Tag: Push Day Workout
Hunter Labrada Shares Full Day of Eating, Physique Update & Push Day Workout for 2023 Tampa/Texas Pro
American bodybuilder Hunter Labrada is determined to redeem himself after missing the mark at the 2022 Mr. Olympia. He’s currently gearing up to make his comeback at the 2023 Texas Pro and Tampa Pro. In a recent YouTube video from his channel, Labrada showed off his beastly physique, laid out his full day of eating, and shared a push-day workout six and eight weeks out from his return.
Hunter Labrada, son of bodybuilding veteran Lee Labrada, first gained attention for his mass, size, and refined posing skills as a Men’s Open contender in 2020. He dominated the competition at the Tampa Pro to take home the top prize and concluded his season with a strong top-10 finish in his Mr. Olympia debut. Labrada extended his impressive run by scoring gold at the 2021 Chicago Pro and improved his standing to fourth place at the 2021 Mr. Olympia.
Last season, he chose to stay on the sidelines and focus only on the 2022 Mr. Olympia. However, he did not bring his best form on stage and dropped down to seventh place. Since he did not finish in the top five, he would need to earn a qualification for the 2023 Mr. Olympia.
Following the result, Labrada embarked on a mission to turn things around. He identified an issue with controlling his midsection and began incorporating vacuum poses into his regimen. He offered three ways to perform vacuums for the best results like pulling your belly button to the spine earlier this year. Then, he laid out a ‘gut health drink’ he’s utilizing to detoxify.
Labrada detailed some intensity techniques for breaking through any point of stalled progress in the training room two months ago. He also opened up on the difference in his training regimen in the off-season versus while in prep.
The 31-year-old left fans impressed with a shredded physique update where he tipped the scales at 277.6 pounds weeks out from the 2023 Tampa Pro and Texas Pro. He highlighted the importance of choosing the right exercises to avoid injuries and also discussed how to improve workouts for better gains.
Hunter Labrada turned heads in his latest guest-posing appearance at the 2023 Pittsburgh Pro two months ago. He regained confidence after the stellar showing and declared his ambitions to get back into the upper echelon of Men’s
Open competitors. Labrada amped up his training to get ready for the 2023 Tampa Pro. He recorded a new PR of 585 pounds (265.3 kilograms) for four reps on the deadlift in a training session weeks ago.
Hunter Labrada shows off his beastly physique after crushing a push-day workout
In a recent YouTube video, Hunter Labrada showed off his beastly physique after smashing past a heavy push-day workout.
He performed the following exercises targeting the chest, shoulders, triceps, and abs.
Pec Deck Fly Machine
Incline Press Machine
Machine Vertical Chest Press Nautilus
Cybex Plate Loaded Shoulder Press Machine
Lying Cuffed Lateral Raise
Abmat Crunches
Cross Body Dual Cable Triceps Extension
Hanging Leg Raise
Credit: Hunter Labrada (via YouTube)
Labrada lays out the full day of eating 6/8 weeks out from return
Hunter Labrada gave fans a look into the diet he’s following six and eight weeks out from his planned return at the 2023 Texas Pro and Tampa Pro.
Every morning he takes Revive supplements, a greens supplement, one for digestion, and a gut health drink while fasting.
Breakfast:
220g lean beef
180g rice
stir fried garlic and white onions with green onion
Sanchez flavor gang sauce
Meal 2 (Pre-workout):
280g rice
220g chicken
Meal 3 (Post-workout):
250g white fish
150g white rice
Meal 4:
220g chicken
150g rice (last carb meal of the day)
Meal 5:
Avocado
fish
Hunter Labrada appears to be making good progress in the off-season. He boasted his humongous build in an impressive physique update where he weighed 273 pounds eight to 10 weeks out from the contests last month. He followed up with another ripped physique update three weeks ago.
Based on the latest update, it’s evident Labrada is leaving no stone unturned on his road to getting back to Olympia title contention.
RELATED: Hunter Labrada: “I Am One of the Best in The World Left on the Table, I’ll Put that to the Test”
You can watch the full video below.
Published: 6 July, 2023 | 9:20 PM EDT
Jeff Nippard Shares Science Based Push Day Workout
Maximize muscle growth with Jeff Nippard’s effective push-day workout routine.
