Pull day workout: the exercises, the routine, and how to progress it

A pull day workout trains everything that pulls: your back, rear delts, and biceps. Build it around one heavy row and one vertical pull, then stack higher-rep upper-back and arm work behind them — 5–6 exercises, 15–20 total sets. Here's the routine, the swaps that work, and the mistakes that keep pull days from building a back.

What a pull day is

Pull day is the second third of the push pull legs split: lats, traps, rhomboids, rear delts, and biceps in one session. These muscles assist each other on every pull — training them together means they fatigue together and recover together, instead of your biceps being secretly wrecked the day before arm work.

The pull day workout

• Barbell Row — 4×6–8

• Pull-Ups or Lat Pulldown — 3×6–10

• Chest-Supported Row — 3×10–12

• Face Pull — 3×15–20

• Barbell Curl — 3×8–12

• Hammer Curl — 2×10–12

Around 45–70 minutes. Rest 2–3 minutes on the big rows and pulls, 60–90 seconds on the rest. 60 kg or 135 lb — the units don't matter; beating last week does.

Why this order

One horizontal, one vertical. Rows build thickness (mid-back, traps, rhomboids); vertical pulls build width (lats). A complete back needs both every pull day, the same way push day needs both bench and overhead press.

Rear delts get their own slot. Face pulls (or rear-delt flys) hit the muscles that pressing days ignore and hunched-at-a-desk posture punishes. Twenty-rep sets, light weight, no ego.

Biceps last. They've been working the whole session. Two or three direct exercises at the end is plenty — pull day is arm day's first half.

Exercise swaps that work

• Barbell Row → Pendlay row, T-bar row, seal row

• Pull-Ups → chin-ups, weighted pull-ups, lat pulldown, assisted pull-ups (work toward the real thing)

• Chest-Supported Row → seated cable row, single-arm dumbbell row, machine row

• Face Pull → rear delt fly, reverse pec-deck

• Curls → incline dumbbell curl, cable curl, preacher curl

Pick a menu and hold it for a 4–6 week block. Rotating exercises weekly feels productive and measures nothing.

How to progress it

Double progression, same as everywhere: own the rep range, and when every set hits the top of it, add 2.5 kg (5 lb) and rebuild. Pull-ups progress by reps first — when you clear the top of the range across all sets, add load with a belt or dumbbell.

One honest caveat: rows are the easiest lift in the gym to fake. A 100 kg (220 lb) row with a heaving torso is a 60 kg row with witnesses. Log the weight you actually rowed with the form you'd defend on video.

Where it fits in your week

Pull day assumes a push day and a leg day around it — the full PPL structure at 3–6 days per week. Only training four days? An upper/lower split folds this pulling work into two upper sessions and keeps the twice-a-week frequency.

Common pull day mistakes

• Every row is a lat pulldown. Vertical pulls only build so much. The rows are where back thickness lives.

• Zero rear delt work. Skipping face pulls on pull day means nothing in your week trains them. They're 5 minutes. Do them.

• Curling first, rowing tired. Compounds first, always. Pre-fatigued biceps turn every row into a forearm exercise.

• Half-rep pull-ups. Dead hang to chin over bar, or it's a rep for the ego log, not the training log.

FAQ

What muscles does pull day work? Lats, traps, rhomboids, rear delts, biceps, and forearms — everything involved in pulling a weight toward you.

How many exercises should pull day have? Five or six: a heavy row, a vertical pull, a second row variation, rear-delt work, and one or two curls. Beyond that you're mostly collecting fatigue.

Should I deadlift on pull day? You can — many PPL programs put deadlifts first on one of the two weekly pull days. If you do, drop one row variation to make room for the recovery cost.

How often should I train pull? Twice a week for most lifters — a 6-day PPL, or the pulling halves of a 4-day upper/lower.

Why is my back not growing from pull day? Usually one of three: all vertical pulls and no hard rows, rows so cheated the lats never work, or no logged progression. Fix the third first — it exposes the other two.

Know what to beat before you touch the bar

Pull day rewards the boring stuff: same exercises, honest reps, small weekly jumps — which means remembering exactly what you did last week. Swole Protocol keeps your program and every logged set, and serves that history to the AI you already use — Claude, ChatGPT, any MCP client — so "what do I need to beat on pull day?" gets answered before your warm-up ends. Full setup here.

Connect your AI at swoleprotocol.com.