Summary
Jeff Cavalier of AthleanX demonstrates a bodyweight bicep exercise using a Total Gym home fitness machine. The movement functions as a bicep pull-up, using approximately 60% of the user’s bodyweight as resistance. He emphasizes that the Total Gym is more capable of delivering challenging workouts than most people assume.
Key Points
- The Total Gym — often dismissed or left unused at home — can be a legitimate training tool for serious exercises
- The featured movement is essentially a bodyweight bicep curl/pull-up hybrid, performed on the machine’s inclined plank
- The exercise loads approximately 60% of your bodyweight, making it a genuinely challenging resistance movement
- Proper arm positioning is critical — arms should be kept high throughout the movement
- Jeff highlights that the bicep has two functions: elbow flexion and shoulder flexion, both of which this exercise targets
- He hints at additional exercises for the Total Gym, including a challenging ab variation, suggesting the machine supports full-body training
Exercise Details
Total Gym Bicep Pull-Up Curl
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Target Muscles: biceps brachii (via both elbow and shoulder flexion)
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Proper Form Cues:
- Set the Total Gym on a high incline
- Grab the handles and position yourself on the plank with arms fully outstretched
- Keep arms positioned high to engage the shoulder flexion function of the bicep
- Pull up and curl, controlling the movement throughout
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Common Mistakes to Avoid:
- Letting the arms drop too low, which reduces full muscle activation of the bicep
- Dismissing the machine’s difficulty — the exercise is noted as “not easy”
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Sets/Reps: Not specified in this video