Open IFBB competitor Nick Walker catapulted to bodybuilding superstardom after winning his Arnold Classic debut in 2021. He predicted a top-five placing at the 2021 Olympia and just a few weeks later he snagged the fifth spot behind Hunter Labrada at a show where Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay won his second straight title.
“The Mutant” recently parted ways with his previous coach Matt Jansen and is now working with Dominick Mutascio to bring a lights-out package to the 2022 Olympia, that’ll go down from December 16-18, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Walker is ramping up his offseason training after a deload week and has been highly active on his YouTube channel. The 27-year-old posted a delts, triceps, and chest workout on April 6, 2022, as part of his road to the Olympia training series. He was training at Busy Body Fitness in Boca, Raton, Florida.
[Related: Bodybuilders Brett Wilkin And Iain Valliere Tackle A Heavy Quad-Focused Workout]
Nick Walker Full Shoulders, Triceps, and Chest Workout
We’ve included all of the workout details from the session below.
Reverse Pec Pec
Walker always starts off his shoulder workouts with a rear delt movement and there’s a reason for that.
“I feel like that’s the most neglected body part,” says the 2021 New York Pro winner. Many would agree that it’s common for these muscles to not get the same attention compared to other areas.
The reverse pec dec is a great exercise for isolating the rear delts and because of how the machine is designed to be used, it’s also one of those movements that just feels right.
“The mutant” performed a triple drop set where you perform a set, lower the weight, perform another set, then drop the weight again and do a third set.
Standing Barbell Shoulder Press
Nick Walker went back to the raw basics with the standing barbell press for his second shoulder exercise. He explained that it’s one of the movements he feels really isolates the deltoids.
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The barbell shoulder press primarily works the anterior (front) and medial (side) delts, however, it requires total-body strength and stabilization to perform safely and effectively. You can also load up the weight and really challenge yourself to get stronger with a basic free weight compound lift.
Walker did one heavy set for nine reps and then a 20-rep set.
Dumbbell Lateral Shoulder Raise
The dumbbell lateral shoulder raise and its variations may very well be the most popular type of delt movement(s) for emphasizing the medial deltoids.
Walker did a few sets working up to 50-pound dumbbells before doing a double drop set and performing partial repetitions.
If you notice when he performs the exercise, his arms are positioned slightly in front of his body as opposed to directly out to the sides. For some, this deactivates the trap involvement and is a more comfortable way to lift the dumbbells.
Cable One-Arm Lateral Shoulder Raise
Moving on to the single-arm version of the shoulder lateral raise, Walker said that he prefers these types of movements over presses.
“I like to do a lot of laterals in my shoulder routine rather than pressing,” he elaborates. “I feel like I have big enough shoulders so now for me it’s just continuously to build them but sculpt them now more than anything.”
For this version, he chose to use the cable machine which offers an advantage over using dumbbells because the constant tension provided by the cables stretches the deltoids during the eccentric or negative portion of the movement.
He performed three sets of 12-15 reps.
Smith Machine Shrug
Shrugs are one of the best exercises for overloading the trapezius muscles near the neck because you can load up the bar with a lot of weight. But the benefit of using the Smith machine is that you don’t have to balance the bar.
Walker used lifting straps during shrugs to help him maintain a good grip. He again performed three sets of 12-15 reps.
Rear Delt Cable Fly
Wrapping up shoulders, Walker finished with another rear delt exercise —the cross cable rear delt fly for three sets of 15-20 reps.
Cable Rope Triceps Pushdown
The Mutant is known to have some of the best arms in the business and his triceps are insane. Walker started off with the cable rope pushdown and performed 3 sets working up to 20 reps.
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The cable pushdown is great for emphasizing the outer head of the triceps but it works all three heads.
Triceps Dip Machine
Up next was the dip machine for triceps. Walker wasn’t sure the machine would be comfortable but he managed just fine, although he joked he probably just wouldn’t be able to get out of it.
Dips are a good overall triceps movement that can really pack mass onto the arms.
He used a pronated/overhand grip and did two working sets incorporating rest-pause reps on the last set.
Overhead Triceps Extension Machine
To emphasize the long head of the triceps which contributes a lot to upper arm mass, Walker did two sets with a drop set of the overhead triceps extension to really burn out the triceps before moving on to chest.
Pec Dec/Chest Fly
In an effort to bring his chest up, he includes a little chest work on his non-chest-focused days. He opted to do the pec dec/ machine chest fly to get a good stretch and focus on the contraction.
Walker did three sets of 12-15 reps of this exercise.
Ab Raise
The last exercise was an ab/leg raise exercise for the midsection. He finished with three sets of 15-20 reps.
Shoulder, Triceps, and Chest Workout
Below are all of the exercises from the workout plus the sets and reps in the order performed by Walker.
Note: The sets and reps listed below are pulled from Walker’s video. If you don’t see any numbers listed, we suggest performing 12-15 reps, which appears to be Walker’s preferred rep range.
- Reverse Pec Dec: Triple drop set
- Standing Barbell Shoulder Press: 2 x 9, 20 reps
- Dumbbell Lateral Shoulder Raise: 1 x double drop set
- Cable One-Arm Shoulder Lateral Raise: 3 x 12-15 reps
- Smith Machine Shrug: 3 x 12-15 reps
- Rear Delt Cable Fly: 3 x 15-20 reps
- Cable Rope Triceps Pushdown: 3 x 20 reps
- Triceps Dip Machine: 2 sets
- Overhead Triceps Extension Machine: 2 sets w/ drop set
- Pec Dec/Chest Fly: 3 x 12-15 reps
- Ab Raise: 3 x 15-20 reps
Wrapping Up
Nick Walker is still in his offseason but will be approaching the start of his 2022 Olympia prep very soon.
As Walker mentioned in the video, he recently weighed in at 300 pounds (136 kilograms), but dropped down to 292 pounds (132.4 kilograms) and is feeling pretty good right now. He’s currently following a two days on, one day off regime and it’s doing his body good.
Featured Image: Nick Walker on YouTube