Jeff Nippard has laid down a near-perfect training plan with the first part of his push-pull-leg training series. It is based on minimalist training principles and he recently shared another push-day training session that compliments the first one in the series.
Nippard is a Canadian natural bodybuilder, powerlifter, and fitness expert. He is the 2012 Mr. Junior Canada and also held the Canadian national record for bench press. He has garnered a huge social media following due to his science-based bodybuilding and fitness content. At the time of this article’s publishing, Nippard has a whopping 3.81 million YouTube subscribers.
His content primarily focuses on educating the masses about the right approach to diet and training. The Canadian backs up most of his advice with findings of extensive studies and published medical material. Apart from training and study, Nippard’s knowledge comes from his formal education – a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. Many professionals have put their faith in Nippard as he has trained several natural bodybuilders and powerlifters in men’s as well as women’s divisions.
In recent months, Jeff Nippard has shared content that deals with methods for boosting metabolism, sustainable weight management, and common nutritional mistakes. His most recent video, a push-day workout, is the fourth installment of a six-part push-pull-leg series. This training session compliments the first push-day workout of the series which we have already covered. So let’s check out the unique benefits this training session has brought for us.
Jeff Nippard’s Push-Day Workout
Close Grip Barbell Incline Bench Press
This compound pushing exercise is the main exercise of the push day workout. Nippard suggested doing a few warm-up sets of the movement before jumping into the working sets. He introduced this as an undulating set model. The first working set should include moderate weights while the second set must be done with heavier weights. The third set, which must include lighter weights, should be done for a maximum number of reps.
“First set of eight will give you a much better idea of how much weight you should add for the following heavier set of five. Just make sure you rest for at least three to four minutes in between those sets so your pecs are feeling recovered and capable of going up in weight.”
While the first two sets are intended for getting the benefit of progressive overloading, the third set will help build mind-muscle connection when performed with lighter weights. After putting in the right amount of work in close grip incline bench press, Nippard moves on to a shoulder exercise.
Machine Shoulder Press
Incline bench press works the anterior deltoid muscles to a great extent. However, Nippard feels the need to train the shoulders with a bit more volume without taxing the body too much. As a result, a machine shoulder press is his preferred exercise.
Machines tend to be less fatiguing as you don’t need to control the weight. You can push a little closer to failure because you can use heavier weights on machines without the risk of dropping weights or getting injured.
“Obviously, machines won’t hit some of the smaller stabilizing muscles quite as well as free weights will. But as long as you’re still including some free weight exercises, I think that concern about machines pretty much goes away anyway!” Nippard said.
Keeping arms parallel to the ground after lowering the weights is sufficient to achieve the necessary range of motion during shoulder press. But Nippard prefers to go a little further down to get a deep stretch in the muscles.
“I also use a thumbless grip on these because I find it improves the mind-muscle connection,” he added.
After doing the stipulated three sets, Jeff Nippard takes on a tricep exercise next.
Floor Reset Skull Crushers
Shifting his focus to tricep work, the Canadian fitness expert performs this strength-focused tricep exercise.
“I’m including this because on my other push day of the week, I do more hypertrophy focused higher rep tricep movement on the cables.”
Nippard does floor reset skull crushers with heavier weights and maintains a low (6 to 8) rep range, putting more emphasis on progressive overload. Nippard explained the steps of performing each rep with minute details. Personally, he aims to lift the weight to full or close to full elbow flexion. He controls the weight up to half way down in the eccentric phase.
After this, he lets the weight fall down and come to a complete dead stop on the ground before initiating the next rep. This method is efficient for making strength gains. However, you can make the exercise more hypertrophy oriented by following this advice from Jeff Nippard:
“I would suggest resisting and controlling the negative all the way down to the floor from a pure hypertrophy standpoint.”
However, strength gain is Nippard’s primary objective here and he suggests applying the progressive overload principle without fail.
Bent Over Cable Flyes
Although it might be mistaken with decline cable flye, bent over pec flye is a different exercise. Arms movement in bent over cable flyes is still perpendicular to the chest and not at a lower angle. As a result, it activates all regions of pectoral muscles. But it still puts more emphasis on mid-pecs.
Technically, bent over cable flyes are similar to the regular cable crossover. However, Nippard argues that the cables can pull you backwards during the eccentric phase of the exercise when you are in an upright position. The constant backward pull from cable can make it harder to maintain balance and stability, limiting the amount of tension in pecs.
