Pull-ups are one the bodyweight workouts which focus on multiple muscle groups; also known as a compound exercise. When it comes to developing upper body physique and strength pulls are one of the best bodyweight workouts.
If you can’t perform a single pull-up then it’s a sign that you’re primarily unhealthy and lacking upper body strength. It’s highly recommended to add pull-ups to your warms on your upper body workout days, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a professional or a complete beginner.
As a beginner, it can be challenging to perform a single pull up but it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. If you’re struggling then use the pull-up machine and bands to assist you and over time you will be able to perform it with no trouble.
Pull-ups and Biceps Correlation
In order to pull up will needs your arms so there are lots of arms muscles being used as well as forearms, back and shoulders.
To answer the question pull-ups are great exercise for developing biceps. However, a better alternative or an addon is chin-ups as they focus more on the biceps contraption due to the different forms of arm grip.
Pull-ups can be performed from anywhere, you need to find somewhere to hang to. As bodyweight exercises, they are one of the best workouts to achieve bigger biceps but performing biceps curls and other arms workouts will help you further.
Also Read: Average Bicep Size for 15-year old
Pull-up workout plan to build biceps
This pull-up workout plan will take you anywhere from (15-20) and it is best for beginners. If you cannot perform a pull then use bands or assisted pull-up machine.
| Reps | Sets | Rest | Aim |
| 8-10 | 5 | 2 min after each set | Focus on slow and controlled reps |
After this workout, you should feel fatigued and your upper body should be sore including your biceps.
Also Read: Dumbbell Vs Barbell Curls: Which one is better
How often should you do pull-ups?
Ideally, you should do pull-ups every day or whenever you’re hitting your upper body muscle groups but it can vary from person to person. There are so many factors which come in like your fitness level, goals, body weight, and strength.
- For beginners, you should perform 2 times a week with several sets when performing it.
- For Intermediate, you should perform 4 times a week with several sets when performing it.
- For Advanced, you perform every day whether before, after or during your workout.
Do pull up build testosterone?
Testosterone is a hormone which is produced by your body and helps develops and maintain male characteristics such as strength, voice, facial hair and more.
Performing pull-ups somewhat helps will increasing the level of testosterone. Adding weighted pull-ups will help build more with building testosterone. However, there is not a direct correlation between the two.
Having a low testosterone level can be due to many factors such as age, obesity and some medical conditions. It’s best to contact your doctor about this as they may provide you with medications or therapies and more advice.
If you are mainly looking to increase your testosterone then you need to know muscle building and strength exercise is one to go for. Beginners at the gym are likely to feel a boost in testosterone after working out for the first few months. However, over time it will get harder as your body will maintain the workout level then you should be changing your workout plans, diets and rest test.
Also Read: Benefits of Hammer Curls
Is biceps hard to grow?
The biceps muscle is called Biceps brachii which consists of two heads called :
- Long Head: To grow perform close grip curls
- Short Head: To grow and perform wide grip curls
Honestly, growing biceps is not hard as long as you follow the right plan, diet, rest time and good workouts. This doesn’t mean your bicep will grow the next day after you trained them. It could take 1-3 months to see a good result but consistent training is required.
The first time you train your biceps you are very likely to feel pain in your form arms, joints and biceps which is completely normal. This is because you are not used to working the biceps but after they recovered you should train them again and repeat the process and you will see growth in your biceps.
Some of the workouts to grow your biceps are:
Note: Have a closer grip position for the Long head of the biceps and wider for the short head of the biceps.
- Incline Dumbbell Curls
- Barbell Curls
- Preacher Curls
- Hammer Curls
- Concentrated Curls
- EZ barbell Curls
Also Read: Benefits of Barbell Curls
Conclusion
For bigger biceps, I highly recommend that you train bicep consistently and have a mixture of volume and strength training. It will help increase the bicep mass and strength the muscle over time.
In conclusion, when training my bicep I use the biceps exercises listed above. It’s not hard to build biceps muscle, just requires a lot of hard work and dedication. Also, my favourite variant would have to be the EZ barbell curl. This is because it reduces the chances of injury, and keeps my wrists in a neutral position.
