How to Work the Back & Biceps on the Same Day for Maximum Results

Strengthening your back and biceps on the same day is a good pairing, as the biceps are an assisting muscle group for many back exercises. The order of your workout routine depends on your fitness goals. Traditional strength-training guidelines suggest an exercise order of larger muscle to smaller muscle. While this technique is effective, to get the maximum results from your workout, consider your goals and which muscle group you want to target.

Perform your back exercises before your biceps exercises when your goal is to strengthen your back. Complete your back exercises first to warm your biceps and to pre-fatigue the arm muscles.

Do your biceps exercises before your back workout to concentrate on strengthening your biceps.

Choose a variety of back exercises such as pullups, lat pull downs, seated rows, hyperextensions and shrugs.

Select two or three different biceps exercises such as arm curls, reverse curls, hammer curls and preacher curls.

Perform chinups to strengthen your back and biceps at the same time.

Perform one to three sets of eight to 12 repetitions with at least one minute of rest in between sets. Use two or three exercises for your back and biceps once or twice a week with at least two days of rest in between your training sessions.

Lift a weight amount that allows you to complete at least eight, but no more than 12, repetitions. Increase your resistance once you are able to easily perform 12 repetitions during each set.

Tips

Another way to organize your routine is alternate a back and biceps exercise. For example, perform a seated row followed immediately by an arm curl. Your back rests while you perform the arm exercise, so your workout time shortens.

Warnings

Always check with your physician before you begin any strength-training program.