3 Back and Bicep Workout Routines (For Muscle Growth)

If you’ve had the privilege to hang out with a fair number of people who take strength training or bodybuilding seriously, you were probably assured that you should consider training back and biceps together about five seconds after it was explained to you that it’s logical to train your chest and triceps during the same workout.

“It’s very simple,” they told you. “Every time your arm bends at the elbow while working against resistance, your biceps muscles are doing some of the work. If you link your back and biceps workout together, your biceps will already be warmed up and ready to go once you’ve finished training your back.”

Yes, it’s understandable why you’d want your bicep workout to be done simultaneously to your tricep workout if that’s the way you’ve presently got your training configured. After all of the hard work you’ve been putting in with your major muscle groups, it might seem logical to give them a day off while you focus on the smaller muscles of your arms.

However, if you’ve got limited time to train, pairing your two pulling-oriented muscle groups together into a single back and biceps workout is a phenomenal way to train two sets of muscles with similar functions while getting the most out of your training time.

Anatomy of the Back and Biceps

In order to understand why training back and biceps together is not only a time-saving way to train, but also a way of logically designing a workout, it’s helpful to understand the way each of those muscle groups is configured.

Back Muscles

Your back muscles are of critical importance to both the functionality and overall health of your body. Your back is involved in everything from helping you lift and carry objects to any activity involving pulling or twisting. 

In fact, the muscles of your back play the most prominent role in helping you hold yourself upright and maintain proper posture. This is why it is imperative that you keep your back healthy, and understand how the muscles of your back are arranged.

Latissimus Dorsi

Usually shortened to the lats in casual conversation, your latissimus dorsi is the largest set of muscles in your back. If you’re hoping to build a broad back, developed latissimus dorsi muscles are essential, as they run from your shoulder blades all the way to your hips, and fan out from your spine.

Your latissimus dorsi is involved in any pulling and twisting movements that you perform, making it essentially impossible to perform a workout targeting your back muscles without engaging your lats to a significant degree.

Trapezius

Also known as your traps, your trapezius muscles extend from the base of your skull, branch out through your upper back and into your shoulder blades, and also tie into your upper spine right down to the middle of your back.

The primary function of your trapezius is to retract your scapula — or your shoulder blades — which makes it critical for any exercise that asks you to begin from a position of scapular retraction. 

This retracted shoulder position is a common starting point for many exercises, and is another way of asking you to pull your shoulder blades downward, and back.

Rhomboids

Your rhomboids are a smaller set of muscles that lie beneath your trapezius within your upper back and sit between your shoulder blades and your spine. 

As you can probably tell based on their position within your body, the rhomboids assist with scapular retraction much like your trapezius. This means they are involved with any movement requiring you to draw your shoulder blades back.

Erector Spinae

Your erector spinae muscles start at the base of your skull, and run vertically along your spine all the way to your pelvis. They play a prominent role in helping you maintain the straightness of your back, and also in rotating your back. 

Failing to keep your spinal erector muscles healthy can lead to postural problems. Conversely, failure to sustain proper posture on your own can actually cause damage and imbalances within the erector spinae all on its own, which underscores the need to preserve the health of this muscle group.

Bicep Muscles

Your bicep muscles rest within your upper arms, and are often the muscles that first come to mind when we think about flexing our muscles to communicate our strength.

Because your biceps workout routine automatically involves other adjacent muscles that are automatically lumped into all bicep workouts, those will be discussed here as well.

Biceps Brachii

Your biceps brachii consists of two large muscles that tie into your shoulders and extend all the way down your upper arm bone and connect to your elbow joint. The short head of your biceps brachii is the head that is closer to your torso, while the long head of your biceps faces outward.

While there are adjacent muscles that are involved in the movement of elbow flexion, the biceps brachii are the primary targets of all basic bicep exercises, which mandate the bending of your elbow. 

The short head of your biceps is generally more efficient than the long head in terms of its role in elbow flexion. For this reason, the short head of your bicep is usually easier to activate than the long head, which is why special efforts are sometimes taken to activate the long head to an equivalent degree.

Finally, the fact that your biceps tie into your shoulders means that they also play a role in shoulder flexion. This means that the forward and upward movement of your arms also involves your biceps, and it means that an upward tilt of your arms during curls can be beneficial to training the overall functionality of your biceps.

