Superstar bodybuilders Blessing Awodibu and Kai Greene endure a killer back and hamstrings workout together with the 2022 Olympia around the corner.
The final stages of 2022 Olympia training are upon us. Athletes are bracing themselves savagely and turning up the volume to their workout intensity as the stakes are high. The 2022 Olympia is the biggest bodybuilding show of the year, and the winners earn insurmountable cash and other branding opportunities. That’s why prominent bodybuilders Blessing Awodibu and Kai Greene met to destroy a back and hamstrings workout–these two did a shoulder workout a couple of weeks back.
| Full Name: Blessing Awodibu | ||
| Weight | Height | Date Of Birth |
| 235-245 lbs. | 5’10” | 09/20/1991 |
| Division | Era | Nationality |
| Open | 2010 | Irish |
Blessing Awodibu is one of Ireland’s most prized contenders. He began as a fitness social media star but had been earning his stripes in the bodybuilder-sphere. He won the 2022 Indy Pro and New York Pro this year. And if you’ve been a bodybuilding fan, you know his workout partner.
| Full Name: Kai Greene | ||
| Weight | Height | Date Of Birth |
| 265-275 lbs. | 5’8’’ | 07/12/1975 |
| Division | Era | Nationality |
| Men’s Open | 2010 | American |
Kai Greene is regarded as one of the best IFBB Pro bodybuilders. At 47 years old, he hasn’t competed since the 2016 Arnold Classic in Brazil. But he’s made a name for himself in the arts as an artist and actor.
Together, these two superstars bonded to tackle a back and hamstring workout. Of course, Awodibu is in preparation for the Super Bowl of bodybuilding. And well, Kai Greene doesn’t ever turn down an opportunity to endure a rigorous workout. Keep reading to see the exercises they did.
Blessing Awodibu and Kai Greene Back and Hamstrings Workout
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These two powerhouse bodybuilders started the workout by training their backs before crushing their hamstrings.
Seated Row
Blessing Awodibu and Kai Greene did the seated row on a plate-loaded machine for the first exercise. They did a few warm-up sets to prime their backs for the intensity ahead, then did some heavy sets. The seated row targets the muscles in your upper back and your lats. It’s a good movement for improving your posture.
Lat Pulldown
The following back movement they attacked was a lat-focused exercise, lat pulldown. Your lats are the broad muscle in your back, and this exercise targets them extensively, widening your frame.
T-Bar Row
Next, the Ireland sensation and Kai Greene moved on to the T-bar row. This movement is a horizontal row, which targets the muscles of your upper back, lats, biceps, and forearm. Typically, vertical pulls such as lat pulldowns involve more of your lats and upper back muscles, whereas horizontal rows primarily involve your trapezius and rhomboids. Awodibu and Greene capped off this workout by performing a drop set (a drastic drop in weight) for their last set. Then, the bodybuilding duo moved on to superset two movements.
Superset: Close Grip Seated Row and Stiff-leg Deadlift
Before hopping into the superset (back-to-back exercises), the two lifters had some fun and did a sporadic dance. Then, they superset close-grip seated rows stiff-leg deadlift. The seated row with a narrower grip will engage your mid and lower back and place more stress on your biceps. In addition, a stiff-leg deadlift targets your back and hamstrings. But as the name suggests, stiff-leg deadlifts are performed with straight legs, which emphasizes your hamstrings.
Blessing Awodibu says this superset is one of the toughest combos of exercises the gym offers. And Kai Greene explained the importance of this superset. Greene stated:
“Nothing will teach you the proper mechanics and function of gripping the floor like this combination. What happens here is you will be able to flex your hamstrings, glutes, spinal erectors, your lats, your whole posterior chain as you go into thinking about all the longitudinal muscles in your back.
You’re talking about iliocostalis lumborum, latissimus dorsi. If you wait till it comes time to just practice your posing to think that now you’re going to gain all of the awareness that is appropriate in an effort to learn the technique of gripping from the floor.
How to separate your semimembranosus from your semi-finolis, how to flex them together and put them all together so that you can make one cohesive contraction – that’s really the bunch of different muscles being contracted at the same time and held.”
Kai Greene acknowledged that this specific superset could help you get the necessary neurological response to pose from the rear. Greene credits his long-time Mr. Olympia rival Phil Health for his ability to nail contracting muscles from the rear.
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Standing Leg Curl
After their superset, they moved to specifically target their hamstrings further, moving to the standing leg curl. Standing leg curl increases contraction of your hamstrings compared to other hamstring movements, such as seated leg curl, because it requires you to firmly press your quads against padding while simultaneously curling the weight.
Barbell Romanian Deadlift
The final movement in Blessing Awodibu’s and Kai Greene’s workout was the barbell Romanian deadlift. This movement target your posterior chain (back, hamstrings, glutes). And since it doesn’t require as much range of motion as barbell deadlifts, it targets more of your hamstrings and places less strain on your back.
Blessing Awodibu and Kai Greene’s Workout
Below are the back and hamstring exercises Blessing Awodibu and Kai Greene did.
| Exercises |
| Seated Row |
| Lat Pulldown |
| T-bar Row |
| Superset: Close-grip Seated Row and Stiff-leg Deadlift |
| Standing Leg Curl |
| Barbell Romanian Deadlift |
Blessing Awodibu and Kai Greene did 7 movements, two of which were a superset (close-grip seated row and stiff-leg deadlift) to target their back and hamstrings. They did a mix of horizontal and vertical rows to hit different areas of their back. And they added a close grip row to engage more of their mid-back, lower back, and biceps. The bodybuilding workout partners then torched their hamstrings with various movements, including stiff-leg deadlift, standing leg curl, and barbell Romanian deadlift.
You can watch Blessing Awodibu’s and Kai Green’s full workout on Awodibu’s YouTube channel below:
Blessing Awodibu seems to be doing everything he can to be a standout competitor at the 2022 Olympia. The 2022 Olympia takes place December 15-18, 2022, in Las Vegas, NV, at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino.
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