Jack Up Your Training Intensity With 21s.

High Intensity Training Series

Jack Up Your Training Intensity With 21s

By Veeraj Vic Goyaram

Ronnie Coleman is well known for doing his barbell curls with 21s

Most of you probably already know about 21s as a great way of making your workouts interesting, fun and to bomb a lagging bodypart by hitting it in a way that it is not accustomed to. The use of this awesome technique mustn't be limited to barbell curls as many exercises can lend themselves to 21s. 

What are 21s?

For those who don't know, 21s involve dividing the range of motion of an exercise into two parts and then performing 7 reps from start point to midpoint, 7 more reps from midpoint to finish and then 7 final reps using the entire range of motion. For the barbell curls, this is illustrated below. But this order doesn't always have to be this way. You can switch things around. 

Illustration of 21s on barbell curls. 

Exercises that I have tried 21s on

• Shoulders: Shoulder presses and even one arm side laterals.
• Biceps: Barbell and cable curls
• Triceps: Cable pushdowns
• Back: lat pulldowns
• Legs: leg extensions, squats, leg curls and machine adduction exercise

Have you tried 21s on any other exercise? Feel free to write and share with us how you went about! We'd like to hear from you.

How to use 21s?

If you're starting out on 21s begin with a light weight and perform a maximum of about 2-3 sets per workout. Don't be over enthusiastic and go overboard. 21s are also very taxing and I wouldn't recommend it for more than 1 exercise. Many top champions recommend performing it only once or twice per month per bodypart. 

My Bio: I am a Mauritian originally from Roche Bois, Port Louis and now based in Cape Town, South Africa where I am busy with my postgraduate studies in molecular biology of exercise. My research, supervised by Prof. Edward Ojuka and Dr. Tertius Kohn, looks at the influence of nutrition and exercise in gene expression in muscle, research which is relevant and applicable to exercising individuals, sports persons and diabetic individuals. The knowledge that I share with you stems from my 18 years of experience in bodybuilding and 8 years (and counting) of university education in the field. I have also published work in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism (2012, 2014), International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (2013) and co-authored two book chapters on exercise and diabetes. I also presented my research work at the 2012 International Sports and Exercise Nutrition Conference (UK). I am grateful to each and everyone at the UCT Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine. "Knowledge without sharing is worth nothing"

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Leg training trick: Leg curls before squats. By Veeraj Goyaram

Training Series

leg training trick: perform leg curls before squats

by veeraj goyaram

Take a few minutes and analyse your current leg training. Are you killing yourself with endless sets of quadriceps exercises but only throwing in a few sets of leg curls at the end of a leg workout for the hamstrings? If yes, then stop this madness! Here is why:

• Many, if not most, amateur bodybuilders are weak in the hamstrings compared to their quads. You often see good legs in front poses but as soon as they turn to the side or the rear their hamstrings lag behind.

• Hamstrings need more than just a few sets of leg curls at the end of a leg workout. They need special attention. You need to prioritize them. Sure, your squats and leg presses do work the hamstrings to some extent but that is NOT enough. The hamstrings are designed to curl, and curl you must.

A good way of bringing the hamstrings up is to perform leg curls early in the leg workout, preferably before squats and leg presses. This is a technique that I began to implement in 2011 following a seminar by IFBB Pro Marius Dohne during which he advised performing leg curls before quadriceps work as a means to deal with knee problems. I initially started performing all my leg curls sets early in the workout because it provided a good warmup for my knees.  Those with knee problems can give this a try.

Marius Dohne on his recent comeback
at the 2014 Europa Pro. 

As I made the above a regular feature in my leg training I began to notice some other benefits:

A. Better hamstring progress because I give them nice attention early in the workout when I am still fresh.

B. Better feel in squats because with a pump in my hamstrings I feel stronger at the bottom position of squats (and leg presses). I get like a "cushioning effect" and this encourages me to go deep in both quad exercises.

