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Stage Pro
A New Mutant Rises!
Meet New Pro Nick ‘The Mutant’ Walker
By Ron Harris
Finally, a New Pro We Can Get Excited About!
All you younger guys, get ready to roll your eyes, because here I go with a cranky old man rant. Back in the day, it was incredibly difficult to turn pro in bodybuilding. Only the class winners from the Nationals and the overall winners from the USA and North American earned pro status – that was it! As such, we had a crop of excellent amateurs that were all good enough to do damage on the pro stage, if they ever made it there. Often it took them five to 10 years at the National level. This gave us astonishing quality. Just for perspective the top five in the heavyweight class at the 1991 NPC Nationals was, in order, Kevin Levrone, Flex Wheeler, Paul “Quadzilla” DeMayo, Ronnie Coleman, and Matt Mendenhall. Google Matt’s photos if you don’t know who he us. He never turned pro, but he was on dozens of magazine covers in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, and would destroy most of the men turning pro these days onstage. The point is amateurs were stars on par with the pros in those days. Fast-forward to 2020, and there are so many ways for people to get an IFBB Pro League pro card that we never even get a chance to hear who they are before they graduate from the amateurs. There was a time when I could have named 20 incredible amateurs who were already good enough to place highly or even win pro shows. Today, it’s rare I can think of even one. That changed with New Jersey’s Nick Walker, a 26-year-old mass monster with good shape who recently won the IFBB North American at 5-foot-7 and 250 pounds. This kid is not only ready for the pro stage, he will be getting on it by the time you read this!
A Genetic Wonder from the Garden State
Growing up in Pine Hill, New Jersey, Nick played soccer and football and even wrestled, but baseball was where he shined. But as often happens with the people destined for bodybuilding greatness, his passion for that sport dwindled away once he began training at the age of 14. His father had been a competitive bodybuilder in his own youth and passed on some gifted DNA to his son. “I actually lucked out and got my upper body genetics from my dad, and my lower body from mom,” he tells us. His body soon took on a look that was vastly different from his teenage peers. By the time he graduated weighing 230 pounds, people were constantly telling him he should compete. Shortly after getting his diploma, he commenced prep for his first contest at age 17. His dad tried to help him, but work demands made it tough. At four weeks out, Nick hired his first coach. I always say, not all coaches are created equal, and this one put poor Nick on a crash diet. His bodyweight plummeted in four weeks from 225 to 159 pounds, and at least half of the loss came from pure lean muscle tissue. In spite of being disappointed with how he looked and placed, Walker still recalls it as a positive experience. “Hearing the crowd cheer for me and being able to show my hard work made me feel like this was something I wanted to continue. I knew I was capable of much more.”
The Winding Road to Pro
It didn’t take Nick long to turn things around. Just a year later, he scored his first victory as a teen and placed third in the men’s open light heavyweight at the Eastern USA, a tough regional show in New York. The following year at 19, he entered the Teenage Nationals for the first and only time. Nick would have won the heavyweight division had it not been for the phenomenal Cody Montgomery showing up to win an unprecedented third consecutive Teenage Nationals title.
“I wasn’t upset about it,” Walker says. “Cody looked awesome, and we were close. To me, that solidified my future potential in the sport.” He would make his open national-level debut at the 2016 USA, where he placed sixth, the same place he would take at his next two attempts to turn pro at the 2017 USA and North American. It was at the 2019 North American Championships that the fans took notice of the young guy built eerily like ‘90s star Mike Francois: astonishingly thick, dense, round muscle mass packed onto a compact frame.
There, he missed the pro card by one spot, taking second in the super heavyweight division to Zach Merkel. In retrospect, that loss likely did more for him than the win would have. Not only did it get the fans and media talking about him, it lit a bonfire under him to do better.
“Losing made me work twice as hard to make improvements,” he said. “I had never been so focused in my off-season as I was after that show. Every workout was treated like it was my last one ever.”
The decision to earn his pro card at the North American this year had been made the morning after the 2019 USA. “I texted my coach, Matt Jansen, and said that’s the show I wanted to do, and he was like, let’s do it,” says Nick.
2020 and Prepping Through Quarantine
In early March, gyms shut down all across the world, and even elite bodybuilders like Nick were affected. “In the beginning, things were iffy, because there were days when I woke up not knowing if I’d be able to train that day,” he tells us. Luckily his home gym is Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because it and its owners, Frank Trumbetti and Ian Smith, were featured on CNN and other national news outlets for defying New Jersey Governor Murphy’s shutdown orders again and again in spite of hefty fines and having their doors chained shut and water and power cut off. “It’s a hardcore place, and for us, aside from the safety practices, nothing changed in there,” Walker says. He set about to improve on the package he’d shown at the USA, with Matt making changes like reducing his overall training volume and finding foods that Nick digested better. “My back got wider, my waist got tighter, and that gave me a much better V-taper than I had previously.” His weight at the 2019 USA had been 236 pounds. On September 5, the same day as the New York Pro show in Tampa, Nick won the super heavyweight and overall titles at the North American Championships in Pittsburgh at 251 pounds.
