There’s a buzz around Hadi Choopan as he heads into the 60th Mr Olympia event in Las Vegas. Having won the 2024 Arnold Classic and Arnold Classic UK, he has every chance of dethroning Derek Lunsford and claiming his second Olympia title, and it looks like the smith machine has been an important tool for the extraordinary Iranian.
“Try to be good and be smart to try, because there are many people in the world but not all are smart,” wrote Choopan in an Instagram post on October 7, 2024. In the accompanying video, the Persian Wolf can be seen completing eight front squats. He’s working with four 20-kilogram plates on either side, but he’s not about to risk injury just four days out from bodybuilding’s grandest stage, so he uses his smarts on the smith machine instead. Despite the impressive weight being hauled, there’s no ego lifting here.
Invented in the 1950s by Jack Lalanne and manufactured by Rudy Smith of the Tanny’s Gym franchise, the smith machine has become one of the most common pieces of equipment at your local place of fitness. When performing lifts with a smith machine, the range of motion is limited to a vertical movement, and requires fewer stabilizing muscles because the bar won’t sway from side-to-side. Of course, limiting the range of motion means limiting the muscles worked, but there are times when it is definitely “smart” to consider using the machine, and those times include being days out from the most important competition of your life. Choopan has had an incredible year so far, and is taking the necessary precautions, under the watchful eye of trainer Hany Rambod, to make sure he’s fighting fit in Sin City.
Hadi Choopan Looks Incredible Ahead of Olympia 2024
While Choopan is us being smart about his training, he’s still working out with the same trademark intensity that gave him the honor of being the first Iranian-born bodybuilder to win the ‘O.’ In recent years, he’s built a reputation for having legs of granite and a commitment to his conditioning. The power of his legs was in display again recently, as Choopan completed a birthday workout and executed some unbelievable back squats, starting out with six 20-kilogram plates on either side of the barbell. Once again, he employed the smith machine to get the job done. No doubt, whether Choopan can get the job done at the 2024 Olympia is one of the most highly anticipated aspects of this years storied event.
