As much as I try to explain WHY these exercises are not that great for gains… gym goers will NEVER stop doing them. ESPECIALLY EXERCISE NUMBER 1… What is wrong with us? haha
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Today we’re going to talk about 5 exercises that need to go away FOREVER, but never will. Some of these exercises are exercises that are just completely useless, and some of these exercises are variations of what you’re supposed to do, but people do them a different way because either they want to lift more weight, or they’ve been fed a nice plate of bro science and they just don’t know better. After today, hopefully, if you’re doing any of these 5 exercises, you’ll not only know what not to do, but I’ll teach you the proper way to do them OR an alternative exercise to help you maximize your gains in the gym!
Exercise #1: Bicep 21s
I know so many of you are thinking ‘no, 21s are the best exercise ever, I get a really big pump when I do them!’ Well, a pump doesn’t build muscle! A pump is blood being forced to the area, not necessarily muscle breakdown for regrowth. In fact, 21s were originally invented for SHOULDERS, and it wasn’t doing a lateral raise with half reps, it was invented to hit all three heads of your shoulders. You would do 7 front raises, 7 lateral raises, and 7 rear deltoid raises, that’s what a true 21 is.
The 21 variation that gained a lot of popularity because of the ‘pump’, was where you start with 7 reps doing just the bottom half of a bicep curl, then 7 reps doing just the top half, and then 7 reps where you use full range of motion. Now I’m not trying to say you’re dumb for doing this, because I used to do these all the time, but it was because I didn’t know better, and that’s what everyone in the gym was doing. If you’re currently doing this, it’s not doing much for you. A lot of people will say if you do the half reps at the top, that works the biceps peak more, but that’s not true. There’s two heads in the biceps – the inside head and the outside head. The outside head is the peak, and if you want to grow the peak you need to do exercises that place more emphasis on the outside head. The top range of motion of a bicep curl doesn’t do that.
Now if you’re looking for something more intense that’s ACTUALLY going to give you a better muscle building opportunity, then I want you to try something I invented called MERCY 30s, and they’re labelled this way because they are INTENSE! The way you perform a mercy 30, is you start off with a wide grip and curl all the way up and all the way down for 10 repetitions. As soon as you finish those 10, you’re going to use an inside grip for 10 repetitions, and then as soon as you finish 10 with an inside grip, you’re going to use a neutral grip for 10 more reps to make 30 repetitions total. The reason why that works better than 21s is because on every single rep for mercy 30s, you’re working through the entire range of motion. Also, if you didn’t know, with an inside grip you target more of the outside head of your bicep, with an outside grip you target more of the inside head, and with a neutral grip you target both heads equally.
Exercise #2: Close-Grip Bench Press
This isn’t on the list because the close-grip bench press isn’t a great exercise for triceps, it’s just that people like to do it wrong. You’ve probably seen it in your gym hundreds of times, where people go up to the bar and pick it up with their hands about 3 inches away from each other. As they go down, their wrists tend to bend in an awkward way, and when you’re lifting a lot of weight this form places a tremendous amount of pressure on your wrists and it can actually start to put some pressure in your elbows as well. I’m not sure where the idea came from, but people seem to think they can target the triceps more by benching this way, or they think that because the exercise is called ‘close-grip bench press’, that they have to grab as close as humanly possible. If you’re doing your close-grip bench press like this, you’re doing it wrong.
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21 comments
As much as I try to explain WHY these exercises are not that great for gains… gym goers will NEVER stop doing them. ESPECIALLY EXERCISE NUMBER 1… What is wrong with us? haha
PUSH, PULL, LEGS PROGRAM – BUILD MUSCLE & STRENGTH! – http://muscularstrength.com/Push-Pull-Legs
7:35 Jeff (Athlean-x) will disagree with you … he actually says it's a great exercise, the key here is to lean forward, so the counterweight won't pull you back, he demonstrated it on Jesse and it definitely makes a difference. My problem with this exercise, is that I'm not going to do it in a gym full of people lol I call this exercise "Grab balls Ass pull" 🤣
I think the close grip bench is a transfer from the heart pushups. Which is done for the same purpose
I tried the Mercy 30's today. Stellaahh exercise. Thanks man!
*gets caught watching this vid at 7:52 "Maahhhm, it's naahht what you think!"
Mercy 30s sound like a form of torture and look like they would destroy me.
Guess I'm doing my first set of them tomorrow.
21s are done in Les Mill’s Bodypump. A choreographed strength class. Every song works a different part of the body. They definitely do that’s for biceps. Just about every part of the body that’s worked has some form of “21s” so for squats there are normal squats, baby squats, quarter squats, etc. Same thing for shoulders. Lots of pulsing. To pull blood to the area for the “burn” effect I guess.
Mindless variations of big exercises. Chest workouts be like flat bench dB bench incline bench dumbbell incline bench cable incline bench
0:46 Bicep 21s
3:38 close grip bench press
5:16 Barbell upright row
6:44 Cable Glute/Ham Pull-through (actually it starts at 7:25 )
10:08 Dumbbell tricep kickback
I must say. Mercy 30's is an amazing exercise. I did it for 4 sets at the end of my workout. I couldn't extend my arm for 2 days. I was SO sore. Sick exercise man keep it up.
This guy is way better than overrated AthleanX ❤️
I had this new trainer he had to replace my regular one for a a session and he showed me the 21's, I kinda thought they were weird but what did I know? I'm glad I saw this video thank you very much.
In the last year or so I have substituted cables for a lot of things I was doing with dumbbells. It’s hard to explain how much better it is unless you commit to make the change. So much motion is wasted with dumbbells due to the angles and basically gravity.
Great Vid!
Pressin the bah up an down
Everyone: do some wierd 21
Me: le biceps curls
6:25 maybe im doing the movement wrong or maybe its my long ass arms but the closer grip feels much better for my shoulders. that wide grip makes them feel like they are gonna pop out of the socket.
21s is for muscle endurance in my oppinion
No room for cables in my garage. I'll stick with kick backs since they are better than doing nothing.
I used to do the bench tricep with a close grip until my brother yelled at me for doing it wrong. He showed me the correct way of doing triceps.
Love that flex at the end🔥