“So by leaning forward over the cables, you’ll be more stable since your body weight is grounded with the floor and it should allow you to direct more tension onto the pecs,” Nippard concluded.
He performs three sets of bent over cable flyes and takes up a side delt movement next.
Machine Lateral Raises
Nippard includes this high intensity medial delt exercise in the training routine. Although he performs three sets of 20 reps, those are not regular sets. He splits every set into two parts. For the first part of five reps, he performs the exercise with slow negative reps. The eccentric phase of these reps lasts for five seconds. Reps 6 to 20 are regular reps with constant tension.
“For those first five reps, the slow eccentrics should help you find your delts on the negative and you should be able to zone in on feeling the side delt fibers pulling and then, when you’ve locked that connection in, from there you can kind of just blast them with more standard constant tension reps,” Nippard explained.
There is no particular benefit of this method. However, it can be extremely beneficial for people that do not feel the side delts through regular reps.
Plate Front Raises
Jeff Nippard is not a big fan of anterior delt exercises like front raises. He feels that anterior delts get enough stimulation during compound movements and tend to be overdeveloped in comparison with lateral delts in many cases.
However, there is a way to perform front raises without putting too much emphasis on front delts. According to Nippard, you can actually work the middle segments of muscles between anterior and side delts if front raises are modified properly.
Steering the plate during front raises is an effective variation that can help engage these muscles. As explained by Nippard, side delts are engaged along with anterior delts when the arm is internally rotated during a front raise.
Dumbbell Y-raises are a good alternative to achieve the same effect for people that experience pain during the front raises with internal rotation.
Diamond Push-ups
Nippard likes to finish the workout with an all-out set as there are no sets ahead to preserve the energy for. Additionally, it gives a huge mental boost knowing that you gave it all to the training session.
The diamond push-up form forces the triceps to work harder than they do in most other push-up variations. He performs one set of diamond push-ups to failure and wraps up the training session.
The push-day workout includes following exercises, number of sets and rep range:
Warm-up
5 mins on the treadmill or stair master
Dynamic stretches – arm swings, cable external rotations etc.
Close Grip Barbell Incline Bench Press
Warm-up sets
1st set – empty bar X 10 reps
2nd set – 50% working weight X 4 reps
3rd set – 75% working weight X 3 reps
Working sets
1st set – moderate working weight X 8 reps
2nd set – heavy working weight X 5 reps
3rd set – light working weight X 15 reps
Machine Shoulder Press
3 working sets of 10 to 12 reps
Floor Reset Skull Crushers
3 sets of 6 to 8 reps
Bent Over Cable Flyes
3 sets of 10 to 12 reps
Machine Lateral Raises
3 sets of 20 reps
Plate Front Raises
2 sets of 15 to 20 reps
Diamond Push-ups
1 set to failure
Jeff Nippard has ensured that his content is backed by proven data and he has done a great job of staying away from bro science. This ensures that his advice will be beneficial for most people, if not everyone. So what are you waiting for? Head over to the gym and try incorporating Jeff Nippard’s push day training session in your training.
You can watch the full workout video here, courtesy of Jeff Nippard’s personal YouTube channel:
Published: 5 July, 2023 | 3:01 PM EDT
Nick Walker Crushes Push Day Workout, Emphasizes The Value of Avoiding Muscle Failure in Workouts
The gap between Nick Walker and Mr. Olympia title is narrowing each passing year. Having made it into the top three at the 2022 Olympia, Walker now trains to snatch it from reigning Mr. Olympia Hadi Choopan and recently went through a chest, shoulder and triceps workout as a part of this effort.
America’s own Nick Walker competes in the Men’s Open division of the IFBB Pro League. In a short span of three years, the 28-year-old has emerged to be a top Olympia contender. His resume includes impressive performances in six Pro bodybuilding shows. He holds dominant wins at the 2021 New York Pro and the 2021 Arnold Classic. The two Olympia appearances saw him secure fifth and third place finishes at the 2021 and the 2022 Olympia, respectively.
