Using the "21's" Technique to Bring a Lagging Body Part Up to Speed

"21's" are a great advanced bodybuilding technique that you can use to completely incinerate a chosen body part. This method is great for mixing up your workouts and is particularly useful for bringing a lagging body part up to speed. Before I get into the technique itself, I will enumerate a few ground rules. First, because 21's will totally fry the selected body part, you'll want to only use the technique intermittently. I'd recommend no more than once a week. Second, 21's are best performed using single joint isolation movements such as bicep curls or tricep pressdowns. Third, you should be sure to choose a lower weight than you would normally use for the chosen exercise, otherwise you won't be able to complete the prescribed number of repetitions.

Now, onto the method. Let's take for example a simple barbell curl. Start out as you normally would with your feet shoulder-width apart, back straight, head up, and holding the bar in front of you against your thighs, palms outward. To utilize the 21's technique, you are going to perform three sets of twenty-one repetitions each. You are also going to perform the repetitions in a specific way, breaking them up into three groups of seven with each group comprising a different range of motion in the curl movement.

First, curl the weight upward as you normally would but stop the motion halfway through with your forearms parallel to the floor. Lower the weight again and repeat this movement for 6 more reps, again only raising the weight halfway through the full curling motion. After seven reps like this, without resting, perform seven more reps but this time only perform the top half of the curl movement (raising the weight from the position of your arms parallel to the floor to the position at the top of the curl movement). Finally, again without resting, finish the set of twenty-one by performing seven standard curl reps, raising and lowering the weight throughout the *entire* range of motion, combining both halves of the movements you just performed. By this point, your bi's should be burning and begging for mercy. Repeat for two (or even three) additional sets.

As I mentioned, you should avoid using this technique too often which could result in overtraining. However, 21's are an incredibly useful tool to add to your bodybuilding arsenal so give 'em a try and see what ya think. As always, keep training hard!

Trent Forrester is a natural bodybuilder and a certified personal trainer. He is a contributor for the popular bodybuilding blog, Bodybuilding Tips and Tricks.