“We had to drag him down” - Ben Chow on ‘errors’ during Hunter Labrada’s 2022 Olympia prep

Ben Chow, a bodybuilder, entered the scene in 2020 and, while only appearing at a few shows, left a lasting influence on the sport. However, he is best known as the coach of Hunter Labrada. Chow analyzed Labrada's performance at the 2022 Mr. Olympia competition last month, where he came in seventh.

In a Bro Chat episode with Nick Trigili on his YouTube channel, Ben Chow highlighted some of the reasons why Hunter was not giving his best effort when it came time to compete on the Olympia stage. According to Chow, Hunter's lengthy off-season may have contributed to problems during the prep/peak.

"Then, we had to drag him down — probably a bit too much from six weeks to a week out, so, that was probably an error in the pacing of things. It was a long off-season and that makes things trickier — the body doesn’t always respond as you anticipate it to."

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Ben Chow reacts to Hunter Labrada's Mr. Olympia defeat

Last year, Hunter Labrada finished the Olympia in seventh place, slightly behind Samson Dauda in sixth. For Labrada, who placed fourth in the contests in 2021 and into the Top 5, this was a setback.

Hunter Labrada's overall planning and peak performance, according to Ben Chow, both had 'errors.' In light of this, Chow believes that part of Hunter Labrada's Olympic training was 'mistimed' by the team.

"Realistically, that process should have happened across 10 weeks rather than four or five weeks. We had to pull him a little flatter than I wanted him to. There was a slight mistiming on it. Like I said, we view it as a team, as our error. Hunter is very – he treats himself like an athlete, he’s like, you win some, you lose some."

One of their most challenging considerations as they prepared for the 2022 Olympics, according to Ben Chow, was keeping Hunter's back filled (detailed).

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Hunter Labrada at Mr. Olympia

The 2022 Mr. Olympia competition's Men's Open class winner was announced as Hadi Choopan in December. Given that Hunter Labrada and Nick Walker have a history of conflict, many viewers anticipated a clash between the two. Nick finished fifth and Hunter fourth in the 2021 Olympia.

Hunter and Nick made hints about a repeat throughout the lead-up to and off-season of the last tournament. In contrast to his performance in 2021, Hunter Labrada was unable to get the initial call-out a few weeks ago. As a result, Labrada came in eighth place, falling three spots from his last attempt at Olympia. Walker, a friendly rival of his, won the Olympia People's Champ Award and moved up to third place.

Hunter left Sin City with a positive outlook on the competition and his bodybuilding career in the future. He hopes to be inspired by the experience. Hunter's third Olympia competition preparation was aided by Coach Ben Chow, the most recent member of the Labrada team to evaluate his performance.

Other re-entering rivals, besides Hunter, also dropped out of the top four. Amazingly, two-time Mr. Olympia Mamdouh "Big Ramy" Elssbiay placed sixth. The last reigning champion to endure a decline like that was Samir Bannout in the 1984 Mr. Olympia, which occurred more than 40 years ago.

Although Hunter fell short of beating 2021, he did take part in one of the most dramatic Mr. Olympia contests in recent memory. For the 2023 Olympia, which will take place during the first week of November and for which Labrada did not place in the top five at the 2022 Olympia, he must win a professional tournament.