Making a quick turnaround after the 2022 Olympia, Nick Walker attempted to bring home the second Arnold Classic title in 2023. Walker was a massive favorite heading into the show. Experts in the bodybuilding community expected challengers like Andrew Jacked, Shaun Clarida and Samson Dauda to present a formidable challenge but rallied behind Walker to secure the win anyway. However, British bodybuilder Samson Dauda emerged as a dark horse and snatched the win from Walker after a neck-and-neck competition.
Nick Walker / Instagram
Although The Mutant had to be content with a runner-up finish, many people contested the result and opined that Walker deserved the judges’ nod. But he moved on from the argument quickly and started focusing his energies on improving the physique further to leave no doubt in judges’ minds the next time around.
As a part of his quest to win the Mr. Olympia title, Walker recently went through an off-season chest and triceps workout. So let’s check out how the 2021 Arnold Classic winner is pushing the limits to be the next Mr. Olympia.
Nick Walker goes through a push day workout
Pec Deck Flye
Nick Walker started the training session with pec deck flyes. Flye, an effective chest isolation movement, helps build adduction strength of the upper body. Additionally, the pec deck flye ranks high in terms of pectoral muscle activation, losing only to the bench press. As a result, it is a great exercise for achieving hypertrophy.
Walker stated that the angle of the machine used in this workout was slightly different, which presumably helped with muscle activation. The Mutant performed a couple of warm-up sets of this exercise and followed them up with two top sets to direct the blood into the chest. He stated that he does not need to push to failure every single time and only pushes to failure once in a while. Walker said:
“I have the size already so training to failure is good once in a while. But I’m also here for longevity. So doing an extra set of something rather than pushing one set to ultimate failure… Sometimes this isn’t a bad thing.”
He added:
“I still believe in training to failure. But I think utilizing reps from the reserve can also be beneficial in terms of growth. Because I feel like sometimes if you push the body too much and train to failure too often, you’re just fatiguing the body more… Not necessarily giving the rest your body truly needs, which is where reps in reserve come to play where instead of doing one or two sets to failure maybe do three sets of 12. But the reps… This is where you have to be really in tune with the muscle.”
Even though this method is less fatiguing, Walker feels it can lead to more growth. Following this, he took the first heavy compound exercise of the day.
Incline Dumbbell Press
Incline movements emphasize the clavicular head of the pectoralis major muscle and help build the upper chest by giving it a more fuller look. Walker took to the incline dumbbell press next and annihilated a few good sets. He started with the 40 lbs dumbbells for the warm-up set and slowly worked his way up, performing eight to ten rep in each set. Walker made sure that he performed the eccentric phase of each movement with really slow and controlled motion to keep the muscles under tension for a longer duration.
Machine Chest Press
After working with the free weights for the previous exercise, the New Jersey native jumped into the machine chest press. Weights on the machine move along a fixed trajectory and hence eliminate the need to control the weights. This results in overall reduced chances of injury.
The machine chest press served as the final chest exercise in Walker’s routine as he got a few sets of the exercise under his belt and shifted the focus on other muscle groups.
Lateral Raise – Machine and Cable
After wrapping up the chest routine, the 2021 Arnold Classic winner took up the shoulder exercises and performed machine lateral raises to work the medial deltoids. He cranked out 2 sets of 15 reps of the exercise on a machine.
Nick Walker’s shoulder routine typically consists of only medial and anterior deltoid exercises. For him, posterior deltoids deserve a place in the back workout. Walker explained:
“I normally always do two side delt exercises but I might start incorporating like maybe one press, one side or one side and one front. And I just think about side delts – they can never be too big in my opinion. I like to keep rear delts with back now. To me, I just feel like rear delts could be part of shoulders so if you train with shoulders, completely fine in my opinion. But for me it’s part of back.”
The Mutant then moved on to the cable machine variation of the same. Cable machines keep the muscles under tension throughout the range of motion and help bring about hypertrophy more effectively. While doing the lateral raises, Walker raises his hands higher than usual. Explaining the logic behind this, he said:
“I don’t really train the traps directly because I do feel like doing the side laterals really high, even though it really targets the side laterals really well, I do think no matter what, you’re going to engage a little bit of traps in there. So I really don’t think I need to directly hit traps.”
After pushing through a few sets of cable lateral raises next, Walker took to the final exercise of the day.
Smith Machine Skull Crushers
With chest and shoulder exercises in the books, it was time for the New Jersey native to target the next important muscle group for pushing – triceps. Walker first performed the skull crushers on a Smith machine to emphasize on the xx head of the triceps and then jumped into the final exercise of the day.
