Exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel is examining another top-tier IFBB Pro. In a recent YouTube video shared on October 4, 2024, Dr. Israetel critiqued the warm-ups and back training of Hadi Choopan, offering insight and tips for those hoping to improve their fitness levels.
Hadi Choopan won the Mr. Olympia title in 2022, showcasing muscle hardness and his signature dry conditioning. En route to hoisting gold above his head, he faced a handful of skilled threats, which included finalists Derek Lunsford and Nick ‘The Mutant’ Walker.
In 2023, Choopan attempted to defend his title but was denied by his teammate Derek Lunsford, who bested him primarily with a dominant back double biceps pose. Despite the loss, Choopan didn’t take a lengthy off-season to mount his comeback.
He returned quickly and swiftly at the 2024 Arnold Classic, defeating Samson Dauda soundly on the scorecards. Then, followed up the triumph with a statement victory at the 2024 Arnold Classic UK. With Olympia glory within his crosshairs once again, Israetel examined how he approaches training and warm-ups to offer his fans any lessons possible.
“Always coming in in absolutely absurd condition, absolute nonsense muscularity and I always think he looks like the sculptures of what humans are supposed to look like. Most of us don’t look like that. Today, we’re going to peruse his training footage.”
Exercise Scientist Critiques Hadi Choopan’s Brutal Workouts and Warm-Ups Ahead of 2024 Mr. Olympia
Dr. Israetel examined Hadi Choopan’s warm-up routine and revealed his best method for priming the body before exercise.
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“A lot of athletes put a ton of time into what’s called the general warm-up. Stretching and treadmill walking… if you do treadmill walking you have to do it properly,” says Israetel. “That stuff has a context but for people that don’t have prior injuries that are relatively healthy, almost all competitive bodybuilders, the most important part of the warm-up is none of that. It is actually doing lighter sets of the first exercise you’re going to be using.”
He also scrutinized Choopan’s back training as he sets his sights on winning back the Mr. Olympia title in 2024.
“This is phenomenal technique, this is excellent technique for growing. Notice how he’s flexing at the spine and at the hips, that’s stretching out his lower back his spinal erector musculature, it’s even stretching out on leveraging his lats and parts of his mid-back and at the top.
He pushes his tummy out and crunches his shoulder blades together. This exercise comes close being done right through a super crazy range of motion like he’s doing. This exercise comes close to being one of the best all-around back exercises you can do.”
Specifically, Dr. Israetel took a closer look at Choopan’s use of bent-over dumbbell rows. He complemented Choopan’s stretch throughout the exercise which is key to growing muscles.
“This is like porn for range of motion fetishists at this point,” he adds. “Notice, he’s not rowing the 180s bro, what’s this motherfucker got in his hand, that’s like 100 or something.
His back is bigger than yours whoever – I don’t care who you are listening to this unless your Samson Dauda and like three other people. Huge backs can be built with mega psychotic weights for sure but they can also be built with relatively light weights taken to huge degrees of stretching.”
Dr. Israetel gave insight into Choopan’s decision to maintain a high level of volume.
“I assume he trains back once a week. It kind of makes sense he needs to put the volume in. Another great movement, super big stretch at the very top it actually, as you can probably see visually pretty close, it does stimulate and hypertrophy the long head of your triceps as well as your lats which is dope.”
Performing a ‘flexion row’ using a machine, Dr. Israetel examined his range of motion and benefits from the movement.
“What’s that? Kind of like a flexion row with that machine, that’s a trip because the machine takes you away from your center of gravity at the bottom and stretches out your entire mid and lower back even more. This has to be brutal. This guy is tough man.”
Take Home Points
“Really awesome to see someone do fundamentally fucking awesome training, full range of motion, really challenging, no dog shit, no weird stuff and this is really good stuff. Hadi will be at the Olympia this year and is always a threat to win.”
This wasn’t the first bodybuilder to have their workout regimen examined in detail. Dr. Mike Israetel also critiqued the upper body training practices of the reigning five-time Classic Physique Olympia Chris Bumstead, who is set to defend his title next weekend.
There’s a lot we can learn from Hadi Choopan’s approach to warm-ups and exercise. His range of motion and stretch throughout training left Dr. Israetel overly impressed. Feel free to incorporate any of the insights or tips he shared to level up inside the gym!
Watch the full video from the Renaissance Periodization YouTube channel below:
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