When you begin your fitness journey, one goal may be to reach overall muscle growth, and incorporating pull days is a perfect way to help reach those goals. While it may be easy to skip pull day, this could set you back by not steadily gaining muscles in your back and biceps.

Let’s take a look at the importance of a pull day, what it entails, and some common pull day exercises to activate your back and bicep muscles.

What is a Pull Day?

In the world of exercise and gym-goers, there appears to be a certain language people use to describe workouts and specific workout days. Such is the case with the term “pull day.” A pull day is a day, or workout session, where the sole focus is on strengthening the muscle groups used in pulling movements, like your bicep and back muscles.

Typically a pull day is not a literal full day spent in the gym, but rather a single workout session, anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, dedicated to gaining muscle through pulling movements.

This is similar to how there are “leg days” and “push days” that are also focused solely on the respective muscle groups.

Pull days are helpful, and popular, as they can keep gym goers on track with their goals, while also providing other muscle groups to rest and recover.

Gym with man working out.

The Connection Between Back and Bicep Muscles

How exactly do back and bicep muscles both play into a pull day? Both muscle groups are activated when you are pulling a dumbbell, cable, or barbell in a workout routine. When these muscles are activated, whether in the gym or just the day to day, the back works as the driving force to pull weights back, while the biceps support this movement through bending the elbow and keeping your arms closer to your body.

When worked together in a pull day, you are helping to optimize muscle growth both in the back muscles and bicep muscles.

We have previously discussed the difference between the bicep and back muscles, and what they are made up of. Here is a quick overview of both to gain a better understanding of how both are important to train together during a pull day.

What Are Your Bicep Muscles?

Your bicep muscles are made up of unique and distinct muscle fibers, which are:

  • The Bicep Brachii Muscle
    • Long Head: located on the outer side of your arm, and helps to bend your elbow.
    • Short Head: located on the inner side of your arm, and closer to your body.
  • The Brachialis Muscle
    • Located underneath the brachii which also works to actively support the bend of the elbow.
  • The Brachioradialis Muscle
    • Considered a forearm muscle, which is activated when gripping a dumbell or barbell.

Being mindful of these muscles within the biceps can help you to know exactly what muscles you’re activating, and can provide a stronger mind-to-muscle connection. After all, the bicep is not simply just one major muscle, it is made up of other muscles that all equally need attention during a pull day.

Common Bicep Workouts

Some of the most common bicep workouts include:

  • Barbell Curl
  • Reverse Curl
  • Hammer Curl

What Are Your Back Muscles?

Your back muscles are one of the larger muscles on your body, which, similar to the biceps, are also made up of complex and unique muscles. Some of the major muscles that make up your back include:

  • The Latissimus Dorsi (lats)
    • When defined, they give a “V” shape to the back.
    • Activated during shoulder extension, adduction, internal rotation, and offers stability.
  • The Trapezius
    • Upper traps: Located at the bottom of the back of the head, and works to lift and tilt our head back or forth and helps to extend the neck.
    • Middle traps: In between the upper and lower traps, from the neck to the middle of the back, the middle trap works to stabilize the muscles when activated.
    • Lower traps: Found in the middle section of the back all the way up to the shoulder blades, and works to activate shoulder blades.
  • Erector Spinae
    • Located vertically along the spine, but the lumbar section (always known as the low back) is important when activating the back muscles.
    • The lower back region muscles work to extend the back forwards, backwards, to the side, and helps with stabilization.

In the same way it is helpful to be aware of the muscles that make up your biceps, the same goes for being knowledgeable about the muscles that make up your back. This not only helps you create the mind-to-muscle connection, but also helps you understand what certain areas you want to focus on more.

Common Back Workouts

Similar to the bicep workouts, we have discussed some common back workouts you can incorporate at your gym. These back workouts include:

  • Reverse fly
  • Shoulder press
  • Bird dog row

Why You Should Train Back and Bicep Muscles Together

Now that you have a better idea of what the biceps and back muscles are made up of, and how they work, it can be helpful to see why you should train both during your pull day. Here are some reasons why you should consider training your back and bicep muscles together:

  1. Focus: Setting a workout day to focus on the back and bicep muscles (pull day) together can provide thorough dedication and intention on these two groups. This focus can help you to reach overall muscle growth and strength.
  2. Complimentary: In many ways, the bicep and back muscles almost complement one another in a variety of different workouts. Sometimes you may not realize how a particular back workout is also activating your bicep muscles and vice versa. Since they almost rely on one another’s functions and movements, it makes sense to activate them both during a set.
  3. Gives Rest: Rest days in a workout routine are just as important as the active days. Incorporating a pull day will give time for other muscle groups to rest and recover. For example, if Monday is focused on legs, then it may not be ideal to also focus on legs on Tuesday. Rather, it would be more helpful overall to use Tuesday as your upper body pull day so that your legs can better recover.
  4. Breaks Up the Monotony: Even when you are reaching your fitness goals, seeing improvement and growth, it can be easy to get stuck in the monotony of your routine. Including pull days, leg days, or arm days to your set schedule can add more variety to your gym visits.

Best Exercises to Target Both Bicep and Back Muscles

If you are looking to get more intentional with pull days and start activating your biceps and back muscles together, here are some common exercises to do just that:

  • Deadlift with bent row
  • Rower machine (keep body upright)
  • T-Bar row
  • Single arm pulldown
  • Kroc row with dumbbell
  • Reverse pec deck
  • Lat pulldown

Something to keep in mind when performing these workouts is to be aware of how you are feeling at the end of each rep. If it feels too easy, or that you’re breezing through 6-8 reps rather quickly, that most likely means you can increase your weights. But, if you’re finding that you reach exhaustion at the end of 6-8 reps you are most likely in the right weight range.

As a general rule, try to aim for 6-8 repetitions of each exercise, at least 3 times.

Basic Workout Split Routine for Muscle Growth

Whether you are new to fitness or looking to create a better rhythm in visiting your local gym, then it may be helpful to create a split workout routine to reach your goals. Here is an example of what a split schedule workout routine might look like:

Sunday: Leg Day (45-60 minutes)
Monday: Pull Day (45-60 minutes)
Tuesday: Push Day (45-60 minutes)
Wednesday: Rest Day
Thursday: Full Body Workout (45-60 minutes)
Friday: Cardio (45-60 minutes)
Saturday: Rest Day

By incorporating a schedule like this into your routine, you can help to keep yourself accountable by knowing which days you should show up at the gym and perform to the best of your ability! A split schedule also gives room to rest days which are important for your muscles so that they can recover to perform better. You can also make a split schedule work any way you’d like it to, meaning you can determine which days will focus on which muscle group.

Weight floor at Carbon Performance

Pull Days at Carbon Performance in Franklin, TN

If you’re looking for a place to begin, or grow, in your fitness journey, then visit us at Carbon Performance in the greater Nashville area. With a dedicated staff, top of the line equipment, and designated zones to focus on specific muscle groups, you’re bound to find growth at Carbon.

Beyond joining Carbon as a gym member, you’ll also have the ability to attend a variety of group fitness classes if you’re looking for more accountability in your workout routine. We offer:

  • Les Mills Body Pump
  • Yoga
  • Cycling
  • Pilates (mat)

We also have a crew of knowledgeable and dedicated personal trainers to answer any questions you may come across during your fitness journey.

So check us out today at either our Franklin or Nations location in the greater Nashville area to see how you can better reach any of your fitness goals with us, at Carbon Performance.