The BIIO method

Edited by Emanuele Giuliani

See also: BIIO works, BIA also says it

The introduction of a different training philosophy in one or more sports is always very difficult. Especially in the bodybuilding world, where evolution seems to concern only dosages and / or types of doping substances and, fortunately, even legal integrators; training, on the contrary, is in most cases always the one disclosed, hackneyed, by the Weiders and their "champions" for 40-50 years now. The release of the book "The science of natural Bodybuilding - BIIO method", in March 2001, was welcomed with enthusiasm by thousands of athletes, but also by a certain, justified, skepticism (in some cases a veritable ferocity ) by many "Old Style" traditionalists. In my opinion, theoretical discussions can be interesting, but in the end what matters is the results. The problem is that being a "young" method and not "the method", before spreading properly, being assimilated and understood, it takes time to extrapolate the maximum performance. Not to mention that, being a strategy dedicated above all to natural athletes, the results are obviously inexorable, yes, but slower. However, after three years, 2004 can be considered the first year of maturation as regards the quantity and quality of the results of the BIIOlogis, both in bodybuilding, but also in other "unexpected" sports.

To understand the basics of the notions and the proposed training well, it is necessary to understand that the biggest disgrace of body building is the lack of programming, or at least of training organization, in the programs proposed by the gyms. Usually a member of the gym asks the instructor for the long-awaited card and receives an unworthy sheet with 4-6 exercises per muscle group, 4 sets of 10, 4-7 times a week, which the victim takes with him sometimes even for months and months.

In other sports, on the other hand, the cyclization of training is an almost routine and extremely consolidated practice. Well, even in physical culture, periodizing training, together with a 75% reduction in the volume of work, can lead to extraordinary results.

Therefore only a constant application of valid and codified training methodologies can lead to searched and non-random results.

But what does BIIO mean?

Short, Intense, Infrequent, Organized

To understand this, let's start from the ground up and analyze the various parameters that make up a natural body building workout.

To lay the groundwork for building an organized training, one of the most important processes in the organism must be studied: supercompensation. This is the physiological mechanism by which our body adapts to external stresses. If, for example, before a bodybuilding session, we have a certain amount of basic energy, with exercise we temporarily lose our neuro-muscular capabilities. In the following days the regeneration processes restore these capacities with a level, however, slightly higher than the previous one.

Table

This is because our body wants to protect itself against others, possible attacks.

It may happen, however, that an athlete re-raises before the supercompensation takes place. In this case there is no improvement in performance or muscle mass, on the contrary there may even be a deterioration. That's what happens when you don't let the right recovery time pass between each session. In fact, despite being a very subjective thing, the minimum time that must pass between one workout and another for the same muscle is on average 7 days.

So the training sessions must be much rarer than the usual 4-7 that they offer in almost every gym; in other words, your workouts must be absolutely infrequent. The ideal duration of a single session should be between 40-45 and 80-90 minutes.

To calculate the duration it is good to carefully study the hormonal flows that occur during physical activity. The hormones to be controlled are: Testosterone and Cortisol.

Testosterone is fundamental in muscle growth, is responsible for the right aggressiveness in training and is produced by the testes in humans and in small quantities by the adrenal glands and ovaries of women.

Cortisol, on the other hand, is produced for both by the adrenal cortex and, if in excess, tends to catabolize the muscular structure. Unfortunately, it tends to rise during training to reach remarkable peaks after about 80-90 minutes of training.

This is why training must always be SHORT!

Thus having a maximum of one hour and 30 minutes per session, it is obvious to plan a workout with a few basic exercises and pair the groups productively and rationally.

A few multi-joint exercises should be used, so that the athlete can use extremely heavy loads to exert the greatest possible stress on the muscle.

This is how INTENSITY must be exploited at the highest levels to the detriment of a greater volume, split over time. The muscle only grows when you put it in crisis, using as much weight as possible.

Table 2 shows the main exercises of the BIIO training method; as you can see, the program foresees the massive use of rather heavy exercises, such as the squat and the deadlift, which greatly limit the recovery.

The mating muscle combinations are many, as many as the personal characteristics of natural athletes. But the short time available per session and the absolute necessity to exhaust the muscle exhaustively impose the combination of synergistic muscles. For example, if you work the triceps after training the pectorals, they will already be very tired and will therefore need, at most, only one basic exercise to be definitively saturated. Therefore, we prefer to choose 2 exercises for chest / back / shoulders / legs and one for biceps / triceps / abdominals / calves.

LEGS 2 exercises	SHOULDERS 2 exercises	BACK 2 exercises
BICYCLES 1 exercise	BREAST 2 exercises	TRICIPITS 2 exercises

Plain bench

Slow forward

Lat-Machine imp.inv.

Squat with barbell

Flat bench narrow handle

Deadlift

Curl with barbell

Crunch

All this must be included in an annual ORGANIZED program, divided into two MACROCYCLES (6 months each); macrocycles in turn divided into 6 MESOCYCLES (2-4 weeks), in turn divided into MICROCYCLES (2-7 days).

The program will be divided as follows: