How To Do 21’s – The Latest Exercise Craze For Huge Biceps
Summer is fast approaching, which means that “sun’s out – guns out”. If you want to build a set of arms, or guns, as people sometimes refer to them as, then you’ll need a solid routine in place to really maximise your gains.
As far as bicep training is concerned, it seems like all of the forms of training available for your biceps tend to involve curls, or some variation of a curl. You have dumbbell curls, barbell curls, preacher curls, hammer curls, EZ bar curls, and drag curls to name but a few, and whilst curls are often great for hitting the biceps, sometimes a little variation is required to really maximise your gains.
For that reason 21’s can be hugely effective when it comes to bicep training.
Here’s how to perform this great exercise. With this example, we’ll be looking at the EZ bar, though barbell, and even dumbbells will also work just as well.
How To Do 21’s With The EZ Bar (applies to barbell/dumbbells too)
- Begin by standing straight upright and grabbing an EZ bar using an underhand grip.
- Next, carefully place your hands roughly shoulder width apart on the bar, so that your elbows hang loosely down towards the floor, and are positioned at the side of your body.
- You should then curl the bar upwards until it is at around 90 degrees at your elbow.
- The bar should be roughly at mid-stomach height.
- Slowly go back to the starting position and repeat this process a further 6 times, taking you up to 7 reps in total so far.
- Next, from the mid-stomach position of the bar, curl the bar upwards until it is roughly at shoulder height.
- From this position, lower the bar back down to mid-stomach height, so that your elbow forms a 90 degree angle, and then curl it back upwards towards your shoulder for a further 6 times, so far having completed 14 reps, 7 before, and 7 now.
- Now, allow your arms to return to a full extension, and curl the weight all the way upwards as if you were completing a regular curl.
- Curl the bar up to your shoulder for a further 6 reps, so that you have now completed three lots of 7 reps, taking the total to 21 reps in total.
How To Do Bicep 21’s – video
This is a instructional video from Youtube, of one method of doing 21s: