You might be asking yourself… what is a pull workout? How will it benefit me?
A: Push/pull workouts are a workout split which separates days by movement, not muscle group.
Push- chest, shoulders, triceps
Pull- back, rear delts, biceps
This may translate into your week looking something like ‘push, pull, legs’ repeated once or twice per week.
Benefits of training more muscles in the same session include;
increased rest time between sets so that you might go heavier on each exercise, rather than being completely fatigued in one muscle by the end of your session
less debilitating DOMS as there is less metabolic stress placed on one muscle (although this can influence hypertrophy)
you can train as little as 3 times a week and hit each muscle group once
An outline of an effective pull session:
Deadlifts
Arguably the king of exercises. Deadlifts tax a huge range of muscles, from the glutes, to the quads to the traps. They can fit in with either a back or leg day depending on how often you train each and where you feel them most. Often, sumo stance deadlifts will be better suited to leg days, while a conventional deadlift will fit in better with a back day.
Pendlay row
These are essentially a bent over row with a dead-stop on the floor between each rep and a parallel position to the floor maintained. These completely remove any ego from your row.
Lat pull over
Rest your upper back on a bench and hold a dumbbell above your face, move it back behind your head until you feel a stretch in the lats and repeat. Some gyms have a machine variation of this movement.
Wide grip lat pull down
A staple for any back training.
Seated DB curl
Seated variations of exercise take core involvement out, they also limit how much you can assist the movement by swinging the weight. Try to include both in your programme!
Cable rope curl ss/ low face pull
With the cable machine on the lowest setting and a rope attachment, complete a set of 10-15 cable curls, going straight into a set of the same reps of face pulls from the low position.