Nick Walker is already locking down his game plan to win the 2027 Arnold Classic. In a recent video (November 6, 2026), he explained why he no longer needs size and discussed his training approach before stepping back onstage.
Nick Walker defeated Samson Dauda and Derek Lunsford to etch his name into Mr. Olympia history. He became the 20th man to earn the Sandow trophy, thanks to unmatched muscle hardness and conditioning. “The Mutant” could have taken a break after the triumph, but immediately set his sights on the 2027 Arnold Classic.
Thus far, Hadi Choopan and Andrew Jacked have confirmed their entries. While Walker managed to beat Choopan at the Arnold last year, he didn’t get past Jacked, and it cost him $750,000. With no shortage of momentum, the Men’s Open star laid out how he plans to avenge the defeat.
Nick Walker Talks Training for the 2027 Arnold Classic, Says Size Is No Longer a Concern
In the video, Walker emphasized that size was no longer a concern. Instead, he said steady refinements are the top priority.
“I don’t really need much more size, just more refinement, which can be done easily in a short amount of time, in my opinion. When you’re at that stage where, yeah, you need a little improvement here and there, you can do that within a prep. We don’t need an ample amount of size to take time off, that’s why I’m doing it. Why not?”
He also looked back on training with former 212 Olympia Kamal Elgargni and contrasted it with his slow-negative style of lifting:
“For that time I was in Tampa, I trained with Kamal almost every day for three months straight. I had fun, but that’s not, I can’t handle it,” he said. “It was very high volume, but it was like every set till fucking failure, man. Then, a triple drop set. I’m like cooked.”
“I also feel like when you train the way I do… meaning very slow negatives, like a three- to five-second negative and explode and repeat, you can’t do high volume like that. You either have to be a fast trainer and have high volume or you’re going to be like that slow, really methodical and have to go low volume, because that’s taxing in itself. You can’t do both in one session. That was my problem,” Nick Walker said.
Walker is posing three times a day and practicing vacuums in preparation for the Arnold. According to Dennis James, he should be ‘very worried’ about Hadi Choopan. James emphasized that Choopan is the fresher athlete since he was unable to compete at the recent Mr. Olympia.
Walker wants as many Arnold Classic and Mr. Olympia titles as he can possibly get. The 2027 Arnold Classic goes down from March 4-7 in Columbus, Ohio.