Machine Overhead Triceps Extensions
Walker wrapped up the training session with this exercise. Overhead triceps extensions work the muscles from a stretched position as well as a different angle. Hence they help emphasize the long head of triceps.
Walker did a few sets of the exercise with furious intensity to add the final bit of stimulus to the muscles and called it a day in the gym.
Overall, the workout consisted of:
Nick Walker has made tremendous progress in his career so far. When the 2023 Olympia weekend kicks off, Derek Lunsford and reigning champion Hadi Choopan will probably be the only competitors Standing in Walker’s way if he continues to train with similar intensity in the months to come. Whether he can get past them or not depends solely on his drive to push the limits of his body.
You can watch the full workout video here, courtesy of Nick Walker’s personal YouTube channel:
More on Push Day:
Published: 16 June, 2023 | 10:57 AM EDT
Nick Walker Demolishes an Arduous Push Day Workout
Nick Walker is training like a man possessed to take the 2023 competitive season head-on. “The Mutant” is constantly experimenting with new machines and trying to get the most out of his workouts.
Walker is one of the select few IFBB Pro bodybuilders who wasted no time running through the division and established themselves as top-notch competitors. The Men’s Open division bodybuilder won the 2021 New York Pro and secured a direct qualification to the 2021 Mr. Olympia. Shortly after, he returned to the stage and emerged victoriously at the 2021 Arnold Classic, considered the second most prestigious bodybuilding competition in the world after Mr. Olympia. Remarkably enough, Walker achieved this within a year of turning Pro.
Walker secured a fifth-place finish at his Olympia debut in 2021. However, he felt he needed to improve his physique further to compete against the top crop.
The longest off-season of The Mutant’s career followed. He returned to the 2022 Mr. Olympia in December, and a strong performance warranted him a third-place finish at the show.
The 2023 Arnold Classic was Walker’s most recent competitive appearance, and he missed the second Arnold’s title by a razor-thin margin to Samson Dauda. Walker now trains to achieve the ultimate goal of winning the Mr. Olympia title in 2023. Recently, he went through a push-day training session with an emphasis on shoulder training.
The workout video was posted on The Mutant’s YouTube channel. Walker walked the viewers through the workout and shared some important bodybuilding tips that would greatly benefit professionals as well as fitness enthusiasts. So let’s see what Walker has in store for us.
Nick Walker goes through a push-day workout
Walker shed light on the nature of this training session before starting and explained:
“There will be a lot more shoulder movement. We’re gonna do about three chest movements for this workout, probably do about three shoulder movements, and we’ll probably do one tricep for this one.”
He revealed that he is no longer doing too many arm exercises but is satisfied with the growth anyway. This explains the reason for having only one triceps exercise in the entire session.
Chest Workut
Pec Deck Fly
Walker started the training session with chest exercises first and performed pec deck flyes on the M Torture machine. According to Walker, doing chest flyes at the beginning of the workout helps him build a better mind-muscle connection. He explained:
“I always feel like I’m able to connect better throughout the rest of the workout with my chest. I know they say, ‘Oh, it’ll affect the pressing’ whatever… But in my opinion, I’m still pretty strong even when I do fatigue a little on the flyes… And again, I’m just worried about the contraction. So if I start with pressing, the contraction is not as strong for me if I started with the flyes to really get the blood flow.”
Walker did a few warm-up sets and then proceeded to do the working sets of pec deck flyes. Before moving on to the next exercise, The Mutant gave an essential chest training tip to budding bodybuilders and said:
“I’m a big believer… When you get in that stretch(ed position), you want to hold that for a quick minute because, in my opinion, when you hold the stretch even for the back, it helps you flare out even more and even for the chest… To hold the stretch creates the width within the chest as well. So those are the cues I always incorporate, including the very slow eccentric reps.”
Walker added that lifting heavy can get you to fatigue the muscles as well. However, lifting heavy is not everything that the bodybuilder should focus on.
“The goal is to contract as hard as we can and as fast as we can and get the f*** out to get the recovery process started,” He added.
Following this, Walker performed the working sets with a 10 to 12 rep range and moved on to do some free weight exercise giving in to popular demand from his fans.
