Hunter Labrada and Iain Valliere competed this weekend in the Mr Olympia. They both did not do as well as they wanted, but the biggest concern is the injury they both seem to be battling. Going into this year’s show, Hunter Labrada and Ian Valliere had so much hype. Unfortunately, they both seem to be suffering from the same thing Big Ramy has, irreversible nerve damage.
Ian was very confident going into this show, talking about how he was going to be much bigger and destroy everyone. Iain was very specific about his back as well, as everyone was talking about how much bigger his back was. However, this weekend it wasn’t. His back muscles were just not there, which was kind of similar to Big Ramy and seemed like nerve damage to the C6 and the C8 nerve, which is connected to the triceps and back.
How did his back get worse in a couple of months?
When training so hard, taking supplements, eating all this food, recovering, etc, it doesn’t make sense why his back is getting worse. But, when your nerve is not connected to the muscles anymore, nothing will grow because they are not getting the nutrients and stimuli they need. This causes the muscle to shrink up, which is what’s happening to Iain’s back. The only way to fix it is to downsize drastically, which does not work for bodybuilding.
Iain’s conditioning was not on point, like his normal self. When he came out for his individual posing round at prejudging, he was very hesitant and wasn’t focused at all. You were able to tell Iain was off mentally and physically.
Hunter Labrada had a lot of hype going into this show as well. He went from 8th to 4th last year at the Olympia. This year things changed drastically as it completely flipped over. Hunter looked worse than Iain and was generously given 7th place. He could definitely have been out of the top 10. Hunter mentioned going into this show that his back was bigger, and that we’ll be blown away from the improvements he made this past year, but if anything, he looks worse than last year. It seems as if Hunter also has what Iain and Big Ramy have, which is nerve damage.
What do you guys think is next for Iain and Hunter?
Watch my FULL VIDEO below to hear all the details!
