Unlock your strength: Best pull workout with dumbbells
Pull workouts with dumbbells are a great way to build muscle, strength and improve your overall fitness. Dumbbells are a versatile and affordable piece of equipment that can be used to perform a variety of pull exercises, making them a great option for people of all fitness levels.
In this blog post, we will discuss the benefits of pull workouts with dumbbells, provide instructions for a few basic pull exercises and offer tips for getting the most out of your workouts.
What is a pull workout?
A pull day is a workout routine that includes only pull exercises. Some leg exercises that target the hamstrings may also be classified as pulling movements.
However, “pull-day” usually means workouts that focus on upper-body pulling exercises.
Muscles worked in pull workout
- Latissimus dorsi (lats): The lats are the large, fan-shaped muscles on your back. They are responsible for pulling your arms down and back, and they play a major role in many upper body exercises, such as pull-ups, rows and deadlifts.
- Rhomboids: The rhomboids are a group of muscles located between your shoulder blades. They help to retract and stabilize your shoulder blades. They are important for maintaining good posture.
- Trapezius: The trapezius is a large, trapezoidal muscle that extends from your neck to your mid-back. It helps to raise and elevate your shoulder blades. It is also involved in head rotation and neck extension.
- Bicep muscles: Your primary biceps muscle twists the wrist outward and flexes the elbow. The biceps brachii is composed of two heads: the short head and the long head.
- Posterior deltoids: The posterior deltoids (rear delts) are the rear heads of your deltoids, or shoulder muscles. They are responsible for extending and rotating your shoulder joint.
Pull exercises
You’ll need at least one pair of dumbbells for these exercises to target your back and upper body.
Dumbbell row
A compound exercise for training general back strength
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand, arms extended in front of you.
- Bend at your hips and knees, lowering your torso until it’s nearly parallel to the ground. Keep your back straight and core engaged.
- With your palms facing your thighs, pull the dumbbells up towards your hips, squeezing your shoulder blades together.
- Lower the dumbbells back down with control, fully extending your arms.
Dumbbell pullover
Unique in that it also involves some pectorial (chest) muscle during the exercise
Due to its widely-targeting muscular recruitment pattern, the dumbbell pullover is suitable for both pull and push days
- Lie on your back on a bench with your head and upper back supported.
- Hold a dumbbell with both hands above your chest, arms extended but not locked.
- Slowly lower the dumbbell backward over your head while maintaining a slight bend in your elbows.
- Lower the dumbbell as far as your flexibility allows without discomfort, feeling a stretch in your chest and lats.
- Bring the dumbbell back up to the starting position by flexing your chest and lats.
Renegade row
- Place yourself in an extended plank position while holding a dumbbell in each hand
- Making sure the palms are facing each other.
- Keeping the core tight, bend one elbow up to lift the dumbbell to the waist.
- Gently lower it down to the starting position, then repeat with the other dumbbell.
Reverse fly
- Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand.
- Hinge at the hips to tilt the torso forward and extend the arms down with the palms facing each other.
- Open the arms out and up until parallel to the floor, squeezing the back muscles as you lift.
- Lower the weights down with control to complete the repetition.
Dumbbell deadlift
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand in front of your thighs.
- Hinge at your hips and bend your knees to lower the dumbbells towards the ground, maintaining a flat back.
- Push through your heels to stand up straight, lifting the dumbbells with you.
- Lower the dumbbells back to the starting position with control.
Bicep curls or alternating bicep curls
- Stand with a dumbbell in each hand, arms fully extended, and palms facing forward.
- Alternate lifting one dumbbell towards your shoulder while keeping your elbow stationary.
- Lower it back down and repeat with the other arm.
Dumbbell upright row
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, holding a set of dumbbells in your hands with your palms facing your thighs
- Slowly lift the weight in front of your torso, keeping it close to your body, until your elbows reach shoulder height.
- Pause, then reverse the movement, lowering the weights back to the starting position.
5 benefits of pull exercises
- Build muscle and strength: Pull workouts are a great way to build muscle and strength in your back, biceps, shoulders, and core. When you do pull workouts, you are using your muscles to pull your body up or towards you. Pull workouts are a great way to build muscle and strength because they allow you to lift a lot of weight.
- Improve posture: Pull workouts can help to improve your posture by strengthening the muscles that support your spine. Pull workouts work all of the muscles in your back, including the muscles that support your spine. When these muscles are strong, they can help to keep your back straight and your shoulders back and down.
- Reduce risk of injury: Pull workouts can help to reduce your risk of injury by strengthening the muscles that support your joints. When the muscles around your joints are strong, they can help to support and protect your joints from injury.
- Improve athletic performance: Pull workouts can improve your athletic performance by increasing your strength and power. Stronger muscles mean that you can generate more force, which means that you can jump higher, throw further, and hit harder.
In addition to increasing your strength and power, pull workouts can also improve your coordination and balance. This is because pull workouts require you to use multiple muscle groups at the same time. - Burn calories and lose weight: Pull workouts are a great way to burn calories and lose weight. Pull workouts work all of the major muscle groups in your body, so they burn a lot of calories.
In addition to these benefits, pull workouts can also improve your grip strength, coordination, and balance.
Pull day workout
This upper body workout is designed to target all of the major muscle groups in your back, shoulders and arms that will improve your upper body strength. It is a great dumbbell pull workout and can be modified to fit your fitness level.
Dumbbell rows
4 sets of 12-15 reps per arm
Renegade rows
4 sets of 8-10 reps per side
Dumbbell pullovers
4 sets of 10-12 reps
Alternating bicep curls
4 sets of 10-12 reps per arm
Dumbbell deadlifts
4 sets of 8-10 reps
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Tips for getting the most out of your pull workouts
- Focus on compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups.
- Use a weight that is challenging but allows you to maintain proper form.
- Squeeze your muscles at the top of each repetition.
- Slowly lower the weight on each repetition.
- Breathe deeply and evenly throughout each exercise.
