Bodybuilding coach Chris Aceto is clearing the air after a tense back and forth with Shawn Ray. In a recent YouTube video shared on January 12, 2025, he clapped back against Ray, who suggested that elite-caliber athletes don’t need coaches. In addition, he discussed Derek Lunsford’s cardio routine weeks from the 2025 Arnold Classic.
The 2024 Mr. Olympia shocked the bodybuilding world with Samson Dauda laying claim to the sport’s most prestigious title. On that fateful night, Derek Lunsford missed his peak, presenting a flat lower body that lacked volume, resulting in him placing third at the event.
Making matters more complicated, Derek Lunsford lost his long-time coach Hany Rambod, who announced his retirement from training top-tier athletes. Having enlisted training help from bodybuilding legend Chris Cormier and now officially teamed up with coach Chris Aceto, Lunsford’s eyes are fixated on revenge as he sets his sights on gold at the upcoming 2025 Arnold Classic.
Chris Aceto Talks Derek Lunsford’s 2025 Arnold Classic Prep, Calls Out Shawn Ray for Saying Athletes Don’t Need Coaches
During the YouTube video, Chris Aceto fired back at Shawn Ray who recently suggested that top-caliber Pros like Derek Lunsford don’t need coaches.
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“Anyone can criticize me on my coaching ability. What Shawn overlooks, and that’s why I put it up on my Instagram, is I’ve coached 126 bodybuilders to professional wins, 48 different athletes.”
“If you get 10 wins, I would consider you a success, or 20 wins, a success,” he adds.
Aceto pointed out that while Shawn Ray never had a coach, he also never won a Mr. Olympia title.
“The odd thing is he never had a coach. He’s never won the Olympia,” shared Aceto. Everyone who passed him from Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler, Chris Cormier beat him, I mean Nasser [beat him], Levrone beat him. The last time I looked at the best basketball team in history with Michael Jordan was the head, he still had a coach.”
To further his point, Chris Aceto highlights that every other sport has coaches.
“It’s like saying, oh the guys in the NFL they don’t need a coach. Tom Brady doesn’t need a coach.
All the guys in the Major League have batting coaches. So this idea that bodybuilders don’t need a coach is just Shawn Ray trying to say I never did because he always makes it about him.”
In regards to training Derek Lunsford, Aceto highlighted that sometimes you can push too hard and it may not yield the desired results.
“I think Derek is like a lot of bodybuilders, Type A personality which you have to be for bodybuilding or should be for bodybuilding. There’s a capital A and a small A.
Sometimes you have to be a small A because if you push too hard all the time, and you want to win so bad, not that saying he wants to win any more than anyone else in the top echelon, but sometimes you want to win so bad that you will — there’s two types of bodybuilders, some would say I’d eat rocks, that’s a metaphor, there’s some who would eat rocks — whatever it takes to win.”
Aceto believes that Lunsford’s desire to push prep too hard ultimately led to his downfall at the 2024 Mr. Olympia.
“I think that may be what kind of sorta did him an injustice last year [at 2024 Olympia].
Aceto broke down how much cardio Lunsford is doing in prep for the 2025 Arnold Classic.
“Derek’s prior prep was simply if you told Derek 10, he’d probably do 10 and want to do 110,” shares Aceto. “He just started [cardio] a little bit I think this week. Seven weeks out, maybe 30 minutes, two sessions.”
Derek Lunsford hasn’t taken his eye off the prize ahead of the 2025 Arnold Classic. While digging his heels into preparations, he joined Nick Walker on ‘The Mutant and the Mouth’ podcast to discuss who had the best poses.
“We got the front double, I would agree that I take that one. Actually, now that I’ve made some improvements I think Chris would also agree or maybe disagree, I think he would agree that my front lat spread has improved a lot. So I think I take that one now,” said Lunsford.
It’s evident Derek Lunsford’s confidence is beginning to soar following the coaching changes. Time will tell how he performs in Columbus, Ohio at the Arnold Classic from February 27 to March 2.
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