Studies have shown that adopting different hand grips during bicep training produces different anterior deltoid activation patterns, just as it elicits varying degrees of activation in the brachialis and brachioradialis muscles. (1)

Brachialis

The brachialis is a smaller muscle that sits beneath your biceps brachii. It exists purely to help with elbow flexion from within your upper arms, which means it serves a similar function to the brachioradialis except it sits adjacent to your biceps rather than inside of your forearm. 

Although some exercises emphasize the use of your brachialis more than others, you can’t engage in any bicep exercises without your brachialis being somewhat engaged in the process.

Brachioradialis

Your brachioradialis is located predominantly within your forearm muscles, and is responsible for stabilizing your elbow during flexion and extension exercises. 

So, during the elbow flexion that is essential to all basic bicep exercises, your brachioradialis is automatically going to play a role in the movement, with that role becoming more prominent when your wrists are pronated, meaning your palms face downward, or away from your face when they’re raised.

Benefits of Training Back and Biceps Together

There are several reasons why you should consider engaging in a combined back-and-biceps workout routine. While some of the reasons stem from natural advantages that come from training major muscles together, others are simply a matter of convenience. 

Similar Purpose

The first reason why it’s natural to engage in one all-encompassing back and bicep workout is because of the shared purposes of those two muscle groups within your body.

When it comes to your upper body, your back and biceps collectively bear nearly all of the responsibility of managing your pulling functions. This includes tugging, lifting, and raising. 

If you think about lifting a heavy box off the ground, the muscles of your back help you to pull the box to your chest, while your biceps help you to raise it and lock it into position. 

Therefore, since your back and biceps are naturally partnered together in real world scenarios, it makes sense to train them together to strengthen the connection between them.

As just one example of the benefits of training back and biceps together and the overlap between the functions of the two muscle groups, a study involving young men demonstrated that test subjects performing only lat pulldowns achieved greater gains in bicep muscle thickness than the test subjects who only trained using bicep curls. (2)

Large to Small

For the training of nearly all muscle groups, it is recommended that you move from compound movements to isolation movements. This is most clearly recognized in the case of legs, where squats, deadlifts, and leg presses — all of which are compound, multi-joint movements — are completed before leg extensions and hamstring curls.

There are two key reasons for this. The first is that the compound movements are able to warm up the smaller muscles prior to the isolation work that focuses on them. 

The second reason is because compound movements cause the body to release more growth hormone and testosterone, resulting in greater gains to all muscles involved in the training session.

In the case of back and biceps, nearly every back exercise is a multi-joint movement requiring the operation of two joints, while most bicep movements are isolation exercises. 

As such, by training back and biceps together, and targeting your back muscles first, you are following the established progression of beginning with the compound exercises and moving to the isolation exercises

Time-Saving

One of the most underrated reasons to engage in a sole back and biceps workout is because you can combine the training of your bicep and back muscles within a single session. 

That way, if you only have three or four days per week that you can devote to weight training, you can arrange splits of back-and-biceps, chest-and-triceps, legs, and potentially a separate day for shoulders if you don’t want to train them on days that are already more-or-less divided into push- and pull-based exercises.

Pre-Workout Preparation and Warm-up

Before you get deeply engrossed in the training of any muscle group, it is important to make sure your muscles are adequately warmed up. Depending on your age, experience level, workout design, and individual response to physical stimuli, your preferred choice of a warm-up may vary. 

Regardless, warming up your body is important to boosting muscle performance and reducing the likelihood of an otherwise avoidable injury.

Common ways of warming up include light cardio, or one to two exercises with a weight level significantly lower than your peak workout weight. Remember, the objective is to get sufficient blood flowing through the muscle groups that are being targeted by your workout routine, which in this case means the muscles of your arms, and in the posterior chain of your upper body.

A note of caution: Static stretching prior to a workout is not an advisable way to prepare your body for exercise. This is because cold muscles are more inclined to suffer damage from stretching.

Instead, you are encouraged to perform range-of-motion movements and dynamic stretches to lengthen your muscles while simultaneously rushing blood to those areas.

Also worth noting is that a positive mental and physical framework from the outset of your workout is vital to its overall success. Therefore, you might find it valuable to give a needed boost to both your body and mind with a little pre-workout stimulus. 

Transparent Labs Bulk Pre Workout Powder can prepare your body for the best possible back and bicep workout with a comprehensive, evidence-based lineup of clinically dosed ingredients, with absolutely no artificial color/food dyes, artificial sweeteners, or artificial flavoring.

