Nick Walker is marching toward the 2025 Mr. Olympia, set for October 9-12 in Las Vegas, Nevada. On July 21, 2025, he pushed through an intense upper body training session 12 weeks from taking to the stage.
Walker missed out on the last two Mr. Olympia contests, once due to injury and the other because his body wouldn’t respond to prep. He turned the setbacks into triumph at the 2025 Pittsburgh Pro, where he pushed Derek Lunsford in an incredibly close show. To earn his way back to the prestigious stage, Walker picked up his third victory at the 2025 New York Pro.
Nick Walker Crushes Upper Body Workout 12 Weeks from 2025 Mr. Olympia
Find his exercise selections featured in the YouTube video below:
- Incline chest fly machine
- Decline Vertical chest press machine
- Standing fly machine
- High cable chest fly
- Straight arm cable lat pulldown
- Iso linear row
- Seated cable row
- Standing lateral raise machine
- Cable tricep pushdown
- Cable bicep curl
For Walker, fly movements can be just as or more effective than a pressing movement, depending on how they are programmed in a routine.
“It’s person-dependent, but this is my opinion: flies can be better than a pressing movement. You ever notice sometimes your chest gets bigger with flies? I do certain pushing movements and I’m like eh,” he said.
After his first three exercises, Walker touched on his approach to slower eccentrics:
“I do probably around 3-5-second negatives,” said Walker. “No wonder why I’m always tired. Those slow eccentric reps. Most people do like two or less. I could probably speed it up but I just feel it way more.”
Moving past seated cable rows, he gave an update on his mentality post-Pittsburgh:
“I always say, the body follows the mind. Win or lose, if you’re always in a positive mindset no matter what, and again, we all have our bad days… but if you’re always just in a positive mindset, win or lose, you will bring your best look and it could go down as a controversial win or lose, but if you shock the world, shock yourself, that’s a win in itself. Winning doesn’t always mean winning.”
While building his biceps and triceps toward the end of the session, Walker explained how his trainer, Jared Feather, motivates him.
“You think my form is perfection. Well, make it more perfection, and make it hurt more. He just knows how to do it. And it’s like oh fuck. He’ll see me and say this is good, but go, watch, let me guide you and it’s just oh fuck, then he pushes you, the next thing you know, you’re just not moving.”
After topping off his pump with a quick push-up finisher, Walker refined his poses and revealed his current weight was 291 pounds.
Veteran bodybuilders have been candid about how they see the Olympia unfolding. Thus far, Rich Gaspari predicted Samson Dauda to emerge with his second win. Meanwhile, he sees Derek Lunsford sliding into the top-three and Walker settling for a top-five finish.
Walker’s freak factor and muscle density could set the stage for a massive upset at the 2025 Mr. Olympia. This will be his first Olympia show since 2022, where he placed third.
Watch the full video from the Nick Walker YouTube channel below:
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