Hunter Labrada

Hunter Labrada is an IFBB Professional bodybuilder and businessman from the United States. His father is bodybuilding legend Lee Labrada. This is his complete profile, biography, training regime, diet plan, and more.

Full name: Hunter Labrada
Weight	Height	Age
235-245 lbs (106.6 – 111.1 kg)	5’9” (175 cm)	30 years
Date of birth	Era	Nationality
March 17, 1992	2020	American

Early Life

Hunter Labrada is from Texas, USA.

His journey has been much different than that of most Pro bodybuilders, growing up with two parents who also competed. His father is the legendary Lee Labrada, who is one of the greatest Open division bodybuilders of all time. Lee won Mr. Universe in 1985, placed top 4 seven consecutive times at the Olympia and in 2004, was inducted into the IFBB Pro Bodybuilding Hall of Fame.

His mother, Robin Labrada, also competed and has been by Hunter’s side during his bodybuilding journey. She also has a pretty good eye for bodybuilding and Hunter has said her opinion is just as valuable as his father’s.

Football and deciding to pursue bodybuilding

As a young teenager, he developed an interest in football, playing in middle school and realizing he was pretty good at the sport in high school, earning many accolades along the way. He even had plans to make a career out of it. However, we all know that life doesn’t always turn out the way we thought it would. Hunter started to really take an interest in the sport of bodybuilding at the age of 18-19 and decided that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father.

By age 21, he really started to have an appreciation for what his father was able to accomplish as a competitive Pro bodybuilder, and realizes it more and more as he climbs the Open division ladder.

“The higher the level that I reach, it just makes you understand more and more and more just how good he was at what he does”.

But Lee was not happy about his son’s decision as he wanted Hunter to play football instead of pursuing a bodybuilding career because the young athlete had invested so much into the sport for years.

However, Hunter insisted that he focus on bodybuilding because he saw a future in it, especially having an advantage with his father being who he was. Not to mention, he had already incurred many injuries such as concussions and fractures and was not sure he’d be able to eventually pursue bodybuilding if continued to play football.

So Lee had to accept that his son wanted to compete in the sport and had no choice but to guide him to ensure things were done the right way. Consequently, he made smart decisions, starting out small with local shows and moving his way up which was undoubtedly good for his confidence and ultimately his career even up until this point.

Lee’s influence and seeking outside help

Lee has played a big role in his son’s success, being a mentor and second set of eyes, and being one of the greatest posers of all time, he’s really been able to help Hunter in this area. However, Lee Labrada competed in a different era and not to mention, he was smaller in height and significantly smaller in size compared to Hunter.

While Lee initially insisted that he coach his son, Hunter felt he could benefit from outside help because what he would be going up against would be a whole different animal. And while Hunter has worked with his coach Brian, he’s also learned how to make improvements himself.

Ultimately, Hunter wants to do better than his father and win an Olympia title.

Career and Competition

Hunter has certainly lived up to the hype, quickly climbing the Open division ladder. He dominated several contests prior to earning his Pro Card at the 2018 NPC National Championships. Since turning Pro, he’s won two major shows – the 2020 IFBB Tampa Pro and 2021 IFBB Chicago Pro.

In his Olympia 2020 debut, Hunter took eighth place which was definitely not the result he was hoping for.

“It was good enough that I could hold my head high but not good enough that I was satisfied whatsoever,” he said about his 2020 Olympia finish.

The very next year, he managed to shock the bodybuilding world and improve his Olympia placing by 4 spots, earning him a 4th place finish at the most prestigious show in the world.

He was neck and neck with rookie Nick Walker who won the 2021 Arnold Classic just weeks prior, but managed to edge him out by one spot.

Competition history

2021 IFBB Mr. Olympia – 4th
2021 IFBB Chicago Pro – 1st
2020 IFBB Mr. Olympia – 8th
2020 IFBB Tampa Pro – 1st
2018 NPC National Championships (Superheavyweight) – Overall winner and earned Pro Card
2018 NPC Junior USA Championships (Superheavyweight) – Overall winner
2017 NPC Europa Dallas (Superheavyweight) – 1st
2016 NPC San Antonio Extravaganza (Superheavyweight) – 1st
2016 NPC Branch Warren Classic (Heavyweight) – 1st and Overall winner

Hunter has said that he plans to retire by age 35 if he’s not the champion or anywhere to it.

“From the jump, even when I was 20, 21 years old, I always told myself that at 35, if I’m not defending Olympia titles, or seriously, seriously, seriously challenging, i.e. I placed second the year before, I’d be done”.

“There’s life after bodybuilding. It really is a young man’s game. I know there’s a lot of people that have kind of proved that wrong, but at the end of the day, look at my dad. That’s how I want to end up. He’s 61 years old, no major surgeries, all of his joints work properly, internal health is on point. There’s life after bodybuilding.”

Shoulder Surgery

In an interview with former Pro bodybuilder Dennis James, Hunter explained that he was able to make such big improvements with his physique in such a short amount of time because he fixed his messed up shoulder that resulted from an injury playing football.

He was tackled from behind while holding the football and landed on his arm which broke his arm and dislocated his shoulder. So he went for a long time with this shoulder problem that he never took care of not realizing how bad it really was.

After the surgery, he was like new and could finally train like a bodybuilder.

Workout Regime

Hunter is committed to his craft having not taken much of a break in two years since having his shoulder fixed. Although, after the 2021 Olympia, he took it easy to recover both mentally and physically.

Regarding his workout regime or strategy, Hunter likes to keep things simple. He does not believe in muscle confusion either which is based on the idea that changing up workout variables frequently “confuses” the muscles, preventing plateaus and resulting in consistent muscle gains.

