Nick Walker secured his second New York Pro victory on May 18, 2024, to claim his spot in the 2024 Mr. Olympia contest at Resorts World in Las Vegas, NV, from Oct. 10-13, 2024.
Prepping for bodybuilding’s most prestigious event, Walker has sights set on avenging his absence from the 2023 Mr. Olympia due to a hamstring tear.
On July 31, 2024, Walker shared his Olympia prep chest routine with coach Matt Jansen at Revive Gym in Stuart, FL. Together, they strategized the game plan for Walker to contend against reigning Mr. Olympia Derek Lunsford.
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Nick Walker’s 4 Chest Training Tips
Walker swears by these four training principles for world-class chest gains:
- Use Slow-Rep Tempos
- Do What Works For You
- Prioritize Form
- Don’t Overdo Warm-Ups
[Related: “I’m Here, Motherf$#kers”: Jay Cutler Reflects on His Epic Quad Stomp at the 2009 Mr. Olympia]
Warm-Up Tips For Heavy Sets
Walker preached the importance of productive warm-up sets. His strategy for those heavy lifts is to lower the rep counts to preserve energy each time he increases the weight. For his heaviest working set, he does two “touch” reps to let his body feel the load so that on the next set, he feels stronger and locked in.
Pec Deck Flye
Walker warms up on a pec deck flye, holding his arms straight with a neutral grip [palms to each other]. His focus is chest expansion via stretching and increased blood flow through squeezing. Walker utilized moderate loads and high intensity to promote hypertrophy.
Many bodybuilders start chest day with flyes as they reinforce safe training techniques and promote optimal movement patterns. Walker worked up to a challenging 12-15 reps, rested for 15-20 seconds, and then moved up to 20 reps.
Plate-Loaded Incline Press
On the machine incline press, Walker emphasized slow, controlled negatives, pausing in the stretch, exploding up, and squeezing intensely. He likes the occasional “grip-and-rip” style, aiming to lift the most weight, but admitted it’s mostly for the camera.
Walker did two heavy sets at eight and seven reps, respectively, then dropped the weight and went for slightly higher reps.
Machine Upright Chest Press
Once onto an upright seated machine press, Walker challenged his online haters, who say he trains on machines too much.
It’s made me bigger.
Modern gym machines are designed to maximize training performance with comparable benefits to free weights, including a more acute focus on the target muscle due to the absence of stability needs, and a more ergonomic movement pattern. (1)
Find exercises you connect with the best…and progress as much as you can.
Walker recommends picking three chest exercises that you prefer, train them every four to five days with the intent to progress by prioritizing form over load. Walker failed to do that in the past and which he failed to do in the past.
To connect a muscle a certain way takes skill and practice.
Walker performed two sets of 12 to 15 reps.
Seated and Standing Lateral Raises
With his chest training complete, Walker performed back-to-back lateral raise variations — his recipe for a wider physique.
I don’t think you can ever have enough side delts.
Walker maintains a tall, upright posture, which helps focus on equal delt involvement through a large range of motion, lifting the arms overhead. He performed three sets of 12-15 reps seated and two sets of 12-15 standing.
Dumbbell Front Delt Raise
Walker avoids presses for his front delts, swapping them for front raises to prevent overdominance of his anterior delts.
Last year, I didn’t shoulder press; all front raise.
Walker’s first set was strict. The second required some momentum to reach the 10-12 rep range.
Cable Rope Pushdown & Machine Overhead Extensions
Walker couldn’t resist training arms despite it potentially being against the wishes of coach Jansen.
“Realistically, I probably don’t need to do arms, and Matt probably wouldn’t want me to do arms,” confessed Walker. “But you gotta get an arm pump.” He used an extra-long, double-sided rope attachment, which is less restricting than a conventional rope during pushdowns.
Walker reached failure during the press down, rested for three seconds rest, and continued to failure again. After, he locked his arms overhead for a superior stretch. Overhead extensions have been shown to cause more muscle gains than pressdowns (2)
Walker performed two rounds of 15-20 reps on pushdowns and two sets of 12-15 reps for overhead extensions.
Machine Assisted Dips
Walker chose the machine dip over bodyweight dips since it enables more control with a safer stretch. “I really want to get that deep, controlled stretch, explode up, and really squeeze and contract my chest hard at the top,” said Walker.
Walker performed in two sets of 10-12 reps, not aiming for failure.
Looking to the 2024 Mr. Olympia
“Each workout…composition is getting better…waist is getting tighter,” said Walker after the workout. The reigning New York Pro champ is confident he’ll bring his best package to the 2024 Olympia.
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Featured image: @nick_walker39 on Instagram
