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Exercises

Pull day warm-up: hang, squeeze, then ramp up your first pull

Published October 24, 2026

For pull day, ride the air bike easy for 3 minutes, hang from the pull-up bar for 30 seconds, do 12 scapular band squeezes, 12 straight-arm pulldowns and 15 band face pulls, then take 2 or 3 ramp-up sets of your first pull: easier pull-ups, light pulldowns, or light deadlifts if the day starts with them. About 7 minutes, plus the ramp.

  1. Air Bike Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes
  2. Dead Hang Forearms
  3. Band Scapular Retraction Upper Back
  4. Straight-Arm Pulldown Lats
  5. Band Face Pull Shoulders, Upper Back
  6. Pull-Up Lats
  7. Lat Pulldown Lats

Raise: 3 minutes on the air bike

The air bike works your arms as well as your legs, so the lats and biceps get warm along with everything else. Keep it easy; the fan makes it hard fast.

Raise: fan bike that moves arms and legs together

Air Bike

Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes

Pushing and pulling the handles warms the arms and back, and three easy minutes is enough.

How to do it

  1. Set the seat so your knee keeps a slight bend at the bottom of the pedal stroke.
  2. Hold the handles and pedal while you push and pull them in turn.
  3. Keep the effort low for the first minutes and lift it a little near the end.

Cues

  • Work the handles both ways
  • Easy first, brisk last

Common mistakes

  • Sprinting from the first second: the fan makes effort climb fast, so stay easy.

Swap for: Stationary Bike, Rowing Machine, Ski Erg

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Open the lats and get ready to hinge

Hang from the bar to let the shoulders reach fully overhead, the position pull-ups and pulldowns start from. If your pull day includes deadlifts or rows, add the band good morning so the hips and back get ready to hinge.

Mobility: hang from a bar to open the shoulders and lats

Dead Hang

Forearms

Hanging lets the lats lengthen and the shoulders sit fully overhead, the start of every pull-up and pulldown rep.

How to do it

  1. Grip a pull-up bar overhand with your hands about shoulder width.
  2. Lift your feet and let your body hang with straight arms.
  3. Breathe slowly and let your shoulders rise toward your ears, then step down.

Cues

  • Relaxed, straight arms
  • Slow breathing

Common mistakes

  • Swinging or kicking: hang still so the stretch reaches the lats.

Swap for: Straight-Arm Pulldown, Pull-Up, Arm Circles

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Activation: hip hinge with a band for the back and hamstrings

Band Good Morning

Hamstrings, Lower Back

On a pull day with deadlifts, a set of banded hinges warms the hamstrings and back before the bar comes off the floor.

How to do it

  1. Stand on a band and loop the other end behind your neck, resting on your upper back.
  2. Soften your knees and push your hips back, folding forward with a flat back.
  3. Drive the hips forward to stand up tall against the band.

Cues

  • Hips back, chest proud
  • Flat back the whole way

Common mistakes

  • Rounding your back to reach lower: stop where your hips stop moving back.

Swap for: Dumbbell Good Morning, Romanian Deadlift, Superman

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Activate the shoulder blades and lats

Pulling starts at the shoulder blades. Practice moving them alone with straight arms, then add the straight-arm pulldown so the lats work without the biceps, and finish with face pulls for the upper back.

Activation: band squeeze that pulls the shoulder blades back

Band Scapular Retraction

Upper Back

Moving the shoulder blades with straight arms teaches the first inch of every pull, so the back starts the rep instead of the arms.

How to do it

  1. Hold a light band at chest height with straight arms.
  2. Without bending your elbows, draw your shoulder blades back and together.
  3. Let them spread forward again slowly, keeping the arms straight the whole time.

Cues

  • Arms stay straight
  • Move the blades only

Common mistakes

  • Bending the elbows to pull: then it becomes a row and the blades do less.

Swap for: Band Pull-Apart, Band Bent-Over Row, Inverted Row

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Activation: cable lat sweep with straight arms

Straight-Arm Pulldown

Lats

The lats work through their whole range with the biceps out of the way, so they are the first muscle to fire on your pulls.

How to do it

  1. Stand facing a high cable with a bar, hands shoulder width apart, arms straight.
  2. Hinge slightly and sweep the bar down to your thighs while your arms stay long.
  3. Let the bar rise back to eye level slowly and feel the lats lengthen.