Back and Bicep Workout Routine for Beginners

Even if you’re limited by weight, age, or inexperience, this back and biceps workout is safe enough for most people to pick up and begin with minimal complications. 

In this workout, there is no barrier imposed by being able to lift your body weight a minimum of even one time, and you can select the lightest weight on the pulley system, or the lightest dumbbells you need to in order to challenge your muscles and learn the proper technique and form with minimal risk.

Lat Pulldown

The lat pulldown is a basic exercise for thoroughly engaging the lats. While this exercise can eventually be done with very heavy weights that even exceed your body weight as long as you are anchored in place, it is excellent for beginners because they can grow accustomed to the movement and the engagement of the latissimus dorsi while using very light weights.

With your legs anchored by the supports, grab the bar with an overhand grip, and with your hands wider than shoulder width apart. Retract your scapula to bring your shoulder blades down and back, and then pull the bar toward your clavicle or upper chest, as if you are attempting to bring your elbows back behind your body. From there, slowly return the bar to its starting position.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of the lat pulldown, with one minute of rest between each set.

Seated Cable Row

The seated cable row enables you to engage all of the muscles involved with pulling directly against resistance without having to also directly control the weight against gravity. This makes it a very safe way to learn to pull with all of the muscles involved in your posterior chain with minimal effort required to brace your body against the descent of the weight.

The seated cable row is often performed with a neutral grip attachment, which brings your hands relatively close together, but it can be performed with other attachments that allow you to row with a wider grip, an overhand grip, or even an underhand grip. 

Regardless of the attachment used, you should assume a starting position by sitting at a cable rowing station or on the floor with a slight forward lean, and then allow your body to rock back slightly as you pull the handles to your abdominals, draw your shoulders back, and achieve a peak contraction.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of the seated cable row, with one minute of rest between each set.

Dumbbell Bicep Curl

The dumbbell bicep curl is an excellent exercise for training your biceps under all circumstances. It permits your hands to follow their natural range of motion while growing accustomed to resistance as it gradually increases. 

The dumbbell bicep curl also grants your arms the space to learn to operate on their own before being forced to work collaboratively as they would during a barbell curl.

For your starting position, you can either sit on a weight bench in a way that allows your arms to fully extend, or you should assume a standing position with your feet shoulder width apart, holding the weight at your sides in an underhand grip. 

Squeeze with your biceps and bend at the elbow to lift the weight up toward the level of your shoulders so that your final position is with your palms facing you. Slowly lower the weight to return it to its starting position.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of the dumbbell bicep curl with each arm, with one minute of rest between each set.

Dumbbell Hammer Curl

The fact that your hands hold the dumbbells in a neutral grip during hammer curls means that your brachioradialis muscles are being trained. Although your biceps are also heavily involved during hammer curls, your forearms are also tapped to stabilize the weight, resulting in your grip being strengthened in the process.

Because the long head of your bicep is involved in the rotation of the wrist and forearm, the hammer curl is also an effective way of training the stabilizing function of the long head in conjunction with your forearms.

The dumbbell hammer curl will typically be completed after the standard dumbbell curl, and with a lighter weight because your biceps have been previously fatigued. Remember to keep your hands in a neutral position during the hammer curl to focus on the work of your forearms.

Aside from this, the hammer curl follows the same process as the ordinary barbell curl; bend at the elbow to raise the weight, and then carefully lower it to its starting point.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of the dumbbell hammer curl with each arm, with one minute of rest between each set.

Intermediate Back and Bicep Workout Routine

This intermediate back and biceps workout consists of advanced exercises that necessitate a greater degree of total muscle involvement, resulting in greater muscle growth. It also adds an extra round of exercises, contributing more sets and reps to your workout, and resulting in increased training volume.

If your goal is to increase your muscle size, training volume for your muscle groups is a metric that you should monitor. Studies indicate that a training volume for your muscle groups of 12 to 20 sets is ideal for maximizing size increases in those muscles. (3)

Pull-Ups or Assisted Pull-Ups

Pull-ups are a closed-chain exercise where your hands stay attached to a stable surface — in this case a pull-up bar — and your body provides the resistance as it moves through space. 

By the time you graduate to pull-ups, you have developed some serious upper-body strength and are learning to master control of your body weight… even if you need some assistance at first.

A standard pull up is performed with your hands a little wider than shoulder width apart, and holding the pull-up bar with an overhand grip. In a controlled manner, pull your body up so that your upper chest is aiming for the bar, and your chin passes above it, then slowly lower your body to its starting position.