Here is my  my current leg workout:

1. Leg extensions [sets of 20-25]

2. Lying leg curls [sets of 10-12]

3. Leg presses [sets of 20-25]

4. Squats [sets of 6-10]

5. Adductor machine [sets of 15]

John Delarosa showing stellar hamstring
development

Join us for discussions on our facebook group
Free advice & daily bodybuilding talk
Your #1 Bodybuilding destination in Mauritius 

BODYBUILDING MAURITIUS

_________________________________________________________________________

©,2013, Veeraj Goyaram, Bodybuilding Mauritius. Any reprinting in any type of media is prohibited.

Disclaimer: The Content on this site is intended to be used for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to be and should not be interpreted as medical advice or a diagnosis of any health or fitness problem, condition or disease; or a recommendation for a specific test, doctor, care provider, procedure, treatment plan, product, or course of action. BODYBUILDING MAURITIUS is not a medical or healthcare provider and your use of this site does not create a doctor / patient relationship. We disclaim all responsibility for the professional qualifications and licensing of, and services provided by, any physician or other health providers posting on or otherwise referred to on this Site and/or any Third Party Site. Never disregard the medical advice of your physician or health professional, or delay in seeking such advice, because of something you read on this Site. We offer this Site AS IS and without any warranties.  Correspondence: vicgoyaram@gmail.com

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Tricks of the Supplement Industry. By Veeraj Goyaram

Some Tricks of the supplement industry to watch out for

You've been warned

Pas dire pane dire!

By Veeraj Goyaram

While there are some really decent companies in the supplements business, there is also a sizeable number of m0ronic players whose aim is to make profit while shoving their products down your throat. They will sell you shitty products with hefty pricetags. Their main target is the newbies and dumb folks, the same crowd who would invest in penis enlargement tablets. What I am going to do in this article is write about some of the dirty little tricks that some scumbag companies use. For them it's all about making money. 

Dirty Little Trick #1: Faking with performance enhancing drugs. 

In a previous article I wrote about how supplements can be faked with performance enhancing drugs. Numerous supplements have been shown to contain ‘classic’ anabolic steroids like metandienone (Dianabol), stanozolol (Winstrol), oxandrolone (Anavar) etc. This intentional "faking" of products is done in order to provide an "instant gratification" to consumers, as in "Dude I can feel this shit working already!", as a means to generate sales. Besides steroids, other classified compounds like Sibutramine and Clenbuterol have been found in weight loss drugs. One more time, please read my article for an in-depth treatment of the topic. 

Dirty Little Trick #2: Boosting protein content with cheap stuff.
(a.k.a. "Spiking").

Protein is getting expensive. With the Chinese and Russians buying huge amounts of whey protein for use in baby formulas and beverage multinationals bringing out protein RTDs, little is left for the supplement industry. Prices go up and you the consumer pay for it. Unscrupulous companies rip you off as follows:

a. Say a protein powder is supposed to contain 22g of protein per serving.

b. The company can use as little as 10g whey protein.

c. The rest of the "protein" is from cheap amino acids like Glycine, Taurine and even Creatine Monohydrate. Creatine is dirt cheap nowadays.  These amino acid or amino-acic based additives boost the Nitrogen content of the products so that they pass as protein when tested. This is a less shitty way of boosting nitrogen content than what the Chinese were doing during the "Melamine in milk" episode. 

We never know how much of the protein is from whey protein and how
much is from cheap amino acids.

The above label is downright infuriating because they are using cheap aminos to pass as protein. They could have used some BCAAs because there is some evidence that a low protein beverage when supplemented with the BCAA Leucine (6.25g whey + 5g Leucine) can have the same muscle building benefits as a high protein beverage (25g) (Churchward-Venne et al., 2014). 

Dirty Little Trick #3: Proprietary blends
A lot has already been said about proprietary blends. More often than not supplement companies will use proprietary blends as a means to hide their secret mix of ingredients from imitators and competitors. Truth be told, 90% of the time it is simply to hide the fact that their proprietary blend contains very little of the active/costly ingredients listed. Here is a label below of a preworkout supplement. Let us analyse it.

a. It means that you are getting more Arginine Alpha-ketoglutarate than any other ingredient in the blend, as ingredients are listed in order of amount. 

b. How much of each ingredient are you getting? What tells you that there isn't 4000 mg of Arginine and 145 mg of everything else?

c. Why isn't the amount of Caffeine listed? Stimulant-sensitive individuals can benefit from this information. Luckily some companies are disclosing the stimulant content inspite of using proprietary blends. 

