Bodybuilders Martin Fitzwater and Brett Wilkin are ready to bring their best to the 2025 Mr. Olympia. On August 21, 2025, they pushed through a brutal hamstring-focused leg workout eight weeks from stepping onstage.
After securing fourth place in his debut at the Mr. Olympia, Fitzwater has become a breakout star in the Men’s Open class. He earned his Olympia qualification early thanks to his massive win over Chris Bumstead at the 2024 Prague Pro.
Wilkin also qualified early. He won gold at the 2024 Legion Sports Fest Pro and is poised to make his first appearance at the Mr. Olympia in less than two months. With bigger hamstrings and striated glutes as their goal, they walked through the exercises that are helping take their physiques to the next level.
Martin Fitzwater and Brett Wilkin Team Up for Old-School’ Leg Day 8 Weeks Out from 2025 Mr. Olympia
Find the exercise selections from the YouTube video below:
Level Up Your Fitness: Join our 💪 strong community in Fitness Volt Newsletter. Get daily inspiration, expert-backed workouts, nutrition tips, the latest in strength sports, and the support you need to reach your goals. Subscribe for free!
- Leg Adduction Machine
- Standing Single-Leg Curl W/ Yoga Block
- Lying Hamstring Curl Machine
- Seated Hamstring Curl Machine
- Leg Press Machine
- RDL Machine
- Hip Thrust Machine
Leg Adduction Machine
Fitzwater always kicks off hamstring training with the hip adduction machine, which he credited for helping warm up the knee stabilizers.
“This is one we’ve chosen especially for back and we really like it for leg day. It’s got a lot of old-school pieces like we showed you guys on the chest day, and the same thing again with these old-school leg pieces.”
“We always warm up with adductors, whether it’s hamstrings or quads and that’s just to get the knee stabilizers ready. Those adductors help stabilize that knee and get things ready to do the hamstring curls and RDLs and things like that.”
Standing Single-Leg Curl W/ Yoga Block
Using a yoga block to adjust their height allows Fitzwater and Wilkin to achieve an even greater contraction of the hamstrings.
“Now, we’re going into single-leg leg curls here. This is an old machine. This is one of our favorites. We have a little bit of a different setup.
We’re standing on a yoga block, just to get that height perfect to get that extra good contraction on the hamstring here. We’ll run these single legs, get up to a big top set and then we’ll probably do an intensifier and go into another curl.”
Lying Hamstring Curl Machine
They prioritized a deep stretch with lying hamstring curls, and kept the glutes from taking over the exercise.
“A prone leg curl here. This is an old Cybex one, it has probably a 15 maybe 30-degree angle at the hips. So you’re going to get a good stretch on the hamstring and also keep the glutes out of it.”
Seated Hamstring Curl Machine
They executed a deeper range of motion through two sets.
“We wanted to do more hamstring curling in a different variation. We hopped over to the ham tractor, we’re going to do two sets of seated here, really focusing on getting that squeeze and helping each other get that full range of motion,” Fitzwater shared.
Leg Press Machine
To stretch the hamstring fibers, Fitzwater jumped on the leg press machine with high foot placement.
“Get them super pumped, then we needed something to stretch them out, so we went into a leg press high-footed,” he adds.
RDL Machine
During RDLs, Fitzwater and Wilkin ensured they were pushing their hips back to maximize mechanical tension.
“We’re just going to focus on pushing the hips back and making sure we get a good stretch on the hamstrings.”
Hip Thrust Machine
Aiming for striated glutes on the Mr. Olympia stage, they finished the workout on the hip thrust machine.
“Really thrusting those hips, it’s not a pretty movement, it’s not a sexy movement, but it does the job it needs to. We need striated glutes for the Olympia so we’re doing the work now.”
Fitzwater and Wilkin have remained training partners in the lead-up to the 2025 Mr. Olympia. They recently broke down their lat-focused back day workout, where both athletes prioritized three-second holds to build as much muscle as possible.
Both IFBB Pros look on track to bring their all-time best. The 2025 Mr. Olympia is set for October 9-12 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
RELATED: Martin Fitzwater Shares Full Day of Eating to Stay Huge for the 2025 Mr. Olympia
Watch the full video from the Hosstile YouTube channel below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7xceRDcgys
Relive every moment from the 2025 Mr. Olympia, including prejudging, highlights, expert analysis, and full results. Explore our Olympia hub: FitnessVolt.com/olympia. For minute-by-minute coverage, follow our Live Blog.
You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and
YouTube for even more content.
