Reigning 212 Olympia champion Keone Pearson is preparing for the 2024 Mr. Olympia, where he intends to etch himself in the history books by securing a second title. In a recent YouTube video, Pearson walked fans through an upper-body workout, sharing his tips and tricks.
Bringing a combination of shape and aesthetics, Keone Pearson made a statement at the 2023 Mr. Olympia, dethroning the two-time 212 champion Shaun Clarida and claiming the title. Pearson has compared the back and forth to Phil Heath’s and Kai Greene’s epic rivalry.
Keone Pearson Shares Upper Body Workout and Training Advice in 2024 Off-Season
Eager to maintain his title, ‘The Prodigy’ is working hard to improve his physique for his next show. With the goal of bringing more density and conditioning, Keone Pearson has been smashing training sessions in the gym just like his recent upper body workout, where he walks fans through eight movements.
Keono Pearson’s Upper Body Workout
- Cable Fly
- Plate Loaded Chest Press
- Plate Loaded Flat Press
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises
- Shrug Machine
- Single Arm Preacher Curl Machine
- Tricep Extension Machine
- Dumbbell Hammer Curls
Cable Fly
To kick off the training session, Keone Pearson begins with cable flies to work the upper chest. He makes sure to remind his followers to keep their chins up and chest up, something he forgets on occasion.
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“We’re going to start off with some flies, upper chest, going to do about two-warm-up sets. We going to get to work. You know how we do it.”
“The most important thing is something that I’m kind of guilty about sometimes but I try to catch myself is keep the chin up and always have the chest up.”
Plate Loaded Chest Press
From there, Pearson does a plate-loaded chest press which he mentions is his favorite exercise on his secondary chest day.
“It’s going to be incline hammer strength press. This is my favorite. This is what I do on my secondary chest day. I replace it for Smith machine incline, but we’re going to do the machine chest press, so, that’s the difference between my two chest days. I try to do different exercises but still target the same upper pec or lower pec.”
Plate Loaded Flat Press
When doing a plate-loaded flat press, Keone Pearson makes sure to rotate his delts back to keep the focus on the chest.
“When I’m doing this exercise, I always try to rotate my delts back, try to lock them in and take as much off my delts and focus on the chest. That’s the difference.”
Dumbbell Lateral Raises
Next, Pearson performs dumbbell lateral raises where he tries to be strict with his body movements and fully feel the contraction while completing the reps.
“Working towards 15 reps try to keep it as strict as possible. It’s okay to give a little body language when you do side lateral raises just make sure you get in that position first where you can actually feel that contraction and then do the rest” Pearson said.
Shrug Machine
Pearson underlines the importance of big traps in divisions like the Open and 212.
“Cool thing about bodybuilding, you can do shrugs. When you’re in the 212 of the Open, but I don’t think traps is too much allowed but when you’re a bodybuilder, Open or 212, and you have more space to grow, hitting traps is very necessary.”
Single Arm Preacher Curl Machine
Pearson shares that he doesn’t try to hit personal records, especially on de-load days.
“It’s been working fine for me for this whole time and I kind of use this day as a little de-load. I don’t try to hit PRs or anything on this day just strictly targeting a some of everything.”
Triceps Extension Machine
Before his last exercise, Pearson pushed through reps of triceps extensions.
Dumbbell Hammer Curls
For his final movement, Pearson finishes the workout with some dumbbell hammer curls.
“Do one more exercise of curls, cross-body curls, hammer curls, whatever you want to call them.”
Even though ‘The Prodigy’ is eager to defend his 212 Olympia title, that hasn’t stopped him from considering a move to the Men’s Open division. Previously, Pearson mentioned that depending on the results of this year’s Mr. Olympia, he may compete at the Arnold Classic in the Open category before jumping back down to 212 again.
Regardless of which division Keone Pearson competes in, he is a talented bodybuilder with a one-of-a-kind physique. Fans are looking forward to seeing Pearson take on Shaun Clarida once again at the 2024 Mr. Olympia this October 10-13 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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