Example of a proprietary blend

Below is an example of a label with full ingredient disclosure. It is from the company NutraBio. Shout out to them!

That's all for today. There are many more dirty little tricks but these three are the ones that usually stand out. Should you be in doubt about any supplement, don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Join us for discussions on our facebook group
Free advice & daily bodybuilding talk
Your #1 Bodybuilding destination in Mauritius 

BODYBUILDING MAURITIUS

My Bio: I am a Mauritian originally from Roche Bois, Port Louis and now based in Cape Town, South Africa where I am busy with my postgraduate studies in molecular biology of exercise. My research, supervised by Prof. Edward Ojuka and Dr. Tertius Kohn, looks at the influence of nutrition and exercise in gene expression in muscle, research which is relevant and applicable to exercising individuals, sports persons and diabetic individuals. The knowledge that I share with you stems from my 18 years of experience in bodybuilding and 8 years (and counting) of university education in the field. I have also published work in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism (2012, 2014), International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (2013) and co-authored two book chapters on exercise and diabetes. I also presented my research work at the 2012 International Sports and Exercise Nutrition Conference (UK). I am grateful to each and everyone at the UCT Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine. "Knowledge without sharing is worth nothing"

------------------------------------------
Join us for discussions on our facebook group
Free advice & daily bodybuilding talk
Your #1 Bodybuilding destination in Mauritius 

BODYBUILDING MAURITIUS

_________________________________________________________________________

©,2013, Veeraj Goyaram, Bodybuilding Mauritius. Any reprinting in any type of media is prohibited.

Disclaimer: The Content on this site is intended to be used for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to be and should not be interpreted as medical advice or a diagnosis of any health or fitness problem, condition or disease; or a recommendation for a specific test, doctor, care provider, procedure, treatment plan, product, or course of action. BODYBUILDING MAURITIUS is not a medical or healthcare provider and your use of this site does not create a doctor / patient relationship. We disclaim all responsibility for the professional qualifications and licensing of, and services provided by, any physician or other health providers posting on or otherwise referred to on this Site and/or any Third Party Site. Never disregard the medical advice of your physician or health professional, or delay in seeking such advice, because of something you read on this Site. We offer this Site AS IS and without any warranties.  Correspondence: vicgoyaram@gmail.com

_______________________________________________________________________________

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Blast your gunns with Zottman Curls. By Veeraj Goyaram

Exercise Focus

blast your gunns zottman curls
BY VEERAJ GOYARAM

The Zottman curl is one of the exercises that you will rarely see in the gym nowadays. In my most popular arm articles on this website I described how the Zottman curl helped me in getting my biceps and forearms to grow. 

Zottman curls are performed as follows: 

You start the curl with palms facing up and once you reach the top of the movement pronate your wrist (turn downwards). On the negative portion of the rep you are in fact performing the eccentric portion of a reverse curl. It is best to keep the elbows close to the body rather than allow them to flare out. Lower the weight if necessary to achieve perfect form. Zottmanns can be performed standing or seated and two arms at the same time or in an alternate fashion. It is not always comfortable to perform in the beginning and it takes a bit of practice to master the technique and build the mental connection on of this exercise. 

The Zottmann curls: another forgotten old school exercise

Add caption

The Zottman Curl as originally described

I remember reading on a discussion board on the original Builders & Lifters group that the above description of Zottman curls is not correct.  The true Zottman curls are performed in another way. After researching some old school articles I came across the below description on the excellent Anthony Ditillo blog website, a treasure chest of knowledge. 

Here is the original description:
"Stand erect with a dumbbell in each hand. Curl the right-hand bell, with the palm up and the wrist bent strongly upward. When the bell reaches the shoulder, pronate the hand (turn the palm downward) and lower the bell, keeping the wrist bent strongly upward as in the reverse curl. But as you lower the right hand bell, you simultaneously curl the left-hand bell, with the palm of the left hand up. And when the right arm is fully straightened, the left arm should be fully flexed. You then pronate the left hand and lower the bell, at the same time supinating the right hand and curling the bell in that hand. Both the arms work at the same time, one hand coming up as the other hand is going down, the upward movement being always a regular curl, and the downward movement always a reverse curl. The illustration shows the right hand coming up and the left hand going down."

