Discovering Bodybuilder Nick Walker’s Leg Workout in NJ With a Cameo of Exercise Scientist Dr. Mike Israetel

Professional open-division bodybuilder Nick Walker is no new name in the bodybuilding community. Having won first place at the 2021 Arnold Classic and third place at the 2022 Mr. Olympia, Nick has earned a name for himself in the bodybuilding community. Known for his mind-blowing physique, “The Mutant” never misses a chance to train, and he trains hard. 

Walker was recently seen training at the Dragon’s Lair Gym, and exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel was also seen working out and training others at the gym. In his recent video posted on his YouTube channel, Nick Walker trains his legs and also gets some serious guidance from Dr. Mike himself on how to train better. The list of leg workout exercises Walker trained is as mentioned below.

Hip Press 

The hip press is the first leg workout Nick chose to do, naming it his favorite workout for the legs. He prefers it more than leg press as it is more of a gluten movement, even though he does not feel it in his glutes. He begins on the Hip Press Machine and states that the further back one goes, the more hamstring and butt cheeks are involved. He suggests raising the seat while using the machine. 

He started by doing a warm-up set of 8 reps with three plates. Nick isn’t someone who does warm-ups usually, but he continues for a few more reps before hitting it off. He then adds three plates to the workout with 10 reps in the warm-up. For Nick, while training the legs, he thinks this is where volume comes into play. He looks at high volume in the sense that one does more sets than reps. 

“What I had to learn to do was not so much control the volume of the training so much, but more so my cardio. I do know if I don’t go crazy hard on cardio, I feel better, I look better, I sleep better.”

Walker then begins the working set and does 3–4 sets, with one being 20 reps with seven plates. Here he advocates that after completing a set, pause before you begin the next. He then goes on for a few more sets by increasing the weight to around 7 reps. Nick, however, wants to push himself to do 10–12 or even 15 reps eventually. 

Leg Hack Squat

He next moves onto the leg hack squat exercise and does a couple of warm-up sets before beginning the working set. He then does a set of 12 reps by pushing his maximum. Nick was, however, already fatigued after the first set and decided to do fewer reps for the next set.

In the next set, Dr. Mike Israetel, who was also present at the gym, guided Nick on how to go about his training. Walker was grateful to him after he completed the set, as he helped him do better without injuring himself. Nick says, “The last set fu****d me up,” but Mike, who saw him struggle, made him do only 9 reps instead of 12 in one go. Dr. Mike advised him to take a few breaths and then do the remaining three. Previously, when he did the 12 reps, he struggled. 

“What we did was, we hit nine, which was where I was beginning to struggle pretty hard, and then he made me stop, take a few breaths, and then make sure the last three that we did were perfected reps.”

Nick further mentions in the video that he wouldn’t be able to do the 12 reps the same way and is glad Mike made him take a little bit of a pause and get those last three reps at the end.

Leg Extension

Walker then did the leg extensions with a set of 15. A motivated Nick chatted with the viewers on how he would do a further set of 15. He then followed Dr. Mike’s advice and hit the rest-pause routine. He did a good 10 reps after that and took a 15-second break, helping him to get more reps in further sets. 

Lying Leg Curls

In this exercise, the bodybuilder builds his legs with quad-focused lying leg curls. Walker did 15 of these. This helps to focus the hamstrings and calf muscles. It’s an essential lower-body strength workout that works the back of the legs. 

Seated Leg Curls

Next, he progressed to do seated leg curls with the same reps. This exercise helps boost knee stability and also improves overall athletic performance. 

Inner & Outer Adductor

Moving on to the adductor, he started with the inner adductor and then the outer adductor. This set of exercises helps to boost mobility and mitigate the risk of injury. The former targets strengthening the inner thighs, and the latter targets the outer thigh.

Bulgarian Squats

He ended his workout with Bulgarian squats to get single-leg movement. He mentioned not using any weights and just executing it through a 30-pound dumbbell. With slow and composed movements, he added not to underestimate the power of 30 lb. when done right.

Nick Walker swears by this technique for faster gains 

Walker has gone on record to say how Mike Mentzer’s one-set-to-failure technique has helped him get back into shape. Walker needed a routine that ensured more gains with less risk of injury and got inspired by Dorian Yates’s routine. 

The intense one-set he followed was formulated by his mentor, Mike Mentzer. This famed technique required the bodybuilder to perform a single set and push the last rep till failure. Mentzer believes it helped boost muscle potential and gains in less time. 

Bodybuilders like Nick Walker, who follow this technique to achieve strength goals, imply its relevance even today, which shows that Mentzer’s thinking was way ahead of time.

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• Mike Israetel
• Nick Walker