“For a year and a half, I’d say 90% of my workouts have been the same exact workouts. They’ve been the same exact order, with the same exact exercises, with the same exact rep ranges. The only thing that’s changing is the fact that I am literally trying like someone has a gun to my head every time I train, to push either the weight on the bar, or the amount of reps I perform. The workouts have stayed the same. Muscle confusion is bulls–t, progressive overload is how you grow. Plain and simple.”

While he trains to compete as a bodybuilder, working out is more than just building big muscles for him. It’s like a drug he explained in an interview.

“That feeling is what I live for. It’s like a drug honestly, and it’s legal. It’s free therapy, lucky me, right?”. “That’s what I love about bodybuilding, is those top heavy compound sets, really pushing the envelope. I’m getting a little emotional honestly, talking about it right now, but just the fact that no matter what’s going on outside of the gym, no matter what’s going on in your life, no matter.

Fourty-five pounds is always fourty-five f—ing pounds. So it’s nice to be able to walk in somewhere and it just be you vs something that you have done before. It’s simply are you going to be better than you were last time or not? That’s a feeling I have grown to live for.”

Below we’ve included one of his recent workout splits that was shared in 2021 during his Chicago Pro prep.

Push (isolation)

Roller flies
Cuff laterals
Prime pec deck
Prime lateral
Cuff tricep extension
Sword draws

Pull A (width focus)/ biceps

Straight arms
Nautilus pulldown
Single-arm cable row
DB row (2 arm)
Prime row (upper back focus)
Prime rear delt
DB preacher curl/strive curl
Step forward curl

Quads A

Standing calf
Seated calf
Abductor
Adductor
Pendulum
Split squat
Leg extension

Off

Push A (press)

Incline DB
Prime incline
Prime shoulder press
Dips
Cuff tricep extension

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A post shared by Hunter Labrada IFBB Pro (@hunterlabrada)

Back/hamstrings A

Straight arm
Nautilus pulldown
Deadlift
Seated Hamstring Curl
Lying hamstring curl

Off

Push (isolation)

Roller flies
Cuff laterals
Prime pec deck
Prime lateral
Cuff tricep extension
Sword draws

Pull B (width focus)/ biceps

Straight arms
Nautilus pulldown
One-arm cable row
Chest supported DB row
Prime row (upper back)
Prime rear delt
DB preacher curl/strive curl
Step forward cable curl

Quads B

Standing calf
Seated calf
Abductor
Adductor
Cambered spider bar
Hip press
Leg extension

Off

Push B (press)

Arsenal flat
Reverse band smith incline
Reverse band smith high incline
Dips

Back/hamstrings B

Straight arm
Nautilus pulldown
Deadlift
Seated Hamstring curl
Lying hamstring curl

Off

Diet and Nutrition

Like any bodybuilder, Hunter has a specific diet regime that he follows and it varies based on what he’s trying to achieve. Below we’ve detailed a full day of eating for one of the best bodybuilders in the world.

Meal 1

1 1/2 scoops of oats
1 scoop whey isolate
250 ml egg whites
63g protein, 12g fat, 90g carbs – 720 calories

Meal 2 – pre training

100g cream of rice
25 grams whey isolate
40g peanut butter
37g protein, 19g fat, 89g carbs – 675 calories

Meal 3 – post training

120g cream of rice
50g whey isolate
40g peanut butter
62g protein, 22g fat, 109g carbs – 882 calories

Meal 4

300g rice
80g avocado
8 ounces white fish
49g protein, 35g fat, 108g carbs – 943 calories

Meal 5

Sushi
187g protein, 108g fat, 227g carbs – 2,628

Meal 6

1 1/2 cups oats
500ml egg whites
63g protein, 9g fat, 89g carbs – 689 calories

“Screw motivation, learn to love discipline. Motivation is very fleeting, if you rely on some song or some YouTube video or having a really awesome day to be the catalyst for you to handle your business, you’re not going to be successful.”

Supplements

During an interview with his father Lee, Hunter discussed his supplement choices.

They first talked about products used around the “workout window” such as pre-workout and something for after each session. “The sole purpose of a pre-workout is not to make you feel like you need to be scraped off of the ceiling because you’re so stimulated,” he explained. “That’s not a good thing“. That’s because using lots of stimulants can place the body under a lot of stress.

Hunter prefers options with minimal or no stimulants as he feels they do not help with performance after a certain point.

He also uses an intra-workout supplement to replace electrolytes and glycogen, but doesn’t want something that’s going to sit in his stomach like a brick and allows him to train hard.

Then for post-workout, his supplement of choice replenishes what he lost during the session but it also helps to start rebuilding muscle tissue since training breaks them down.

Check out our large selection of post-workout protein powder reviews.

Personal Life and Business Endeavors

Hunter is currently in a relationship with IFBB professional competitor Liv Roth. He does have a daughter with former girlfriend Katie Hutson of which the two have a daughter together who they named Brooklyn Kathleen Labrada.

Hunter and his father run the popular supplement company Labrada Nutrition of which Lee founded in 1995. It’s become one of the most widely-recognized sports supplement brands in the industry.

He has 282k followers on Instagram and recently started a YouTube channel at the end of 2021. Although he’s only posted two videos so far, but hopefully we can expect to see more of his content in the near future.

Additional Information

Hunter Labrada came from bodybuilding royalty but that doesn’t mean it’s been easy for him. Fortunately, though, he does have a bodybuilding legend to guide and help him along the way. The young competitor has certainly lived up to the hype, earning a very impressive fourth place finish after the 2021 Mr. Olympia, just four year after turning Pro and one year following an eighth-place finish at the Olympia competition.

We’re looking forward to seeing what he brings to stage this year and he’s going to certainly be one to watch on that Olympia stage.