David Willoughby, Powerful Arms, Chapter 6

The proper execution of the Zottman curl (right)
as described by David Willoughby, Powerful Arms, Chapter 6

Finally we get to see a video of Vince Gironda teaching Zottman curls, courtesy of Mr. Robert Torres, a student of the late Iron Guru.

Share the knowledge

share the article to friends

teach others in the gym

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the following persons for the material that were helpful for this article:

a. Mr. Anthony Ditillo via his website, a treasure chest of old-school bodybuilding

b. Mr. Robert Torres, student of Vince Gironda, for sharing videos and Gironda knowledge

My Bio: I am a Mauritian originally from Roche Bois, Port Louis and now based in Cape Town, South Africa where I am busy with my postgraduate studies in molecular biology of exercise. My research, supervised by Prof. Edward Ojuka and Dr. Tertius Kohn, looks at the influence of nutrition and exercise in gene expression in muscle, research which is relevant and applicable to exercising individuals, sports persons and diabetic individuals. The knowledge that I share with you stems from my 18 years of experience in bodybuilding and 8 years (and counting) of university education in the field. I have also published work in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism (2012, 2014), International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (2013) and co-authored two book chapters on exercise and diabetes. I also presented my research work at the 2012 International Sports and Exercise Nutrition Conference (UK). I am grateful to each and everyone at the UCT Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine. "Knowledge without sharing is worth nothing"

------------------------------------------

Join us for discussions on our facebook group
Free advice & daily bodybuilding talk
Your #1 Bodybuilding destination in Mauritius 

BODYBUILDING MAURITIUS

_________________________________________________________________________

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Mauritian Bodybuilding Legends: Mario CLAM.

Bodybuilding Mauritius Legends

Mauritian Bodybuilding Legends

Mario CLAM
By Bodybuilding Mauritius

Mario Clam a honoré la scène culturiste mauricien à la fin des années 70 et pendant les années 80. La plupart d'entre vous jeunes fans de culturisme n'étaient pas encore nés à cet époque. C'était en effet l'âge d'or du culturisme mauricien. Les concours de culturisme, sous la sanction de la Mauritius Association of Bodybuilders (MABB) étaient fantastiques et de nombreux concurrents de haut niveau, comme Mario Clam et Rajen Sabapathee, y figuraient. Nous aimerions saisir de cette occasion pour honorer la carrière de culturisme et de la contribution de Mario au sport à travers sa participation active avec les fédérations de bodybuilding. 

Ppalmarès de  Mario Clam

 1983 Mr. Rose Hill

1979 Mr. Rose Hill

1988 Mr. Indian Ocean (Reunion)

Visite de Serge Nubret a Maurice

©,2015. Bodybuilding Mauritius. Any reprinting in any type of media is prohibited. Pictures and information courtesy of Laura Clam-Do and Mario Clam facebook page. 

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Disclaimer: The Content on this site is intended to be used for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to be and should not be interpreted as medical advice or a diagnosis of any health or fitness problem, condition or disease; or a recommendation for a specific test, doctor, care provider, procedure, treatment plan, product, or course of action. BODYBUILDING MAURITIUS is not a medical or healthcare provider and your use of this site does not create a doctor / patient relationship. We disclaim all responsibility for the professional qualifications and licensing of, and services provided by, any physician or other health providers posting on or otherwise referred to on this Site and/or any Third Party Site. Never disregard the medical advice of your physician or health professional, or delay in seeking such advice, because of something you read on this Site. We offer this Site AS IS and without any warranties.  Correspondence: vicgoyaram@gmail.com

_______________________________________________________________________________

------------------------------------------
Join us for discussions on our facebook group
Free advice & daily bodybuilding talk
Your #1 Bodybuilding destination in Mauritius 

BODYBUILDING MAURITIUS

_________________________________________________________________________

Read More