Bodybuilder Brett Wilkin recently shared a heavy quad workout and chest & shoulders workout. Wilkin is an IFBB pro competitor and one of the most promising prospects in the open pro division. He last competed at the 2021 Chicago pro and achieved a second-place finish. Wilkin competed in the 212 division up to that point and it was his first competition in the open pro division.
Wilkin is currently preparing for the 2022 Arnold Classic that will take place from March 3rd to 6th in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Arnold Classic is the second most prestigious professional bodybuilding competition and the first major pro show of 2022. Winning there is a great opportunity for bodybuilders and get the momentum on their side going forward.
Brett Wilkin is quickly rising in the open division. His recent Physique updates have convinced some experts that he might give established names like William Bonac and Brandon Curry a run for their money at the 2022 Arnold Classic.
Wilkin started his YouTube channel a little over a week ago. Six weeks out from the competition, Wilkin shared intense quad and chest day workouts on his YouTube channel to give a glimpse into his competition prep.
“Every session is extremely focused and intense right now. I know the opportunities ahead of me these next six weeks. Getting a lot of traction going into this show… and that’s why I am bringing this all to you,” Brett Wilkin said at the beginning of the video.
Brett Wilkin’s quad-day workout
Before jumping into the workout, Brett Wilkin explained that he would target a personal record on front-loaded squads on that day. Wilkin then went on to break down the technique and said:
“It’s with straps on the Smith machine. The reason for that… I have found that this is one of my favorite exercises to fully load the quads. So I am standing on an extremely low angle ramp… But what we are doing is we are on these ramps, we’re forcing the load into our quads over the toes and when I am squatting down.”
“What the purpose of this exercise is with Smith machine is we’re squatting and we’re squatting forward. So we’re loading into our quads, we’re loading it in the front into our quads… I’m actually going knees over toes in the squatting motion. So I’m fully loading the quads then back up. So I’m taking my glutes, my hamstrings completely out of it… That’s also what ramps are doing is they’re loading the quads,” Brett Wilkin said.
Wilkin then added that he splits his leg workouts and focuses on quads, hamstrings and glutes on different days for maximum gains. With that he jumped into the quads day that consisted of:
Calf workout
- Standing calf raises and Leg press calves superset
Quads workout
- Quad extensions
- Hack squats
- Front squats
- Inner thigh squeezes
- Single-leg linear hack squats
While doing calf extensions, Brett Wilkin explained that his focus will be on getting the reps with correct range of motion with attention to detail rather than lifting heavier weights. Therefore the workouts consisted of slow and controlled motions for each and every rep.
“Three seconds of positive and three-second negative. So up three, hold at the top and down three,” Brett Wilkin said.
Wilkin further stated that pre-exhausting the muscles with the first exercise makes the rest of the workout extremely difficult to perform. However, he believes that if you can still go through it and perform well, it speaks a lot about your mentality.
“If you can hack squat seven, eight, nine plates or you can squat four, five, six plates, you know, while pre-exhausted then you are a dog,” Brett Wilkin said.
After finishing the hack squats and Smith machine squats, Brett Wilkin threw in the inner thigh squeezes to work the adductor muscles. He then wrapped up the workout with single-leg linear hack squats.
Brett Wilkin shares chest and shoulder workout
Recently, Brett Wilkin also shared push day – chest and shoulder day workout on his YouTube channel.
Chest Workout
Incline cable flyes
To get the blood flowing in the muscles, Wilkin started the chest workout with inclined cable flyes. He stated that this is one of his favorite flyes workout because not only does it give a good contraction in the chest muscles, but also a really good stretch in the eccentric phase. In addition to that, performing flyes on the machine also enables greater control compared to free weights. Wilkin went heaviest during the first set which was 65lbs of weight and followed by back-off sets of 50lbs and 30lbs afterward to focus on the form.
Inclined bench press on Smith machine
Brett Wilkin next jumped into the main pressing movement of his workout routine. Inclined bench press on Smith machine is also Wilkin’s favorite pressing movement as it enables pressing without having to worry about factors like load distribution etc. Wilkin went through the workout with a goal to keep the focus on chest and delts while avoiding the involvement of triceps.
After working his way up to the top set with three and a quarter plates, Brett Wilkin performed a cluster of back-off sets.
“What that is… I’m gonna do four reps and I’m just gonna rack it. Then wait ten seconds, go back into it, rack it… It’s four rounds of four reps and you do not touch the weight. You choose the weight that you barely can get for like 15.”
“You’re gonna use those quick breaks, those quick rests to gather a little bit more oxygen and push your best failure.”
Wilkins used three plates for the cluster set and cranked out 16 total reps in the same manner that he described.
Flat press on machine
While the first two movements focused on the upper chest, Brett Wilkin worked the middle part of the chest with this movement. Wilkin explained that he uses explosive movement by using the chest to press through instead of lunging forward with the press.
Finisher – Standing cable chest press
Brett Wilkin finished the chest workout with a cable chest press. He divided the movement in three separate ways to work the upper, middle, and lower chest. The angle of arm movement changed accordingly for each of the three as he performed ten reps each in the set.
Brett Wilkin shoulder workout
Brett Wilkin then jumped into the shoulder workout and started with rear delts first.
Reverse delt flyes
Brett Wilkin stated that he likes to start the shoulder workout with rear delt movements as he feels they’re more difficult to connect with. Therefore getting the blood flowing in them at the very beginning makes more sense for him.
Wilkin worked up to the top set of 250lbs for the workout and then followed it up with a back-off set of 110lbs.
Seated dumbbell side-lateral raises
After the flyes, it was time for good old side lateral raises to work the delts. Brett Wilkin clarified that he prefers seated raises over standing because they eliminate the entire lower half of the body from the equation and force the delts to do the work rather than involving other muscles or swinging action to do the work. Wilkin focused on high reps and moderate weight for this workout. He performed it with 30lbs, 35lbs and 40lbs dumbbells for 15-20 reps in each set.
Cable side lateral raises with cuffs
The unusual movement in Brett Wilkin’s shoulder workout eliminated the use of grip or wrist strength to make the delts work. Instead of using handles for side lateral raises, Brett Wilkin used wrist cuffs. He also pressed his chest into the pad to stabilize the core. This essentially forced only the shoulder muscles to lift the weight.
Plate twists and EZ Bar front shoulder press
Wilkin finished the shoulder workout with a superset of front delt exercises. Plate twists requires the person to hold a weight plate perpendicular to the body. Next comes doing a steering motion to the left and right before lowering the plate down. Each one of this sequence counts as one rep.
Brett Wilkin’s tip to make shoulder gains
At the beginning of the video, Wilkin took some time to address an important aspect of training the shoulders. He stated that most individuals will not see any growth in the shoulders even if they increase the loads. This is especially with dumbbells side raises. Instead, his experience tells him that taking every other muscle out of the picture and controlling the movement is the way to make gains in the shoulders.
“I used to work up to like 45-50, 55-60lbs dumbbell side raises two years ago and I didn’t even have shoulders.”
“Once I decided to lower the weight… So now I’m like 30-35, 40… maybe 45 is the top I’ll go on dumbbell side raises. Once I started doing that is when I started seeing the growth.”
“It’s more about taking the traps out of the movement, taking your body swinging out of the movement, taking everything except your shoulders out of the movement.”
Courtesy of Brett Wilkin’s YouTube channel, you can watch the full workout videos here:
Quad day workout
Chest and shoulders workout
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250 pounds for rear delts? No, I don’t think so.