Kris Grethin’s is one of Bodybuilding.com’s biggest stars having demonstrated the fantastic ability to transform his body through his progress pictures.
Kris explains that one of the questions he receives most commonly from fans and followers, is why he recommends high repetitions so often when training. The answer, he says, is that the high volume combined with some lower repetitions enables him to train both types of muscle fibre. By playing with cadence you can involve both fast twitch and slow twitch muscle, and it’s by training both that you can ensure the maximum growth.
Listen to the man, he knows what he’s talking about!
Click Play the Video Below to Check out the Awesome Workout:
And to demonstrate, he’s concocted this mean shoulder workout for you to demonstrate what he means. It goes like this…
Smith Machine Shoulder Press: 2 warm ups, followed by 3 sets of 10-12
Using a smith machine is ideal when training with high volume and high weight, as it enables you to avoid losing form and causing an injury. Again, both are good, but the key is to mix things up. The regular shoulder press is an ideal compound movement for working all three deltoid heads and getting a pleasing hormone response. Use a bench and stay seated through the reps.
Smith Machine Shoulder Press (Behind the Neck)
Now using the same machine but switching behind the neck by pulling the bench forward. Don’t let the bar touch the shoulders and you’ll avoid injury. This will help to alter the angle of the weight and will engage the rear (posterior) deltoids more.
Machine Side Raises: 4 sets of 8-10
Side raises are fantastic for training the lateral deltoids which is the secret to building wide and imposing shoulders and that great V silhouette. If you have a side raise machine at your gym then this is a great way to really isolate the medial deltoids and increase the weight. If not, then you can always use dumbbells or cables to the same effect.
Smith Machine Shrugs: 3 sets of 18-20
Shrugs will hit you hard in your traps, which maybe count partly as back, but they sure do make your shoulders look bigger and the movement will engage the deltoids (particularly the anterior delts) too; so they make as much sense here as anywhere else. Kris keeps this movement short moving straight up and down rather than rounding out the shoulders as he goes. He also uses a strap to avoid being limited by his grip and endurance.
Machine Rear Raises: 7 sets of 15-17
Lastly we’re going to finish on rear raises, which is another name for reverse flyes. This will target the rear deltoids which too often get forgotten. Rear delts, similar to the traps, tend to respond very quickly to training and adding a high volume exercise like this at the end of your shoulder sessions will see you quickly build more rounded deltoids.
Remember, keep the intensity high through the whole thing and give it your all. In no time your shoulders and traps will be swollen to epic proportions.
