A reader asked:

Hello, 

 I am very much interested in your ebook on bodyweight training, especially since it uses the 4X7 protocol.  I just need to ask how it incorporates bicep training (chin ups, pull ups, etc.), since there is no equipment involved.

Thank for any info,

Mark

Hi Mark,

Re: equipment – We will be launching the second volume of the 4×7 series this fall. That one is organized around training protocols (BER was organized around specific goals), and it will use exclusively equipment-based training. We also have several smaller spinoff programs around that one which will use a wide array of tools.

We kept all of the circuits in the BER book equipment free for several reasons: 1) so people could get their hands on a complete training package at a reasonable price, for which they wouldn’t have to invest extra money for equipment, allowing them to begin using it immediately. 2) because of the dire need for a sophisticated approach to bodyweight training that wasn’t just another boring regime of pushups and situps. We envisioned something that people could do in their home, at a gym, or in a hotel room (for today’s virtual nomad). All you need is the knowledge contained in the book, and you carry that with you..

>I just need to ask how it incorporates bicep training (chin ups, pull ups, etc.), since there is no equipment involved.

My question to you would be: how could it not?

We’re looking at the body through two different lenses. Bear with me for a sec while I fill that in – and forgive me for being redundant if you’re already up on this stuff. I’m not sure what your background is so I’ll just toss out some CST basics.

Your question takes as its base a bodybuilding approach to training – an approach which believes that muscles can be trained in isolation, and that you must "split" the body up into leg days, chest and back days, bi and tri days, etc. Circular Strength Training (of which BER is an expression) doesn’t function on that operating system. The theoretical basis of CST is biotensegrity (the most current understanding of human anatomy, and the leading edge of the field). Biotensegrity sees the body as one muscle which is tacked down at hundreds of insertion and attachment points. You cannot load one part of the body without affecting even the most distant extremity. So what a bodybuilding approach might view as a bicep exercise (somehow exercising that specific part of the arm), CST would view as activating an entire chain that acts to sling force across the body.

We don’t have the space here to write a primer on biotensegrity, but we’d be happy to point you to some resources if you’re interested. Suffice it to say that, rather than view the body as a collection of spare parts to be trained (as in bodybuilding), CST views the body as an integrated whole, loading specific chains of tension through training "functional" movements. This builds "real world" attributes in a way that bodybuilding never does (one way to think of it is "all go muscle rather than show muscle").

You’ll find that the circuits contained in BER will hammer every part of your body. You cannot do a movement like the Screwing Arm Press-up or the Quad Hop without involving the biceps. It isn’t physiologically possible.

So, will BER build bigger arms? Yes, of course. What it won’t do is build unbalanced, freakish cartoon character arms. If such is your goal (and please understand that I'm not making fun of that goal), I’d suggest supersetting ‘curls for the girls’. If a chiseled, functional physique is what you’re after, then BER will get you there in spades.

Does that answer your question?

Best wishes,

Ryan