Nick Walker is on a mission to win his first Mr. Olympia title later this year when the show returns to Orlando, Florida. In a recent HD Muscle interview, Walker disclosed a new training split, detailed his 2023 off-season progress, and touched on an old rivalry with Martin Fitzwater.
Having finished fifth in his debut on the Olympia stage, Walker is accustomed to competing at the highest level. The former Arnold Classic winner (2021) brought a freakishly full and conditioned physique in his sophomore appearance at the Mr. Olympia last December. Finishing third, many fans and veterans of the sport believe it’s only a matter of time before Walker claims gold at the biggest event on the IFBB Pro League calendar.
He returned to the 2023 Arnold Classic as a clear frontrunner to win. In Ohio, he was tasked with facing two aesthetic bodybuilding threats: Andrew Jacked and Samson Dauda. The judges saw Walker ahead of Jacked but awarded Samson Dauda gold and the $300,000 check. Admittedly, Walker says the loss was a bitter pill to swallow but plans to forge ahead in the coming months.
Remaining active in the off-season, Walker has appeared on multiple podcasts and recently stole headlines with a guest posing appearance. The 28-year-old traveled to Canada and posed alongside Antoine Vaillant, Quinton Eriya, and down syndrome bodybuilding star Kyle Landi.
Nick Walker ‘Training Extremely Hard’ in 2023 Off-Season, Shares New Push Pull Legs Workout Split
According to Walker, he and his team have implemented a new ‘push, pull, off, legs off’ training split. He added that his back days usually consist of four exercises, two sets a piece.
“So now, we do a push, pull, off, legs off, and kind of repeat. To a degree, I even feel with the way and how hard, if you’re really training with extreme intensity doing a push, pull, leg split, you could probably get away with training every other day and make dramatic gains. I’m a firm believer in the off-season, train extremely hard, rest harder, when it comes to the prep zone, you’ll have probably added a lot more size than you thought you did,” said Nick Walker.
“We’ll do four exercises for back, two sets per exercise. Probably one, rear delt. You kind of hit it simultaneously through back, so one rear delt, same thing two sets. Biceps, we’ll do two exercises; two working sets there. Sometimes you can add an intensifier, drop or whatever but I like to keep it pretty basic.”
Despite a busy few months, Walker mentioned that his off-season is progressing well. He stated that moving away from a ‘standard bro split’ will pay dividends when he steps back on stage.
“I feel like honestly I’m progressing very well. It’s just for me I have to know when to rest, when to pull back a little bit as far as the training because it’s obviously new for me. When you’re doing chest shoulders tris, it is very taxing right? But I have felt if you’re doing it right you can really grow doing the style a lot more in my opinion now. Now that I’m really getting into it versus the standard bro split to be honest.”
“I also believe if you’re truly able to connect with the muscle that good, do you really need to go to failure? You understand what I’m saying. Say you’re doing a very slow – which is the most taxing part of the movement and you’re able to connect really well through both ranges, but say you hit 15 reps, maybe you could have gotten 18, is it really going to make a difference especially if you’re going to do another set the same way as you did the first one. You’re taxing the muscle just as hard maybe harder because maybe you’re not going to failure, but you’re going to do another 15 reps just as hard.”
Walker on Squashed Beef with Martin Fitzwater: ‘He’s Very Competitive; He Just Needs to Control His Emotions A Little Bit’
Walker and Martin Fitzwater used to share a rivalry, but they’ve since squashed the beef. Walker appreciates Martin’s competitive nature but stressed that he should focus on controlling his emotions.
“Same show [Martin Fitzwater turned pro]. Yeah, he’s very competitive, he’s very competitive,” said Nick Walker. “Look me and Martin we had tension and we pieced it out now. I do think Martin is a very good guy; I just think he just needs to control his emotions a little bit. Once he does, I think he’s going to be something very good too, for sure.”