This exercise can also be performed as a chin-up — with your palms facing you — which places far more emphasis on the biceps, and particularly their short head.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of pull-ups or assisted pull-ups, with one minute of rest between each set. It is also possible to transition from pull-ups to assisted pull-ups within the same workout if pull-ups become too challenging.

Bent-Over Barbell Row

The bent-over barbell row is a foundational exercise that requires you to lift a real weight off of the ground and use the muscles of your back and arms to simultaneously stabilize the weight and move it through spaces.

Grab the bar with an overhand grip, with your hands wider than shoulder width apart, assume a braced position with your waist bent, your knees slightly bent, and your head raised.  From there, pull the bar straight up until it makes contact with your abdominals.

Remember to draw your shoulders back as you lift the weight, and then slowly lower the bar back to its original position.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of the bent-over barbell row, with one minute of rest between each set.

T-Bar Row

By performing a T-bar row, your attention is permitted to be less geared toward stabilizing and more toward the functioning of the workout. That way, you can target muscles throughout their entire range of motion while focusing on achieving a full muscle contraction throughout the entirety of the back.

The T-bar row can be performed as either a supported or unsupported exercise, meaning you can complete the movement at special T-bar stations that may or may not be outfitted with chest-support pads. 

It is also possible to perform a T-bar row with one end of a weight bar anchored in a corner of a weight room, ideally with a landmine attachment, while the other end holds the weight plates. 

When you complete this exercise without specialized equipment, it’s common to use a neutral grip handle that is positioned just beneath the weight stack, while the empty end is placed in the corner of whatever room you’re in. Please be advised that configuration of equipment may damage the walls of your training room.

To complete the T-bar row, assume an upright starting position with your knees slightly bent, and your body angled slightly forward. Pull your shoulder blades back, bend at your elbows, and pull the weight toward your chest, allowing your elbows to travel as far back behind your torso as possible. 

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of the T-bar row, with one minute of rest between each set.

Incline Dumbbell Curl

Incline curls operate in the spirit of forcing your biceps to work through a full range of motion without your body getting in the way, or without any rocking or swinging of the body enabling you to cheat to lift the weight. It also exaggerates the extension of  your biceps, the topmost portion of which ties directly into your shoulder joint.

At its fully extended position, the incline dumbbell curl strongly activates the long head of your biceps, leading to a maximized range of motion and a broader development of the muscle across its full length.

With your arms fully extended at your sides, contract your biceps to bend at your elbows and lift the dumbbells. If you choose, you can begin the exercise with your hands in a neutral position and rotate your hands as you raise the dumbbells. Slowly lower them to their starting position to conclude each rep.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of the incline dumbbell curl with each arm, with one minute of rest between each set.

Preacher Curl

Preacher curls require a special preacher curl bench or attachment, and are an excellent biceps isolation exercise that eliminates any potential for wavering in your upper arms. It also forces you to complete the full curling motion without any opportunity to generate momentum. 

Preacher curls also allow you to fully extend your upper arm in a way that it can be controlled even when you’re working with heavy weight. The ability to fully extend your upper arm also emphatically activates the long head of your bicep, leading to greater development throughout your arm.

With a dumbbell or EZ-curl barbell already in your hands, carefully place the backs of your upper arms against the pad of your preacher curl bench. While maintaining a consistent underhand grip, raise your hand from its starting position by bending at your elbow, and flex at the peak of the movement. Carefully lower the weight and repeat the movement until the completion of the sets.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of the preacher curl, with one minute of rest between each set.

Advanced Back and Bicep Exercises

As opposed to a dedicated back and biceps workout, the back and bicep exercises listed here are upper body exercises that are not necessarily essential, but are certainly more advanced than several of the aforementioned exercises. 

These exercises can be used as substitutes for less intense exercises, or added to your back and bicep workouts based on your desire to address a specific need.

Weighted Pull-Ups

Weighted pull-ups begin from the same starting position as ordinary pull-ups, with your hands on the pull-up bar as pull your chin and chest toward it. 

The only difference is that weighted pull-ups are frequently performed with additional weight hanging from your legs — usually with a dumbbell squeezed between them — or with a weight plate hanging from a chain that’s connected to your waist.

As with an ordinary pull-up, weighted pull-ups are performed with your hands a little wider than shoulder width apart, and holding the pull-up bar with an overhand grip. 

