21’s are a great technique for breaking out of a plateau and totally incinerating a particular muscle. This advanced technique involves challenging the working muscle group in three different ranges of motion. The 21 in the name refers to the total number of reps done in each set (7 for each range of motion). You can perform 21’s in the following manner: First, let’s use a standard dumbbell or cable curl as an example exercise. Start out with your arm in your normal start postion, hand and weight (or D-handle) at your thigh, arm joint completely open. Now, curl the weight up as you normally would, but stop halfway up (around the point your elbow is bent at 90 degrees). Lower your arm again, keeping tension on the bicep the whole time, and repeat. Do this for your first 7 reps. Without resting, bring your arm back up to the 90 degree halfway point and curl the weight up to full flexion (joint closed; the ending point of a normal curl). Lower to the halfway point, and repeat for the next 7 reps. To finish the set, do seven full range reps from the bottom to the top as you normally would when performing standard curls. By this point, your biceps (or whatever muscle group you’re working) should be begging for mercy.
21’s can be done with any exercise, but they work best with single joint isolation moves such as the bicep curl or tricep pressdown (among others). I also prefer to do 21’s on a cable machine (as opposed to free weights) because cables maintain a continuous tension on the working muscle group. Also, when performing 21’s, you’ll want to pick a lighter weight than you’d normally use for straight sets. This seems like a no-brainer; if you lift heavy you’ll never be able to complete this super tough set.
Because 21’s totally blitz the muscle group you apply them to, I recommend throwing this technique into your workout only intermittently. I liked 21’s so much that when I first discovered them, I did them every (in my case, biceps) workout and I definitely felt like I was overtraining my bi’s. Now I only use them when I really want to blast my guns into submission. Another tip to avoid overtraining: if using 21’s, try to do one less exercise for that bodypart than you’d normally do in that workout. If you normally do 4 exercises for let’s say, triceps, you should only do 3 if you’re planning on using 21’s. If it’s been awhile since your muscles were sore, try 21’s on for size.
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