Nick Walker is busy forging the best version of himself for the 2023 Olympia stage. The bodybuilding star known for his massive size and insane conditioning recently tackled a push-day workout to pack some serious muscle mass.
New Jersey’s own Nick Walker is a rare bodybuilding talent that blitzed into the top echelons of Men’s Open division within a short period of time. Both of his professional bodybuilding victories – at the 2021 New York Pro and 2021 Arnold Classic – came within a year of earning the IFBB Pro card.
The wins also guaranteed the 28-year-old a direct qualification to the 2021 Mr. Olympia. Walker continued to impress and finished fifth at his 2021 Olympia debut.
But Walker wasted no time in celebrating the performance and stepped back from competition until the 2022 Olympia to improve his physique further. At one point, complications borne out of coaching changes could have derailed his growth.
However, Mutant showed up in excellent shape on the 2022 Olympia stage and secured a third-place finish. Walker’s last stage appearance came at the 2023 Arnold Classic in March where he was placed second behind Samson Dauda. Although the results were heavily contested, the New Jersey native has moved on with a forward-looking approach and focused his energies on getting ready for the 2023 Olympia.
Nick Walker’s competition prep is intensifying with each passing day. With his new Olympia diet and training routine, he has started to shed extra pounds. Although some experts believe that Mutant has to bank on his ‘freak factor’ at this year’s Olympia, Walker believes in the hard work and sees himself at the absolute top.
Nick Walker goes through a push-day workout
Walker’s training split has two dedicated push days. Both sessions are predominantly chest-oriented as the 28-year-old believes that his chest needs to match the development of the rest of his upper body.
Recently, the 2021 Arnold Classic winner went through a chest-focused push-day workout to prepare for Olympia. So let’s check out how the session played out.
Chest Workout
Incline Dumbbell Chest Flyes
Nick Walker typically starts his push day with a flye variation. His plan was to initiate the workout with cable Chest flyes. However, it was a busy hour and the cable stations were occupied. Therefore, he chose the free weight alternative and went with Incline Cable Chest Flyes to kick off the session.
“Incline is always the priority. When I start with the pec deck or flye, the next movement will be an Incline of some sort. But even if I start with an Incline flye, the pressing movement that I choose next will still be an incline. I feel like incline is what most people lack the most,” Mutant stated.
Walker did two sets on the dumbbell Incline flyes. Each set consisted of 15 reps and did enough to warm up the chest muscles for the heavy compound movements that followed.
Machine Incline Chest Press
Walker next jumped into the Incline pressing movement to work the upper pecs or the clavicular head of the pectoralis major muscles. Most people struggle with developing this part of the chest and it is essential to incorporate Incline pressing movements to stimulate this part of the chest.
Mutant’s personal favorite to target the upper pecs is the Flex leverage press machine.
“This is a beauty. I probably won’t load this up to be honest, I probably might go as high as, I don’t know, maybe three plates on each side. I want to stay maybe in the 10 to 12 rep range with this. So this kind of gets heavy really fast,” He said.
The 28-year-old performed all the sets of this exercise with slow and controlled movements in the eccentric phase. He lowered the weight as much as possible without having to involve the shoulders to get a good stretch in the pectoral muscles. On the contrary, the positive or concentric phase of the exercise was done with explosive strength.
“I said I wanted 10 to 12 (reps) but the contraction, the squeeze, everything was what I wanted it to be. So, I’m okay with it,” Walker said after finishing the sets.
Flat Bench Dumbbell Press
Nick Walker wrapped up the chest training routine with a few sets of flat bench dumbbell press and moved on to do the shoulder work.
Shoulder Workout
Walker’s training split of push, pull, and leg training does not have a dedicated shoulder day. He clubs the shoulder exercises with push day and feels that is enough to grow the shoulders in his case.
Additionally, the 2021 Arnold Classic winner has experienced that doing too many Overhead pressing movements can potentially create shoulder issues. As a result, he prefers high Incline pressing movements that target the chest and anterior deltoid muscles over the overhead presses.
On most occasions, the New Jersey native starts his shoulder training with lateral raise. He then proceeds to do a posterior deltoid or anterior deltoid movement. High Incline pressing movements cap ‘Mutant’s shoulder training.
Machine Lateral Raises
The machine variation of lateral raises kicked off the shoulder workout as Walker performed a few sets of the movement before jumping into a superset.
Anterior and posterior deltoid muscles are stimulated during compound pushing and pulling movements, respectively. However, lateral delts rarely get stimulated unless targeted with specific exercises. In addition to the reasons that Walker listed, this one is important to include lateral raises in your shoulder training.
Superset – Barbell Face Pulls and Barbell Upright Rows
Nick Walker concluded the shoulder training with a light Superset consisting of these exercises. He did these exercises without loading the barbell with plates and performed the sets to failure.
Triceps Workout
Banded Cable Triceps Pushdown
Cable triceps pushdown works all three triceps heads effectively and helps bring about hypertrophy. Additionally, it is a great movement to warm up the elbow joints, which are crucial in most arm exercises.
Walker performed some fruitful sets of this exercise using a banded attachment and took to another effective tricep builder next.
Barbell Skull Crushers
It is essential to work the muscles from different angles and positions for complete development. Skull crushers work the triceps from a lengthened position, putting more emphasis on the long head of triceps.
Walker annihilated some heavy sets of barbell skull crushers and advanced over to the final exercise of the day.
Incline Push-Ups
The 28-year-old bodybuilder put a cap on the workout with a few sets of Incline push-ups to add a pump to his chest, shoulders, and triceps.
Overall, the push-day training session consisted of:
Chest Workout
- Incline Dumbbell Chest Flyes
- Incline Dumbbell Chest Press
- Machine Incline Chest Press
- Flat Bench Dumbbell Press
Shoulder Workout
- Machine Lateral Raises
- Superset – Barbell Face Pulls and Barbell Upright Rows
Triceps Workout
‘Mutant’ gives training tips to achieve balanced growth for chest and shoulders
Nick Walker has trained for a long time and has been through many phases of development. After concluding the workout, he shared the experience of training his chest and shoulders. He said:
“When you’re just starting out, sticking to the basics is what works, you know – Shoulder pressing, barbell, you know. The older you get, you realize you’re hitting a lot of shoulders when you hit chest. Especially when you’re doing Incline… You’re Incorporating a lot of front delt…”
As a result, Walker feels that shoulders can get more dominant over time compared to the chest. The Mutant himself is the victim of this phenomenon and only targets shoulders as the secondary muscle group on a push day to bring the chest at par with shoulders.
But what if someone has underdeveloped shoulders compared to the chest? Walker has a plan:
“I think a good way to program it is to start with the side laterals. I think side laterals are very good to start with. Just because I think whenever you go to a pressing movement after that, it allows for a better mind-muscle connection…”
“And from the side lateral, I would go into a very high incline…”
Although the high Incline movements will also target the pectoral muscles, it’s acceptable because the anterior deltoid will be the primary target muscle.
“Third movement, if you want, you can do another side lateral at that point, you know, ain’t anything better than that to cap the delts. And on your pull days, I would do rear delts. That’s what I would prefer…”
Nick Walker has proven his worth as the top contender of the division. All that’s left for him is to win the Olympia gold. If he continues on the same path, the goal might be achieved at the 2023 Olympia.
You can watch the full workout video below, courtesy of Nick Walker’s personal YouTube channel:
Published: 12 August, 2023 | 9:14 AM EDT
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