Bodybuilder Nick Walker is all set to start his competition prep for 2023 Olympia and get ready take on the top contenders. He revealed the update during a back training session with Tristyn Lee and Jared Feather.
New Jersey native Nick Walker is one of the most talented bodybuilders in the IFBB Pro League’s Men’s Open division. After earning the IFBB pro card by winning the 2020 North American Championships, achieving the Olympia goal has been the singular focus of Walker’s professional life. He made the pro debut with a fourth place finish at the 2020 Chicago Pro. However, 2021 saw him elevate his career to a whole new year. The Mutant earned a direct qualification with a win at the 2021 New York Pro and also won the 2021 Arnold Classic shortly after. Interestingly, both wins came within a year of him earning the Pro card.
Walker surged past many top contenders en route to a fifth place finish at the 2021 Olympia. However, top five was not good enough for him and he took an extended break from competition to improve his physique further. The results showed when Walker dominated the stage alongside Derek Lunsford and Hadi Choopan to secure a third-place finish at the 2022 Olympia. He made a quick turnaround and competed at the 2023 Arnold Classic, finishing second. He is now all set to start the 2023 Olympia prep and go after Hadi Choopan for the most prestigious professional bodybuilding title.
For his recent back training session, Walker Partnered with fitness influencer Tristyn Lee. The 20-year-old shot to fame as a teenager. The shredded physique and immersive social media content have made Lee a popular figure in the YouTube fitness community. In recent weeks, Lee shared an insane 17000-calorie Carnivore Big Mac recipe and also appeared on Seth Feroce’s podcast where he teased bodybuilding ventures in 2024 and also reiterated the claim that he has been natty all his life.
Tristyn Lee and Nick Walker went through the back workout under coach and IFBB Pro Jared Feather’s guidance. So let’s see how this passionate trio of bodybuilders tackled the workout.
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Nick Walker goes through a back workout with Tristyn Lee
Walker gave a glimpse of his training routine and spoke about the plan of action before starting with the workout. He said:
“This is almost the start of my Olympia prep. Travelling is now done, to my knowledge at least…”
“I was at the Canada tour, I took about four days off, did like two deload days before so now the body’s nice and fresh. So now we’re just gonna ease our way up in training, progress each week as we do it.”
With that, the team jumped right into the workout and performed every exercise with perfect technique and range of motion.
Cable Pullover
Walker and Lee started the training session with a cable lat pullover to get a ‘good nice stretch, nice warm-up’ for the back muscles before delving into the heavier and complex movements. Jared Feather also performed the workout but he watched others carefully to ensure the duo performed each rep with correct technique.
Feather prefers to be in the most disadvantageous position for the lats at the top of the movement. Therefore he bends down more than usual and lets the arms go high above at the beginning of the rep. He does not allow the elbows to sink down to compensate for the lats either.
“Take a bicep curl for example. People will say you should curl here (slightly closer to the body than perpendicular) because you are in the most advantageous position to produce force because the joints are stacked. But you actually get more out of it (the exercise) when you’re in a disadvantageous position. So it’s very similar to this,” He added.
After demolishing some solid sets of the exercise, the trio moved on to the next exercise.
Smith Machine Rows
The trio next took to the Smith machine variation of bent over barbell rows. Considered as the king of back building exercises, bent over rows primarily target the latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, spinal erectors and trapezius muscles. However, they also engage the entire posterior chain of muscles and help with strength and muscle gain. Using the Smith machine eliminates the need to control the weight as the barbell moves along the fixed trajectory. Walker, Lee and Feather performed the exercise with slow and controlled motion. Walker started out light and worked his way up to 275 lbs weight for the top set. Following this, the training partners took to another rowing movement next.
Machine Seated Rows
Walker and team jumped into seated rows on the M-Torture plate-loaded machine next. Seated rows target all the back muscles like latissimus dorsi, spinal erectors, rhomboids and traps. They are an essential exercise to build a thick back. Additionally, seated rows are beneficial in improving the upper body posture. The training partners performed the movement unilaterally to focus on the movement. Feather instructed Walker to move slowly through the eccentric phase of the movement to keep the muscles under tension for a longer duration. After pushing through a few heavy sets of rows, Walker and company wrapped up the training session.
Overall, the workout consisted of following exercises:
- Cable Pullover
- Smith Machine Bent Over Rows
- Machine Seated Rows
The back workout with Tristyn Lee and Jared Feather had relatively fewer exercises than we are used to watching him perform traditionally. However, Walker shed light on Feather’s contribution to his training and spoke about his learnings about training volume.
“Jared helped me a lot with technique again today. Helped me more, you know, in getting the stretch, making sure I’m feeling it in the areas which is, cool. It’s like you realize you don’t need a ton of volume to wreck the muscle. If you directly hit the muscle the way you should be, one or two sets really, you’re good to go,” Walker said after the workout.
Nick Walker has a proven track record of advancing his physique every time he steps on the stage. As he gets ready to start the competition prep for the 2023 Olympia, one can’t help but wonder if this is the year when The Mutant wears the Olympia crown.
You can watch the full workout video here, courtesy of Nick Walker’s personal YouTube channel:
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