In a controlled manner, pull your body up so that your upper chest is aiming for the bar, and your chin passes above it, then slowly lower your body to its starting position.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of weighted pull-ups, with one minute of rest between each set. It is also possible to transition from weighted pull-ups to regular pull-ups within the same workout if weighted pull-ups become too challenging.

Deadlifts

While not necessarily a back-specific exercise, deadlifts are often performed at the beginning stages of a back workout because of the activation of your entire posterior chain during the exercise. 

Deadlifts permit your body to pull a heavy weight off the ground using your entire muscle system. Although your straight arms preclude the possibility of achieving a peak contraction in any of the muscles of your back, it does an excellent job of warming up your body by getting your muscles engaged and initiating tremendous blood flow.

The deadlift is performed in a standing position, and with your feet hip width apart.

The safest way to hold a barbell during a standard deadlift is with your strongest hand gripping the bar with an underhand grip, and with your weakest hand holding it with an overhand grip.

Straighten your legs to pull the bar off the ground and assume a fully upright position. If performing multiple reps, you should carefully lower the weight back to its starting position. 

If you are performing single reps of deadlifts with very heavy weights, it is acceptable to release the weight and let it fall to the ground as long as you do it safely and ensure that you are on a surface that can absorb the impact of the weight.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

If you’re using the deadlift as a warm-up exercise, complete one or two sets of 15 to 20 reps with light weight, and with one minute of rest between each set. If you’re doing the deadlift for strength or hypertrophy, complete three sets of five to 10 reps with up to two minutes of rest between each set.

Cable Face Pulls

Face pulls not only target the muscles of your upper back, but they are one of the best prehabilitative movements for your rotator cuff muscles. Many people include face pulls in either their back or shoulder workouts to help protect the integrity of their shoulder joint.

For a cable face pull, you probably want to use two separate tricep ropes linked to the same attachment, with one end of each rope extended to the limit of its physical length. 

From there, you’re going to apply a neutral grip to the rope. Pull the center point of the cable toward your face while flaring your elbows out. You should conclude the exercise with your palms facing toward you.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

If you’re performing cable face pulls for hypertrophy, complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of the exercise, with one minute of rest between each set. If you’re performing cable face pulls as a pre- or post-workout exercise for prehabilitation, perform one or two sets of 15 to 20 reps with light weight.

Concentration Curls

When performing concentration curls, you’ll be training one arm at a time, putting all of your focus into maximizing the contraction of your right arm, and then switching over to your left arm and completing the same exercise.

While in a seated position and the dumbbell in your right hand, place the back of your upper arm against your right inner thigh. Contract your biceps to bend at your elbow and raise your hand toward your face so that your palm is facing you. Carefully lower the weight back to its starting position. At the conclusion of a set, switch to your left arm and repeat the set.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of concentration curls with each arm, with one minute of rest between each set.

Reverse-Grip Barbell Curl

The reverse grip barbell curl places even greater emphasis on your forearm muscles by requiring your forearms to stabilize your wrists in a position where it is more challenging to sustain them.

The reverse-grip barbell curl is performed in a standing position with your feet hip width apart. Holding the bar with an overhand grip, bend at your elbows to raise the up, and also raise the bar forward from your shoulders slightly so that you have your palms facing forward at the conclusion of the movement. Slowly return the bar to its starting position.

Sets, Reps and Rest Time

Complete three sets of eight to 12 reps of the reverse grip barbell curl, with one minute of rest between each set.

Tips for Optimizing Muscle Growth in Back and Biceps Workouts

If you perform five or more of these bicep and back exercises on a weekly basis, you’re going to be inducing plenty of muscle-building activity throughout your back and upper arm regions. You’re off to an excellent start, but there are three crucial factors you should be paying attention to if you want to capitalize on all of the effort you’re putting forth.

Form

Because your back is such a large muscle group, and because it is easy to involve your back to a substantial degree in any movement causing your elbows to travel in a path that leads them behind your body against resistance, it is quite simple to engage your muscles during back exercises even if you’re using horrendous form.

While this may still result in significant lean muscle gains — especially when you are first beginning to do resistance training consistently — it is always advisable that you utilize proper form when participating in any aspect of a back and bicep workout. 

In addition, because many back exercises can place your back in a highly vulnerable position as you attempt to manage heavy loads of weight, it is imperative that you assume an optimal starting position, and carefully control the weight throughout every set.

Rest and Recovery

Like any other muscle group, your back muscles require time to rest, recover, and grow after they’ve been put through the ringer during a serious workout. This applies even more so to your biceps, because they are small in comparison to the other muscle groups of your body. Yet, your arms are involved in nearly any workout that targets the muscles of your upper body.