Cues

  • Long arms
  • Pull to your pockets

Common mistakes

  • Bending the elbows to pull harder: it becomes a pushdown and the lats do less.

Swap for: Dumbbell Lat Pullover, Lat Pulldown, Dead Hang

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Activation: rear delts and rotator cuff with a band at face height

Band Face Pull

Shoulders, Upper Back

It warms the rear delts and upper back, which finish every row and keep the shoulders steady at the top of pull-ups.

How to do it

  1. Anchor a band at about face height and take one end per hand, arms straight.
  2. Pull toward your forehead, elbows high and hands spreading wide past your ears.
  3. Hold a second, then reach the arms back out under control.

Cues

  • Elbows high
  • Hands finish beside your ears

Common mistakes

  • Pulling the hands to your chin with the elbows down: that turns it into a row.

Swap for: Face Pull, TRX Face Pull, Band Pull-Apart

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Activation: suspension row with the knees bent

TRX Row

Upper Back, Lats

An easy set of suspension rows rehearses the row path with your own bodyweight before loaded rows.

How to do it

  1. Hold the handles, lean back with bent knees and flat feet, arms straight.
  2. Pull your chest up toward the handles, elbows going back beside your ribs.
  3. Lower back to straight arms with control.

Cues

  • Squeeze the shoulder blades
  • Walk the feet in to make it harder

Common mistakes

  • Shrugging up toward the handles: pull the elbows back, not the shoulders up.

Swap for: Inverted Row, Band Bent-Over Row, Seated Cable Row

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Ramp up on your first pull

Pull-ups ramp with an easier version: a band, the assisted machine, or a few reps short of your normal set. Pulldowns and deadlifts ramp with light loads that climb in two or three steps.

First lift: pull-up with ramp-up sets

Pull-Up

Lats

If pull-ups open the day, a few easy reps are the most specific warm-up there is.

How to do it

  1. Hang from the bar with an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders.
  2. Pull your chest toward the bar, driving the elbows down to your sides.
  3. Lower to straight arms under control.

Cues

  • Chest to the bar
  • Full hang between reps

Common mistakes

  • Kicking the legs to finish reps: on warm-up sets, every rep should be clean.

Swap for: Lat Pulldown, Assisted Pull-Up, Band-Assisted Pull-Up

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First lift: pull-up with a band under the feet or knees

Band-Assisted Pull-Up

Lats

The band lets you take full, smooth ramp reps before your unassisted sets.

How to do it

  1. Loop a band over the bar and put one foot or knee in it.
  2. Grab the bar and pull your chest up, the band helping at the bottom.
  3. Lower slowly to straight arms.

Cues

  • Same form as a full pull-up
  • Thinner band as you get stronger

Common mistakes

  • Bouncing out of the bottom on the band: pause at the full hang.

Swap for: Assisted Pull-Up, Pull-Up, Lat Pulldown

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First lift: lat pulldown with ramp-up sets

Lat Pulldown

Lats

On a pulldown day, two light sets on the stack let you find the elbow path before it gets heavy.

How to do it

  1. Sit with your thighs under the pad and grip the bar a little wider than your shoulders.
  2. Pull the bar to your upper chest, elbows driving down and back.
  3. Let it rise until your arms are straight and your lats stretch.

Cues

  • Elbows to your back pockets
  • Lean back only slightly

Common mistakes

  • Pulling the bar behind the neck or swinging the torso: pull to the chest with a steady body.

Swap for: Neutral-Grip Lat Pulldown, Pull-Up, Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

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First lift: conventional deadlift with ramp-up sets

Barbell Deadlift

Glutes, Lower Back

When the deadlift opens pull day, it gets the most ramp-up sets of anything, because it is the heaviest lift of the week.

How to do it

  1. Stand with the bar over your mid-foot and grip it just outside your legs.
  2. Drop your hips until your shins touch the bar, flatten your back, and pull the slack out.
  3. Push the floor away and stand up tall, then lower the bar the same way.

Cues

  • Bar against the legs
  • Push the floor away

Common mistakes

  • Jerking the bar off the floor: take the slack out first on every set.

Swap for: Trap Bar Deadlift, Romanian Deadlift, Rack Pull

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Put them together: example sessions

Each session below picks from the exercises above for one situation, with the sets, reps, rest and RIR filled in. Open one in the session builder to change a pick, price it from a recent set, and add it to RIRLift.

