Nick Walker takes us through a wild delt and triceps workout at the Busy Body Fitness gym in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. This is a high volume workout session not for the faint hearted, you've been forewarned.
Who is Nick Walker?
Nick Walker, “The Mutant” is a professional bodybuilder within the open division in the United States. Nick only turned Pro in 2021 after winning the 2020 NPC North American Championships. Some of his accomplishments include winning first place at the 2021 Arnold Classic, the world's second most prestigious bodybuilding competition and fitness event as well as the 2021 New York Pro. Nick is currently training for the 2022 Olympia and hopes to be on the podium this year.
Nick Walker's Shoulder & Triceps Workout
Nick always starts his shoulder and triceps days with rear delts because he feels that people neglect them the most, and they are what really bring out the depth in your shoulders. For this workout, he said he isn’t focusing on sets or reps, instead, he focuses on how the muscles feel during the movements.
Rear Delt Flys
The first exercise of the workout is a staple when it comes to rear delt work. The machine rear delt fly is a great way to isolate the muscles and get the blood flowing. Each rep has a slow negative and a strong push in the opposite direction.
He never lets the plate stack rest at the bottom, ensuring that the muscles stay under tension throughout the set. He does the exercise as a dropset for the last couple of sets. Hitting at least 15 reps on the drops and finishing with 20 partials.
A dropset is an advanced resistance training technique in which you focus on completing a set until failure, or the inability to do another repetition. Then, you lighten the load by about 25%, and repeat, with little to no rest between sets. The goal of this style of training is to maximize potential muscle gain.
Smith Machine Shoulder Press
Next up are some Smith Machine shoulder presses. Nick prefers when the Smith Machine goes straight up, instead of being at a slight angle as it hits the shoulders better. Although Nick has some serious weight on the machine, he still makes it look easy with four plates on each side. He was able to get 10 reps on the first set, three on the second, and two on the third. Nick then started to strip weight off it and hit a few more sets with lighter weight, hitting 15 reps on those sets.
Dumbbell Lateral Raise
The third exercise is seated dumbbell lateral raises for three to four sets. Nick likes these because you can better isolate the side delts and concentrate on just the muscles that are being worked. He never lets the weights completely rest at his side, keeping the muscles under tension. The weight was kept a little lighter and the reps were higher for this exercise.
Single Arm Cable Lateral Raise
Despite already hitting his side delts, Nik’s next exercise was single-armed cable side raises. Nick explains that he doesn’t need to focus on shoulder pressing right now, instead opting to do more side and rear delt work to sculpt the shoulders more.
Reverse Dumbbell Flys On Incline Bench
The fifth and last killer shoulder exercises in this workout were reverse dumbbell flys off an inclined bench. This was one of John Meadows's favorite rear delt exercises and Nick says he likes incorporating them into his shoulder workouts. He uses 50-pound dumbbells and can be seen not completely opening his arms each rep. By doing each rep in this manner you are keeping the rear delts constantly under load and are able to do more weight.
Rope Pushdowns
After wrapping up his shoulders, Nick moves on to working his triceps. To get the triceps warmed up and the elbows moving smoothly before moving on to heavier movements, Nick likes to start with some rope pushdowns. Nick steps away from the weight stack and bends over slightly to increase the range of motion and work the triceps fully.
Machine Overhead Extensions
Next up for the triceps were some machine overhead extensions, which is one of Nick’s favorite triceps movements because he feels the contraction the most this way. The negative of each rep is nice and slow, while also adding a pause at the bottom. He only did two sets with this movement, with the second set having a double dropset.
Crossbody Triceps Pushdowns
The third and last exercise for triceps was some crossbody triceps pushdowns. Nick recommends that you don’t go super heavy on these, instead of focusing more on the squeeze and contraction. He uses a narrow cable machine so that he can do both arms at the same time, if your gym doesn’t have one you can simply work one arm at a time.
Machine Leg Raises
To end the session, Nick hits some sets of machine leg raises to hit the abs.
Sample Nick Walker Shoulder & Triceps Workout
This workout involves tons of volume that will have your delts and triceps burning by the end of it. Make sure to focus on contracting the muscles with controlled reps, this isn't a power workout to push the heaviest weight. Time under tension plus a good contraction will lead to muscle gains.
- Machine Rear Delt Flys: 4 sets x 15 reps (Last two sets as dropsets, the last set includes 20 partials)
- Smith Machine Shoulder Presses: 4 sets x 10, 3, 2, 10 reps
- Seated Dumbbell Lateral Raises: 4 sets x 10 reps
- Cable Side Raises: 3 sets x 12 reps
- Reverse Dumbbell Flys: 3 sets x 10 reps
- Rope Pushdowns: 3 sets x 15 reps
- Machine Overhead Extensions: 2 sets x 12 reps
- Crossbody Tricep Pushdowns: 3 sets x 12-15 reps
- Machine Leg Raises: 3 sets x 12 reps
Note: Keep rests 45-90 seconds between sets.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Nick Walker continues to push himself as he's focused on the 2022 Olympia this December. This workout shows his dedication and work ethic to becoming the best.
If you try this workout, make sure to let us know in the comments below what you thought of it!
Related: Nick Walker's Barbaric Back Workout
Andrew Lenau
Author