shoulder blades together. Lower with care. What is the most common mistake? Using too much weight and making it into a momentum workout. Stay strict.

Use a weight that is hard for you to lift and do 3–4 sets of 8–12 reps with good form.

Lat Pulldowns: The Easy Choice

Not everyone can get to a pull-up bar, which is where lat pulldowns come in. Even though research shows that pull-ups are a little better at activating muscles, lat pulldowns are still very effective and make it easier to progress because you can change the weight in small steps.

The mind-muscle connection is what makes lat pulldowns work. Research published in the Strength and Conditioning Journal shows that focussing on pulling with your elbows instead of your hands makes your lats work much harder.

To get the right form, sit with your thighs under the pads, hold the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width, and pull down to your upper chest while keeping your torso fairly straight. Don’t lean back too much, or it will feel more like rowing.

Do 3 to 4 sets of 10 to 15 reps, and really pay attention to how your lats feel as they work.

Face Pulls: The Corrector of Posture

Face pulls are an exercise that doesn’t get nearly enough attention. This exercise works your rear delts, upper traps, and rotator cuff muscles, which are all important for keeping your shoulders healthy and your posture straight.

Both physical therapists and strength coaches say that face pulls are a good way to avoid shoulder injuries. To keep your shoulder healthy, you need to work on all of the deltoid heads equally. Most people don’t work on their rear delts as much as they should because they like pressing movements.

How to do it: Tie a rope to the top of a cable machine at chest level. As you pull back, pull the rope towards your face and pull the ends apart. Squeeze your shoulder blades together. At the end of the movement, your upper arms should be parallel to the ground.

Use a moderate amount of weight and do 3–4 sets of 15–20 reps. This isn’t about ego lifting; it’s about getting your muscles to work and keeping your shoulders healthy.

Dumbbell Rows: Strength on One Side

You can work each side separately with single-arm dumbbell rows, which helps you find and fix strength imbalances. Studies show that training one side of your body at a time can make you stronger overall and lower your risk of injury by making sure both sides of your body develop at the same rate.

Execution: Put one knee and hand on a bench for support, and keep your back flat. Pull the dumbbell to your hip, making sure to pull with your elbow and squeeze your shoulder blade back. Don’t twist your torso too much.

Do 3 to 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps on each side.

The Last Step: Bicep Curls

Compound pulling movements work your biceps a lot, but direct bicep training helps your arms grow the most. The American College of Sports Medicine says that for the best muscle growth, you should do both compound and isolation exercises.

To work your biceps from different angles, try different types of curls, like barbell curls, dumbbell curls, and hammer curls. There are two heads on the biceps brachii (that’s why it’s called “bi-ceps”). Different grips work different parts of the muscle.

Tip: Take charge of the eccentric (lowering) phase. Studies show that the eccentric part of a lift can make muscles grow a lot, sometimes even more than the concentric part.

For each of your curl variations, try to do 3 to 4 sets of 10 to 15 reps.

Putting It All Together: A Sample Pull Day Workout

This is a good pull day routine that works all the major muscle groups:

Pull Day for Beginners and Intermediates:

1. Deadlifts: 3 sets of 5 to 8 reps
2. Pull-ups or Lat Pulldowns: 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps
3. Barbell Rows: Do 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps.
4. Face Pulls: 3 sets of 15 to 20 reps
5. Dumbbell curls: 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps

Pull Day for Advanced:

1. Deadlifts: 4 sets of 5 reps each
2. Weighted pull-ups: 4 sets of 6 to 10 reps
3. Do 4 sets of 8 to 10 reps of barbell rows.
4. Do 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps on each side of the single-arm dumbbell row.
5. Pulls on the face: 3 sets of 15–20 reps
6. Barbell curls: three sets of 10 to 12 reps
7. Hammer Curls: Three sets of 12 to 15 reps each How often should you work out on Pull Day?

Most people find that training pull movements once or twice a week is the best amount of time. A thorough study in Sports Medicine found that training each muscle group twice a week is better than training them once a week, especially for building muscle.

If you do a push/pull/legs split, you might do it twice a week (for a total of six days of training) or once a week (for a total of three days of training), depending on how quickly you recover and how your schedule works out. Your body knows best—getting enough rest is just as important as the training itself.

Things You Shouldn’t Do

These are mistakes that even experienced lifters make on pull day:

Using too much momentum: Swinging and jerking the weight may help you lift more, but it also makes your muscles less tense and makes you more likely to get hurt. Keep the weight under control throughout the whole range of motion.

Ignoring the mind-muscle connection: Studies show that focussing on the muscle you want to work out makes it more active. Don’t just lift weights; feel your muscles working.

Not paying attention to grip strength: Your grip often gives out before your back muscles do. For your heaviest sets, think about using lifting straps to make sure your back gets a full workout. You should also do grip work on its own.

Not warming up: Muscles that are cold are more likely to get hurt. Before you start doing heavy pulls, spend 5 to 10 minutes doing dynamic stretches and light cardio.

Conclusion of Pull Day Exercises

If you want to build a strong, balanced, and functional body, you have to do pull day exercises. They fight the effects of modern sedentary lifestyles, lower the risk of injury, and give you that impressive V-taper that everyone wants.

The best thing about pull training is how easy it is. You don’t need fancy equipment or complicated rules. All you need to do is keep working on the basic movements we’ve talked about. Start with the basics, work on progressive overload (slowly adding weight or reps over time), and be patient with the process.

It’s not just about how your back looks, though that’s a nice bonus. It’s about building a strong base that helps you do everything else, both in and out of the gym. The benefits of dedicated pull training go far beyond the weight room. For example, you can pick up your kids, carry groceries, or just sit at your desk with better posture.

So take hold of that bar, use your lats and start pulling. Your future self, who will have a strong, pain-free back, will be grateful to you for it. You can start your journey to a stronger back with just one rep, and now is the best time to do it.