IFBB Pro Hunter Labrada placed 7th at the 2022 Mr.Olympia. He dropped 3 places from last year’s competition. He worked with a new coach this year, Ben Chow. Ben went on Fouad Abiad Media’s podcast to address everything that went wrong in Hunter’s prep.
Fouad begins by asking Ben what went wrong and what they could have done better. Ben mentions that the prep overall and the peak could have both been optimized. The long offseason had “made things trickier” and that’s why they fell short this year. Ben says they learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t for Hunter.
Hunter’s peak was not bad, the issue was he wasn’t lean enough. He needed to get leaner and thinner skin before even starting the peak. His peak was not the biggest catalyst for his poor placing and suboptimal 2022 Olympia performance. The main goal should have been to get him shredded during prep to get him in better conditioning before he peaked.
The underlying issue with Hunter is his nutrition. Hunter is blending his food and not eating whole foods. In order for Hunter to hold muscle mass while in a deficit, he needs to improve his diet all throughout his off-season and prep. Hunter has very poor choices of food and needs to get away from the blenders and protein shakes.
Hunter’s career is in jeopardy if he does not make changes and starts eating solid, whole food. His physique will improve and look much better by primarily changing his nutrition. He needs to dial in his diet as much as he dials in his training. Hunter is hard working and very gifted, but he needs to stay away from the rice krispies. Ben and Hunter seem to agree to make the changes necessary to his diet. It’s great to hear Ben say this, but it has to be all in or nothing. The changes need to be drastic for him to be able to decrease inflammation and provide the best possible fuel for his body.
Will Hunter make the changes he needs to be better in 2023?
Watch the full video below!
