Michal Krizo Kills a Shoulders and Triceps Workout

Krizo is nearing the end of his off-season before he starts his Olympia training. 

Michal Krizo is a Slovakian bodybuilder making waves in the bodybuilding world. With his qualification for the 2023 Mr. Olympia already secured, it’s clear that his hard work is paying off. But it wasn’t smooth sailing the entire time. In 2022, he burst into the limelight and wowed everyone with his impressive physique, but there were some areas he wanted to improve. That’s why he’s returned to the drawing board and made incredible changes. And lucky for us, we get to see the results of Michal Krizo’s latest shoulders and triceps workout. 

Getting Mr. Olympia qualifications seems fine for this bodybuilder; he received one with his pro debut! However, you have to bring your best game for this elite competition, and Krizo ended with a not-so-impressive 12th-place finish on his debut. At this point, he and his coach decided to ramp things up, and Michal Krizo took us along on this journey with his YouTube training videos.

The last time we followed one of these, Krizo was training his back for the 2023 IFBB Empro Classic Pro. He went on to win that competition, earning him a direct qualification to Mr. Olympia this year. As a result, Michal Krizo has taken a step back to allow his body to rest, although he’s been doing some light work.

Krizo plans to round up his off-season by July and start full preparations for Mr. Olympia. This shoulder and tricep workout is part of his routine to keep his body active until then. In this post, we look at his exercises and how weightlifters can use them to improve conditioning and increase muscle growth.

 

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Michal Krizo Shoulders and Triceps Workout Exercises

Looking at Michal Krizo, you can see that his conditioning has greatly improved. He’s done this by working closely with his coach, Alexander Hlobik, significantly changing his diet and workouts. Whether this will be enough to take him all the way in Mr. Olympia remains to be seen, but in the meantime, let’s see what we can learn from Michal Krizo’s shoulder and triceps workout. 

Michal Krizo did three exercises in this workout video. Two of those majorly target the triceps but also build your shoulder muscles. His last routine focuses majorly on the shoulders but also recruits the back muscles. Let’s take an in-depth look at them.

Machine Triceps Dip

Machine triceps dips work on your triceps brachii, which are the muscles in the back of your arm. Triceps dips also recruit your pecs, biceps, lats, rhomboids, traps, and levator scapulae. This study shows that including tricep dips in your training can improve your strength and endurance (1).

Triceps dips are great for your core and increase your stability. Many variations include machine triceps, bench, chair, and ring dips. Bodybuilders like Michal Krizo use machine triceps dip because you can adjust your resistance, unlike with the bodyweight variations.

Michal Krizo starts his shoulder and triceps workout with machine triceps dips. He did a couple of sets using slow and controlled motion. This method improves the mind-muscle connection and helps to induce muscle growth.

Triceps Pushdown

The tricep brachii is responsible for moving the elbows and has three heads (2). The triceps pushdown is an isolation exercise that focuses on all three heads of your triceps. However, this routine also uses muscles like the delts, pecs, traps, abs, and lats for stabilization. 

You use a cable machine with a straight bar, rope, EZ bar, or single-hand attachment to do a triceps pushdown. You then stand facing the machine and do the pushdowns, ensuring your arms and torso remain stationary. Triceps pushdowns induce the most hypertrophy in the outer or long head of the triceps brachii, which leads to bigger arms. 

Michal Krizo connected a straight handle attachment to the cable machine to do them. He then did a few sets to maintain the muscles in his arms, and then he jumped to the final workout for the video.

Reverse Pec Deck Flye

The reverse pec deck flye is a movement that builds the posterior delts. Usually, this muscle is hard to target because the back is big and has other dominant muscle groups. It’s easy for your traps or lats to take over the work and shift the focus from your posterior delts.

Training your posterior delts give your back a fuller and more balanced look. These muscles also help with the stabilization of the shoulders and pulling movements. The reverse pec deck flye is an isolation exercise that targets the posterior delts.

When doing the reverse pec deck flye on a machine, you also recruit your traps, rhomboids, and infraspinatus. However, if you feel more activation in your upper back, you can reduce your range of motion to return the activation to your posterior delts.

To wrap up his session, Michal Krizo did a couple of reverse pec deck flyes. Studies show that using a neutral grip is very effective for bodybuilders aiming to increase muscle growth in the posterior delts (3). The reverse pec deck flye also works on your shoulder strength and mobility.

You can watch Michal Krizo’s full shoulders and triceps workout below:

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References

1. Vincent, K. R., Braith, R. W., Feldman, R. A., Kallas, H. E., & Lowenthal, D. T. (2002). Improved cardiorespiratory endurance following 6 months of resistance exercise in elderly men and women. Archives of internal medicine, 162(6), 673–678. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.162.6.673 
2. Tiwana, M. S., Sinkler, M. A., & Bordoni, B. (2022). Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Triceps Muscle. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
3. Schoenfeld, B., Sonmez, R. G., Kolber, M. J., Contreras, B., Harris, R., & Ozen, S. (2013). Effect of hand position on EMG activity of the posterior shoulder musculature during a horizontal abduction exercise. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 27(10), 2644–2649. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e318281e1e9