After taking the overall at last year’s Arnold Amateur, Dutchman Roelly Winklaar made an auspicious pro debut at this year’s Arnold classic, finishing seventh and just missing the posedown. One week later on March 13, he placed third in the Australian Pro, qualifying for this year’s Mr. Olympia and cementing his frontrunner status for rookie of the year.
He’s trained by 53-year-old Sibil Peeters, a grandmotherly drill sergeant, and just watching Winklaar’s workouts can make you sweat. We explain why and serve up a typical Winklaar delt workout. By the way, this routine is done by Winklaar as well as his younger brother Quincy, who also follows Peeters’ principles. Quincy placed fifth in the light-heavy class of this year’s Arnold Amateur, just before big bro Roelly hit his first pro pose.
WINKLAAR PRINCIPLES
* Use supersets and giant sets to up the intensity and increase blood volumization. For example, seated dumbbell presses and alternate dumbbell front raises are supersetted in the following delt routine.
* Use drop sets to keep going beyond failure.
* To really increase the precontest intensity, superset without rest, trading sets with a training partner. For example, do rope pushdowns and straight bar pushdowns back and forth continuously, so while your partner is doing one you’re doing the other nearby.
* Avoid locking out and do reps fast but controlled to keep constant tension on the targeted muscles.
* Keep the reps relatively high, typically in the 12-20 range, with 15 being the sweet spot.