“He got too big, too fast!”
That’s a common refrain from the peanut gallery whenever a younger bodybuilder displays extreme muscle mass – as if he was supposed to wait until he was 45 to get that big? Nick has heard that knock many times, and usually just ignores it. “I know what they’re inferring, and it’s not the case,” he begins. “When you have great genetics and consistently train heavy and eat a lot of quality food, you’re going to put on a lot of size.”
He also points out that his stature doesn’t hurt. “As a shorter guy, it’s easier to fill out your frame as opposed to taller men with longer arms and legs,” Nick explains. “They just don’t get it, and always want to find some excuse why I look the way I do.”
* Nick's off-season supplements of choice
Going for the Trifecta in 2020
Nick got some heat for making his intentions known as to what he wants to accomplish by the end of this tumultuous year. Just before the North American, he told me he was going for the trifecta: win the North American, go to the Chicago Pro six weeks later and win that, and compete in the Mr. Olympia contest. Before any of you laugh, such a sweep is not unprecedented. In 2017, Derek Lunsford won the USA, went to the Tampa Pro and won the 212 division one week later, and would go on to place fifth at that year’s 212 Olympia. More recently, female bodybuilder Rachel Daniels earned her pro card at the Junior USA, also won the Tampa Pro a week later, and will be on stage with Iris Kyle and company this December at the return of the Ms. Olympia.
At the start of this, I talked about how the top amateurs years ago were already good enough to be top pros. For example, both Kevin Levrone and Flex Wheeler won multiple pro contests and placed second in their respective rookie years in the IFBB. It’s customary for pros these days to take a year or two off after earning pro status before they get on stage again. Nick flouts that practice. “I know I have the mass to hang with them, and it’s all about condition and refinements now,” he says. “I want to get up there now to see where I stand. If I win, I will go to the Olympia. If I place top three, that’s great too, and I will go back to improving again. There’s no way I am waiting until 2021 to do my first show.”
With the support of his coach, Matt Jansen, and his sponsors, Raw Nutrition, Revive MD, and Iron Rebel activewear, Nick is poised to be the first newly minted pro in years to make an immediate impact the first time he sets foot on a pro stage. How will he do? We will know very soon! In the meantime, fans of extreme mass are glad to have a fresh new representative in the pro ranks, the aptly nicknamed Mutant.
IG: nick_walker39
YouTube: Walker Nation
Nick’s Raw Nutrition Contest-Prep Stack
RAW EAA - 20g taken pre-training and post-training
RAW Burn - 17g taken fasted in the morning
RAW PUMP - 20g taken 30 minutes prior to training
RAW Intra - 50g of carbs taken pre-workout on high days
* Nick's contest prep supplement regimen
For more information, please visit getrawnutrition.com
Matt Jansen on Coaching Nick
“It really is hard for me to put into words what it is like getting to work with Nick. Nick to me is a generational talent and to have his trust and belief in me is something that I hold in very high regard. Our communication is what really has built our relationship. I truly believe that onstage success starts with off-stage communication and this is something that we work hard on daily. We say the hard things to each other and we hold each other to an extremely high standard. It's a blessing to work with him; he is meticulous as it comes and he really has a childlike passion for his bodybuilding and a Jay Cutler-like work ethic and that makes me want to work that much harder to make sure that he achieves all his goals!”
Top Lifts
Incline Dumbbell Press: 225 x 5
Deadlift: 700 x 2
Squat: 635 x 6
Bench Press: 500 x 6
Overhead Dumbbell Press: 200 x 6
Barbell Military Press: 406 x 6
Contest History
2012 Gold’s Classic
Third, Teenage
2013 East Coast Championships
Teen Winner
2013 Eastern USA
Teen Winner
Third, Open Light Heavyweight
2014 Teen Nationals
Second, Heavyweights
2016 South Jersey
Heavyweight and Overall
2016 USA Championships
Sixth, Light Heavyweight
2017 Muscle Beach
Heavyweight and Overall
2017 North American Championships
Sixth, Heavyweight
2017 NPC Nationals
Sixth, Heavyweight
2019 USA Championships
Second, Super Heavyweight
2020 North American Championships
Super Heavyweight and Overall
Ron Harris got his start in the bodybuilding industry during the eight years he worked in Los Angeles as Associate Producer for ESPN’s “American Muscle Magazine” show in the 1990s. Since 1992 he has published nearly 5,000 articles in bodybuilding and fitness magazines, making him the most prolific bodybuilding writer ever. Ron has been training since the age of 14 and competing as a bodybuilder since 1989. He lives with his wife and two children in the Boston area.
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