Nick Walker recently posted his push day workout for the 2023 Olympia prep on his YouTube channel. Nine weeks out of the show, Walker is looking solid, big and primed to take on every challenge that he may have to deal with to get a ‘W’.
Nick Walker is an elite IFBB Pro bodybuilder that competes in the Men’s Open division. He belongs to the new generation of young contenders that pushed aside the ageing veterans and catapulted themselves into the top tier of the division. Apart from the freakishly muscular physique, the New Jersey native is known for his intense work ethic. Starting with his fourth-place finish at the 2021 Chicago Pro debut, the 28-year-old has never finished outside of top five in any of the shows he has competed at so far.
He achieved a tough task of winning the Arnold Classic trophy in the very first attempt in 2021 and surged into the top five of the Olympia that same year. But winning the Olympia gold has been Walker’s primary career goal. He took time off to add new facets to his physique and returned to the next year’s 2022 Olympia contest, finishing third. A quick turnaround at the 2023 Arnold Classic resulted in a runner-up finish but many experts opined that Walker deserved the nod from judges.
Walker is now training to prepare for the 2023 Olympia and feels that he can ‘overpower’ Mr. Olympia Hadi Choopan on stage this year. The 28-year-old has the right to believe that as he has made improvements in every area of his physique in recent months with intense training and proper diet.
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Nick Walker goes through a push day workout
Nick Walker recently fueled his competition prep with an intense push day workout to build the upper body. He dealt with every exercise with a perfect form and technique. Walker is a huge proponent of slow eccentric reps and performed all the sets with this method. So without further delay, let’s jump right into the details of this training session and see how it unfolded.
Pec Deck Flyes
Pec deck flyes ranks high in terms of pectoral muscle activation. Additionally, it is a non-explosive movement which makes it perfect for warming up the muscles in the beginning of the workout. Walker carried out a few sets of pec deck flyes and took to the first compound exercise of the day.
Smith Machine Incline Bench Press
Nick Walker worked the chest with this pressing movement to build the upper pectoral muscles. He started out light on the incline Smith machine press and performed the warm-up set with one plate on each side. The 28-year-old maintained 6 to 8 rep range in the two working sets that followed. He then finished up with a double drop set to push beyond failure.
High Incline Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Walker gave the chest muscles a bit of a break after the arduous Smith machine work. He switched to working the shoulders and performed high incline dumbbell shoulder press, targeting the anterior deltoids. Heavy sets of this size building exercise followed as Walker applied the progressive overload principle to get the most out of it.
Machine Decline Chest Press
To emphasize the lower pecs, the New Jersey native performed seated chest presses on the Advance chest press machine. It is a selectorized machine with a decline movement pattern. ‘Mutant’ pushed through the exercise maintaining a 12 to 15 rep range in every set. This served as the final chest movement of the day.
Machine Lateral Raises
The 2021 Arnold Classic winner concentrated on working the medial deltoid muscles next, performing lateral raises on a machine. While most bodybuilders raise the arms up to the shoulder level for optimum tension on the side delts, Walker believes in adding extra contraction by raising the arms as high as possible. He got some good sets of this movement under his belt and went on to do some triceps work next.
Cable Triceps Pushdowns
Nick Walker started the tricep exercises with cable triceps pushdown and did a few sets.
Seated Overhead Triceps Extension Machine
Overhead pressing movements work the triceps from a lengthened position and emphasize the long head of triceps more than the other two heads. Walker demolished a few sets of seated overhead triceps extensions on a plate-loaded machine and finished things up with a compound bodyweight exercise.
Chest Dips
Nick Walker spent all the leftover energy into performing a few sets of chest dips and worked the chest as well as triceps. This exercise concluded the push day training session.
Overall, the workout consisted of following exercises:
- Pec Deck Flyes
- Smith Machine Incline Bench Press
- High Incline Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Machine Decline Chest Press
- Machine Lateral Raises
- Cable Triceps Pushdowns
- Seated Overhead Triceps Extensions Machine
- Chest Dips
Nick Walker gives competition prep update
Nick Walker started the competition prep 20 weeks out of the 2023 Olympia. Approximately 11 weeks deep into the prep, this is what ‘Mutant’ had to say about the progress achieved so far:
“Strength is still somewhat progressing but I’m also maintaining as much as I can. Fatigue is starting to kick in a little bit more than last week, which is okay. But overall, this prep is going very well.”
He added:
“The body is responding very well now. I’m getting leaner pretty much day-by-day I think at this point!”
Walker seems to have come across some gossip about his commitment to prep. He sent a strong message out to the doubters and expressed supreme confidence in his ability to pull off a win at this year’s Olympia.
“Everyone who wants to count me out and say I’m not as focused as I normally am… A different mindset, whatever you want to call it… you’re all gonna see come November. I think I am more focused than I have ever been. I’m more in tune than I have ever been and I’ve made some drastic changes. So I don’t think anyone’s going to surpass me this year…”
‘Mutant’ on his chances at the 2023 Olympia – “This is my time”
Nick Walker had to go through a rough patch in the 2022 off-season due to coaching changes. While the fiasco cast a shadow of doubt on his prospects at the 2022 Olympia, he silenced the critics with a podium finish. ‘Mutant’ drew attention to this and said:
“Olympia is a different ball game and I’m hungrier than ever. I had a sh***y off-season last year an improved my spot with that sh***y off-season by two places. Short off-season this year but probably one of my best. I have no doubt, no reason to not improve again.”
Although Nick Walker is certain that every competitor in the Open division will bring their A-game to the table, he believes that no one can stop him from taking the Sandows trophy home.
“I will be Mr. Olympia and no one’s gonna take that from me. I know exactly what I’m doing and this is my time.”
Most experts as well as competitors believe that Hadi Choopan, Derek Lunsford, Nick Walker and Samson Dauda will be in the top four at the 2023 Olympia. Do you agree with Walker’s assessment? How do you see the 2023 Olympia playing out? Let us know in the comments section!
You can watch the full workout video below, courtesy of Nick Walker’s personal YouTube channel:
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