To maximize the ability of your muscles to perform at their best, you need to make sure that you’re receiving adequate rest and sleep. This means intentionally resting your back and bicep muscles, and getting a reasonable and predictable amount of sleep each night.

Nutrition

As always, it’s important to maximize the results of the physical exertion you’re putting forth inside of the weight room by assisting your muscles with their repair process. 

After an exhausting back and biceps workout, the way to accelerate and optimize the rebuilding of your muscles is by reinforcing them with the nutrients they need. 

The most common muscle-building combination is protein and creatine. Both of these nutrients will help you maximize your gains, and keep your muscles in their proper working order. Transparent Labs offers both its Creatine HMB and its 100% Grass Fed Whey Protein Isolate to provide you with top-tier forms of both supplements to help you achieve your goals.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

One of the benefits to having a simultaneous back and bicep workout is also one of the drawbacks: There are so many muscles involved in the workout. 

While this is sure to work out in your favor if everything goes according to plan, it also means that the likelihood that you’re going to suffer an injury is going to increase if you make one or more of the following mistakes.

Poor Form

Even during direct biceps training, it’s common to find yourself haunted by poor form. There’s always the temptation to lift in such a way that it eliminates the amount of resistance carried by the biceps muscle for the sake of being able to raise the weight to its desired peak, even if the muscle doesn’t benefit from it.

Similarly, there are several back exercises that offer you opportunities to lean back, jerk weights upward, or otherwise create momentum that enables you to complete the movements successfully. 

Always remember that the point of the exercise is not to complete the assigned number of reps by any means necessary, but to complete as many as you possibly can by using the proper form.

It is only through ensuring that you’re adhering to strict form during your back and biceps workout that you can guarantee that you’re going to remain safe in the process, and achieve your desired progress.

Ego Lifting

During a back and biceps workout, there are so many opportunities for you to show off your strength. 

Whether it’s trying to hoist your body up to the pull-up bar with the maximum quantity of extra weight dangling from your legs, or doing biceps curls with more weight than anyone else in the weight room, the bottom line, there are always opportunities to show off… even if the only person you’re trying to impress is yourself.

Overdoing things during a back and biceps workout is a great way to end up injured, in which case you won’t be able to train at all. While it’s a good idea to put yourself through a challenging workout to maximize growth, be careful that you don’t place your muscles and joints in peril. 

Failing to Warm Up

Before you launch straight into your back and biceps workout at full intensity, it’s important to get your muscles warmed up. This is because a cold, unprepared muscle is far more likely to be inflexible, and is therefore more likely to tear.

Light cardio, dynamic stretches (not static stretches), or a simple, light set of your first compound movement should be adequate to warm up your back and biceps muscles under most conditions.

Double the Muscle Groups; Twice the Results

If you’re following a bodybuilding protocol, it is always tempting to think of your body in terms of its component parts and hope that everything works together efficiently in the end. This approach can be very effective from an aesthetic standpoint, and if you find that it works for you, then feel free to carry on.

On the other hand, your back and your biceps are natural allies, both in the weight room, and during most practical applications of strength in the real world. As such, there are several advantages that you can unlock when you train them both together. 

In short, it’s quite possible that the best physique of your life awaits you once you stop training your body as a set of component parts, and instead think of it as a finely-tuned physical unit.

References:

1. Coratella G, Tornatore G, Longo S, Toninelli N, Padovan R, Esposito F, Cè E. Biceps Brachii and Brachioradialis Excitation in Biceps Curl Exercise: Different Handgrips, Different Synergy. Sports (Basel). 2023 Mar 9;11(3):64. doi: 10.3390/sports11030064. PMID: 36976950; PMCID: PMC10054060.

2. Gentil P, Soares S, Bottaro M. Single vs. Multi-Joint Resistance Exercises: Effects on Muscle Strength and Hypertrophy. Asian J Sports Med. 2015 Jun;6(2):e24057. doi: 10.5812/asjsm.24057. Epub 2015 Jun 22. PMID: 26446291; PMCID: PMC4592763.

3. Baz-Valle E, Balsalobre-Fernández C, Alix-Fages C, Santos-Concejero J. A Systematic Review of The Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy. J Hum Kinet. 2022 Feb 10;81:199-210. doi: 10.2478/hukin-2022-0017. PMID: 35291645; PMCID: PMC8884877.