Nick Walker is back to training legs fully but still did not go as heavy as he could.
Nick Walker was forced to miss the 2023 Olympia due to a torn hamstring. He has been doing light quad work since the injury but has not taken it to the next level. On Wednesday, he shared a video of his leg day, which he called his “first official” one since his injury.
Walker will not be competing in the Arnold Classic this year while he prepares for the 2024 Olympia, which he would have to qualify for. Walker has also expressed that he believes he deserves a special invitation despite not competing this year.
Walker quickly rose to the top of the Men’s Open division in a relatively short amount of time. In 2021, he was crowned champion of the Arnold Classicbefore hitting the Mr. Olympia. He has two top-five finishes in each of the last two years and was a hopeful for this year as well. Now, he will set his sights on 2024.
Nick Walker will now elevate his leg day training and take his progress to the next level.
Nick Walker Leg Day
Nick Walker returned to the Dragon’s Lair for this workout. He shared that he has been training there full-time during his recovery and prep. This includes his most recent leg day workout:
- Leg Extensions
- Leg Press Machine
- Squat Machine
- Lying Hamstring Curls
- Seated Hamstring Curls
- Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlifts
- Hip Abductor/Hip Adductor Machine
“It’ll be my first, I guess, official leg day since I tore my hamstring, really. So I’ve been able to train it little-by-little periodically throughout this whole thing. Today, I feel confident enough to where I can put it on video.”
Leg Extensions
Nick Walker began the workout with leg extensions. This was taken as a warmup before he moved onto leg presses. After Walker completed leg presses and his sets on the squat machine, he returned to leg extensions to perform his 7-7-7 method.
“We’re going to do seven in the regular, seven at the starting point of it which makes it harder in the stretch, and seven at the top which makes it harder in the squeeze position.”
Leg Press Machine
Walker has been training quads lightly over the last few weeks but has not ramped up his full leg day training. He is able to do more weight on quads but is still not using his normal weight range.
“Quads are pretty sufficient. I can do a lot of good there. Again, I’m not going to go crazy heavy. I’m going to focus on form and contraction. Hamstring training, I’m able to go a little progressive heavier. Either heavier in the weight or more reps. Still not going crazy heavy in the weight.”
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Lying & Seated Hamstring Curls
Walker then moved onto hamstring work, where he completed both lying curls and seated curls. He admitted to focusing more on squeezing at the top rather than stretching at the bottom.
“I’m going to load this one at the bottom peg, which is going to make it harder at the top and not so much the stretch. I don’t want to do the stretch just yet so we’ll more more towards harder at the top.”
Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlifts
Walker did not go super heavy when performing dumbbell deadlifts and focused on going right below his knee. He did not want to lower any further to avoid stress on his lower back.
“I’m not going to go all the way down. I know I follow the whole RP and the whole get a big stretch, which I firmly agree with, but in this particular exercise, I feel like the lower you go, the more lower back gets involved.”
Hip Abductor/Hip Adductor Machine
Once the workout was complete, Nick Walker discussed how he would add both parts of his legs into one day. He believes that his hamstrings are in a good place naturally so he can take his time in working it back up.
“It was a reload so I thought it was the perfect time to implement that as a full leg day. And it went well. Today, I wanted to test out a hamstring day but moving forward, I’ll probably just do all legs in one day.”
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