Back and biceps day: rows and pulldowns first, curls to finish

Every row and pulldown bends the elbow against a load, and the biceps is one of the muscles that bends it. A back session is already a biceps session, so the curls at the end add to work the arms have started. Trained together, the two recover together, and the days between are open for pressing, legs or rest without tired arms getting in the way.

The catch is grip and arm fatigue. Curl first and your arms give out on the rows before your back does, so the pulls come first, heaviest to lightest, and the curls last. The back training guide explains what each kind of pull trains and what grip width changes; this page turns that into one session.

Pair it with the chest and triceps workout, a day or two apart, so pushing and pulling get equal time across the week. Once a week is enough when other days also train the back, such as rows on an upper-body day; twice suits anyone on a body-part split who wants more back and arm work. All the other sessions and plans are in the workout plans library.

The session opens with one of each kind of pull: a heavy row, which brings the arms back towards the body, and a pulldown, which brings them down from overhead. The two lighter pulls that follow split the same way, one for the lats with straight arms and one for the upper back and rear shoulders.

There is no deadlift or Romanian deadlift, and that is deliberate. The bent-over row already loads the lower back for four hard sets; a heavy hinge before it would leave less for the rows, and one after them would be done tired. The hinge sits on leg day, as in the lower body gym workout. If your week has no other hinge, put three sets of Romanian deadlifts first and swap the barbell row for a one-arm dumbbell row, so the lower back is not loaded twice.

Grip changes do some of the work of extra exercises. Use an overhand grip on the barbell row, an underhand grip on the pulldown to bring the biceps in more, and a neutral grip on the hammer curl. Change grip between exercises rather than within a set, and keep each exercise's grip the same from week to week so the loads stay comparable.

Both versions are written for someone with a few months of training. Adjust them like this:

• First two or three months: two sets of each exercise at the top of every rep range, with three reps still in hand. Use the gym version, where the pulldown lets you set the load in small steps, and a plain EZ-bar curl.
• Intermediate: the sets as written, one or two reps in reserve, and a third set on the second curl if your elbows are happy. Training back twice a week? Make one day heavier, with rows at 5 or 6 reps, and the other lighter at 10 to 12.
• Weekly sets: a meta-analysis by Schoenfeld and colleagues found that more weekly sets per muscle tend to bring more growth, up to a point. Around ten back sets a week is a sensible start, and 15 to 20 across two sessions suits trained lifters who recover well.
• Progress: add reps until all your sets are at the top number, then move up one weight step. The American College of Sports Medicine describes the same approach for healthy adults.

Apart from the preacher curl, everything in both versions uses kit that appears in RPM's floor photos: the cable towers with their pulldown seat, barbells, the rack of fixed barbells with its EZ bars, the dumbbell rack and flat benches. A pull-up bar, a T-bar row station and a preacher bench do not appear, so ask on the free guided tour what is on the floor and which stations sit in the women-only Ladies section. To have your row technique checked, ask about personal training.