Are pull-ups and rows enough to train the biceps?

There are two main philosophies when it comes to developing biceps.

On the one hand, you have bodybuilders who spend an entire workout each week training their arms with braids of all kinds. This, they say, is the only way to build impressive rifles.

On the flip side, there are strength athletes and “moderate fitness people” who say all biceps exercises are strong muscles. In their book, you only need to do a few sets of barbell pull-ups per week to add volume to your “Repeater.”

Who is right?

Should biceps exercises have a place in your training, or are pull-ups enough?

This is what science says.

biceps muscle anatomy

The Biceps brachiimore commonly referred to as bicepsIt is a biceps muscle located in the upper anterior part an armbetween the shoulder and elbow.

Its main functions be elbow flexion (Bend your elbow to bring your hand to your shoulder) Forearm supine (roll your arm, palms facing up), although it also plays a smaller role in this shoulder flexion (Raise your arm from your side to above your head.)

Here’s what the muscle looks like:

Usually people train biceps isolation exercisessuch as barbells, dumbbells and preacher knot. These exercises are effective in training the biceps because they allow you to bend your elbow against external resistance.

but, compound pulling exercisesincluding pull-ups, pull-downs, rows, also training for elbow flexion, which is why some people believe that these exercises are all you need to develop biceps.

In other words, they think you can remove all biceps isolates from your program as long as they actually include plenty of stretching, which can cut a significant amount of time from some of your workouts or allow you to drop a biceps workout each week. entirely.

It’s an interesting situation, but does the science agree?

Do pull-ups and pull-ups for the back that work the biceps?

To answer this question, researchers in University of Brasilia He had 29 untrained men perform 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps shame (The point at which you cannot complete a rep despite your best effort) from any of the longitude drop down Or bicep curls twice weekly for 10 weeks.

(Participants in this study did not Pull. However, pulling and pulling out are two very similar exercises and Train for you Relatively biceps. Therefore, we can likely use the results of this study to understand whether pulling also trains the biceps as effectively as the biceps exercise.)

The results showed that both groups gained the same amount of muscle and strength. Here’s a graph to show the difference in muscle size:

These results show that the pull-down exercise (and then possibly the pull-up) trains the biceps as well as the biceps exercise, which raises the question, is there any reason to do pull-ups And the Curls in your show?

for precedent study From the same research group provides an answer.

In this study, scientists had 29 other untrained men 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps, no failures Biceps and back curls are done twice weekly for 10 weeks.

This means that the participants who performed the pull-down and biceps exercise did about twice as much biceps the sound (Groups and Actors) As a group they only quit. This is important because, to some extent, The more you do For a muscle group, the more you grow.

Again, the results showed no significant difference between the groups with regard to muscle and strength gain. Here is a graph showing the difference in muscle size:

There is one major caveat to consider in this study: the participants were completely New to weightlifting. This is important because new weight lifters need very little volume to make progress.

Thus, it is possible that doing three sets of pull-downs twice a week is enough to make a beginner’s biceps grow, and doing additional sets of biceps curls were unnecessary or “unwanted” volume (extra sets and reps that produce little or no additional gain).

If the researchers had studied more experienced weightlifters, the results might have been different. This is because the more you progress, the more resistance your muscles will have had become For the muscle-building effects of weight lifting, the more you benefit from higher training volumes.

Regardless of this condition, both studies show that doing biceps isolation doesn’t help much with biceps growth if you’re new to lifting weights, provided you already do plenty of pullups (exercises that involve pulling the weight toward your torso from the top). .head) every week.

What’s more, even once you have more experience lifting weights under your belt, you can still get similar results simply by doing more sets of pull-ups than if you did biceps.

Work out your biceps in rows?

in study Conducted by scientists at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, researchers trained 10 untrained men on one side of their body using Single arm dumbbell row The other with biceps flexion twice weekly for 8 weeks.

In the first 4 weeks, the participants performed 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps of each exercise for each exercise, and in the last 4 weeks, they performed 6 sets of 8 to 12 reps of each exercise for each exercise.

The results showed that doing the rows caused less than half of the biceps growth as the curls. Here is a diagram illustrating this point:

If biceps growth is a top priority, you probably shouldn’t rely solely on horizontal pull-ups (exercises that involve pulling the weight toward your torso in front of you), which include dumbbell rows, barbell rows, and cable rows.

These exercises still train the biceps, but not quite as much as isolating biceps exercises like curls.

What is the best way to train biceps?

It also allows you to train your biceps when it is not practical to do so with a compound exercise. For example, file latsAnd the trapsThe lozenges will likely be infused after several sets of stretching exercises, but the biceps may be relatively fresh. Training them with just a few sets of braids ensures that they are sufficiently stimulated, which is vital Maximize growth.

Moreover, biceps exercises make it easy to train biceps in different positions and through different Movement rangeswhich is possible Produces More balanced and complete muscle growth than training them with just 2 or 3 stretches.

Another perfectly good reason to include biceps exercises in your program is that they are fun, and fun and engaging workouts are usually more productive than boring ones.

With that said, I think the best way to train biceps is to make compound pull-ups the centerpiece of your workout, then “raise” your biceps volume with bicep isolation exercises that gain every last drop of muscle and gain strength from an exercise.

The best way to apply this is to do two exercises per week to train the biceps: one pull workout Which you do early in the week and one Upper body workout The ones you do later in the week that emphasize your arms.

This is how I like to organize my own training and the approach I endorse in my fitness books for men and women, Bigger smaller and stronger or Thinner, smaller and stronger.

Here is an example of what a pull-up exercise might look like:

Deadlift: 3 sets of 4 to 6 reps with 2 to 3 minutes rest

Single-arm dumbbell pull-up: 3 sets of 4 to 6 reps with 2 to 3 minutes rest

drag line: 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps with 2 to 3 minutes rest

Alternating dumbbell curl: 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps with 2 to 3 minutes rest

Here’s an example of an upper body exercise that focuses on your arms:

Pull: 3 sets of 4 to 6 reps with 2 to 3 minutes rest

Close Handle Press: 3 sets of 4 to 6 reps with 2 to 3 minutes rest

iron curl: 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps with 2 to 3 minutes rest

Triceps pull-up exercise: 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps with 2 to 3 minutes rest