Session 1

Pull day that starts with pull-ups

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets18 a week
  • Per workout~15 min
  • EquipmentAir Bike, Pull-Up Bar, Resistance Bands, Lat Pulldown

Your first exercise is pull-ups for sets of 5 to 10, then rows and curls.

Pull-ups start from a full hang, so the hang gets 30 seconds and the shoulder-blade squeezes come next. Band-assisted reps are the ramp, so your first unassisted set is smooth. Working sets stop 2 reps short of failure, which keeps the rep count from collapsing on later sets.

Pull-Up Day
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Air BikeSeconds. Easy. 1 × 60 4 0 s
Dead HangSeconds. 1 × 30 4 0 s
Band Scapular Retraction 1 × 12 4 15 s
Straight-Arm PulldownLight stack. 1 × 12 4 15 s
Band Face Pull 1 × 15 4 15 s
Band-Assisted Pull-UpEasy reps on a band. 1 × 1–5 4 1 min
Pull-Up1 warm-up set first 3 × 5–10 2 2:30 min
How to run it
About 6 minutes of drills, then one or two band-assisted sets, then pull-ups.
How to progress
Add a rep to each pull-up set until all reach 10 with 2 in reserve, then add weight.
Open in the session builder

Session 2

Pull day with deadlifts first

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts1× a week
  • Working sets11 a week
  • Per workout~30 min
  • EquipmentAir Bike, Resistance Bands, Pull-Up Bar, Barbells +1

Your pull day opens with conventional deadlifts, then pulldowns and rows.

The deadlift is the heaviest lift of the day, so this version adds the band good morning to warm the hinge and gives the deadlift four ramp-up sets. The upper-back drills stay short, because the pulldowns later in the session warm the lats on their own.

Deadlift Pull Day
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Air BikeSeconds. Easy. 2 rounds back to back. 2 × 45 4 0 s
Band Good Morning 1 × 12 4 15 s
Dead HangSeconds. 1 × 20 4 0 s
Band Face Pull 1 × 15 4 15 s
Barbell Deadlift4 warm-up sets firstRamp: 40% x5, 60% x3, 75% x2, 85% x1. 3 × 3–5 2 3 min
Lat Pulldown1 warm-up set first 3 × 8–12 2 90 s
How to run it
Drills first, then the deadlift ramp, resting a minute between light sets and 3 minutes before the first working set.
How to progress
Add 5 to 10 pounds when all sets reach 5 reps with 2 in reserve.
Open in the session builder

Session 3

Machine pull day with no pull-ups

Open in the session builder
  • Workouts2× a week
  • Working sets16 a week
  • Per workout~15 min
  • EquipmentAir Bike, Pull-Up Bar, Lat Pulldown, Suspension Trainer

You are not doing pull-ups yet, so the pulldown is the first lift.

Without bodyweight pulling, suspension rows give the back an easy rehearsal, and the pulldown ramps with two light sets on the stack. Straight-arm pulldowns stay in because they make the lats fire first on every rep.

Pulldown Day
ExerciseSets × repsRIRRest
Air BikeSeconds. Easy. 2 rounds back to back. 2 × 60 4 0 s
Dead HangSeconds. Or hang with feet touching the floor. 1 × 20 4 0 s
Straight-Arm PulldownLight stack. 1 × 12–15 4 15 s
TRX Row 1 × 10 4 15 s
Lat Pulldown2 warm-up sets first 3 × 10–12 2 90 s
How to run it
Run the drills, then two light pulldown sets, then the working sets.
How to progress
Add one plate when all sets reach 12 with 2 in reserve.
Open in the session builder

Make it fit you

Questions

What is the best way to warm up for pull-ups?

A 30 second dead hang, a set of shoulder-blade squeezes, a light set of straight-arm pulldowns, then one or two easy sets with a band or the assisted machine before your working sets.

How do I warm up for pull day?

Three easy minutes on a bike or rower, a hang from the bar, shoulder-blade squeezes, straight-arm pulldowns and face pulls, then ramp-up sets of whichever pull opens the session.

What stretches are good for pull day?

Before training, use the dead hang and moving drills like walkouts. Longer chest and lat stretches fit better after the session.

Should I warm up my biceps on pull day?

The pulling drills and the first back lift warm them. One light set of your first curl is enough.

How many warm-up sets before deadlifts on pull day?

Three or four, starting around 40 percent of your working weight and climbing to about 85 percent for a single.