2021 Arnold Classic winner Nick Walker recently shared an off-season quad dominating training session. Walker is a fast-rising contender in the Open Pro division. He has won the prestigious Arnold Classic and New York Pro in 2021 less than one year after earning the IFBB Pro card. Walker was expected to defend his Arnold Classic title in 2022. However, he chose to take time off and prepare his body to compete against the most elite contenders of the Open Pro division.
Nick Walker will most likely wait until the 2022 Olympia to grace the stage. He last competed at the 2021 Olympia and finished 5th. This has already been the longest off-season of Nick Walker’s bodybuilding career. The 27-year-old routinely shares bodybuilding content on his YouTube channel and provides glimpses of his off-season training. He recently shared the leg day workout that emphasized heavily on quads.
At the beginning of the video, Nick Walker stated that his last week of training was kind of a de-load week. He chose to amp up the training starting with the leg day.
Nick Walker’s Quad workout
Walker’s quad day workout consisted of high-rep sets to pump as much blood into the muscles as possible. Before starting the workout he revealed that most of the workouts will consist of squat variations.
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!
Inner thigh squeezes and outer thigh press
Nick Walker warmed up with these two workouts and worked the adductor muscles before jumping into the working sets. He performed two sets of each workout to get the blood flowing into the muscles.
During the closing remarks, Nick Walker stated that his goal is to maintain the adductor muscles as they are right now and does not intend to make them any bigger.
“I feel I have pretty powerful adductors as is. So I don’t want them to get too much bigger. I just kind of want to maintain them. So we did like two sets each there,” Nick Walker said.
Pendulum squats
Nick Walker started the working sets with pendulum squats on the machine. For the uninitiated, the individual performing this workout stands on an inclined and adjustable platform while the padded levers rest on the shoulders. The individual performs Squats with the help of levers. Unlike a traditional Squat, pendulum squats put minimal to no stress on the lower back.
Nick Walker claims it to be one of his favorite workouts. He increased the volume for this movement and performed two sets to failure before moving on to the next one.
Hip Belt Squats
The belt squats or hip belt squats remove shoulders and upper body from the picture and place emphasis on the lower body. Therefore they are effective in bringing about lower limb hypertrophy. While they have fallen in and out of trend, many strength sports athletes have popularised it in recent times due to its benefits in building the lower body muscles.
“I don’t care what anyone says… if you know how to do it, it’s f*ing awesome,” Nick Walker said.
Nick Walker performed two sets to failure and showed off the massive quads.
Hammer Strength plate-loaded seated leg curls
After working the quads extensively in the first two movements, Nick Walker shifted the focus to hamstrings in the third movement.
Nick Walker performed two sets of 12 reps and one drop set of seated leg curls.
Smith Machine squats
Nick Walker went back to working the quads for the fourth movement and performed three sets of Smith Machine squats with progressive overload. Each set consisted of 15 reps.
Single leg extensions
The leg day came to an end with two sets of single-leg extensions. Nick Walker performed two sets of the workout with 15 reps each to end the quad session. Getting the contraction was Walker’s goal for this workout. Therefore he did not go heavy and chose to perform it with moderate weights.
Standing calf raises
Nick Walker prefers to combine calf workouts with other muscle groups. He called it a day after performing three sets of calf raises on the Hack Squat machine.
Overall, the workout consisted of:
- Inner thigh squeezes – 2 sets of 15 to 20 reps
- Outer thigh press – 2 sets of 8 to 12 reps
- Pendulum squats – 2 sets to failure
- Hip belt squats – 2 sets to failure
- Hammer Strength plate-loaded seated leg curls – 2 sets of 12 reps and 1 drop set
- Smith Machine squats – 3 sets of 15 reps
- Single leg extensions – 2 sets of 15 reps
- Standing calf raises – 3 sets of 15 reps
Walker is currently working with a new coach and dietician Dominick Mutascio to bring up his conditioning from last year to win the 2022 Olympia weekend on Dec. 16-18, 2022, in Las Vegas, NV.
Courtesy of Nick Walker’s YouTube channel, you can watch the full workout video here:
More Workouts by Nick Walker:
- Nick Walker Shares Leg Day Workout
- Nick Walker Joins Blessing Awodibu For A Crushing Leg Day Workout
- Nick Walker Shares A Crushing Back Workout
- Nick Walker Hits Delt Destruction and Triceps Workout
- Nick Walker’s Effective Chest & Biceps Workout
- Nick Walker And Blessing Awodibu Hit High-Intensity Chest And Triceps Workout
- Nick Walker Shares Epic Shoulders And Triceps Workout
- Nick Walker Joins Hands With Quinton Eriya For A Crushing Back Workout
- Nick Walker Shares Crushing Chest And Biceps Workout
- Nick Walker Shares Killer Arms Workout (Video)
- Nick Walker Shares His New Back And Bicep Workout