Incline Dumbbell Press
This compound dumbbell exercise was the only free-weight movement in The Mutant’s training session. He performed the warm-up sets with 110-pound dumbbells and slowly worked his way up to the top set of eight to ten reps with 132 pounds. The 28-year-old hit a back-off set of 10 to 12 reps with 110-pound dumbbells to focus on the movement and took to the next exercise.
Machine Chest Press
Walker employed a Newtech plate-loaded machine next to perform the chest press. While speaking about the movement pattern of the machine and how it affects the pectoral muscles, Walker stated:
“The way this press is set up, it kind of goes down like a decline, but it closes in to really squeeze (the pecs). So we’re actually going to do more neutral grip on this one.”
By this time, Walker’s muscles had been sufficiently warmed up, and he did not need to do as many warm-up sets. Therefore he performed a heavy working set after one quick warm-up set.
Walker believes it is essential to recover completely before the next training session for the same muscle group. Therefore he would not train chest for at least the next two to three days. After wrapping up the chest exercises, he shifted his focus to working the shoulders.
Seated Machine Shoulder Press
Starting with the anterior/front deltoid movement, Walker performed the seated machine shoulder press. The Mutant shed light on his preferred volume to get the most out of shoulder exercises and stated:
“I think for me, the shoulders really get the most out of the 10 to 15 range. So as for the real delts and sides, I don’t like to go any lower than 12.”
After a couple of warm-up sets, Walker subjected himself to straight working sets of machine shoulder press, maintaining a 10 to 15-rep range. He continued further and annihilated a back-off set before taking up the next exercise.
Machine Seated Lateral Raise
This medial deltoid exercise followed next, and Walker used a plate-loaded machine to put in the work. Slight modifications in posture can drastically affect the outcome of this exercise. The Mutant voiced his opinion that leaning forward a little bit can engage the posterior deltoid muscles during machine lateral raises, and keeping your head low can activate the traps. Therefore, he assumed an upright stance and kept his head high to keep the focus on medial/lateral delts.
Conventional wisdom states that raising the arms above shoulder level defeats the purpose and engages other muscles. However, Walker feels:
“I get a better workout going a little higher with a little lighter weight than, kind of, just stopping here (at shoulder height).”
A few solid sets of machine lateral raises found their place in Walker’s workout. The 2021 Arnold Classic winner took to a posterior deltoid movement next.
Cable Rear Delt Fly
Posterior deltoids need a dedicated exercise to bring them to par with other shoulder muscles. Although they are activated during many back exercises, it is essential to include exercises that specifically target them. Walker performed his favorite rear delt exercise next — the cable rear delt fly.
His philosophy for shoulder development is fairly straightforward, and he laid it out while doing this exercise. The Mutant explained:
“I believe pressing plays a huge role in obviously huge shoulders but when you’re pressing for chest, especially on the incline, you’re incorporating the front delt a lot. So I think the main thing for shoulders is to really murder the side and the rear delts.”
The New York native cranked out two sets of the exercise and wrapped up shoulder training.
Walker shifts focus to triceps
Seated Machine Overhead Triceps Extension
Overhead exercises work the triceps from a lengthened/stretched position and put more emphasis on the long head of the tricep. Machine overhead triceps extension was the only triceps exercise in Walker’s workout, and he utilized a plate-loaded machine for the same.
After annihilating a working set of overhead triceps extensions of 15 reps, The Mutant finished the training session with the second set of nine reps to failure.
The entire chest, shoulder, and triceps training session saw Walker ‘push’ through these exercises:
Chest Workout
Shoulders Workout
Triceps Workout
Walker updated his fans about his weight during the workout and stated that he is gaining weight pretty effortlessly without retaining a lot of water.
“Weight is now starting to skyrocket pretty high. Woke up this morning (and weighed) 277 pounds, and I like to think this is probably my leanest without holding on a sh** tons of water too which is really good for me.”
Right now, the goal for the 28-year-old is to manage his diet and training in a way so that he feels energized. Therefore he is in a caloric surplus but not overdoing it.
Many experts believe Walker is a future Mr. Olympia. If he irons out a few things and continues on the path that he is on, it could very well become a reality sooner than later.
You can watch the full workout video below, courtesy of Nick Walker’s YouTube channel:
Published: 5 May, 2023 | 9:13 AM EDT