Hadi Choopan’s Weak Body Parts: Where the Former Mr. Olympia Can Still Improve
UPLIFT IRON CLUBCalling any body part on Hadi Choopan “weak” sounds strange until you remember who he is being compared with. The 2022 Mr. Olympia champion has spent years in the first callout against the most complete Open bodybuilders on the planet. He was second at the Olympia in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and his combination of conditioning, density and compact muscle makes obvious holes difficult to find.
That does not mean his physique wins every pose. At this level, a “weak point” can simply mean one area gives up a few percentage points to a rival with exceptional structure or more three-dimensional muscle. A shoulder can be world class and still look a little flatter beside Derek Lunsford. A back can be brutally detailed and still lose one rear pose because the competitor next to him has more width or density in exactly the right places.
The useful way to analyze Choopan is therefore not to hunt for a bad body part. It is to ask where judges can still create separation when the rest of the package is already elite. Looking at recent Olympia comparisons, official pose-by-pose commentary and the improvement priorities discussed around his 2026 preparation gives us a much better answer.
Hadi Choopan’s “Weak Points” Only Exist at Olympia Level
Choopan’s baseline strength is completeness. He carries thick quads, a dense torso, big arms, capped delts, visible back detail and a midsection that stays relatively compact for an Open bodybuilder carrying that much mass. More importantly, he usually presents those muscles with the dryness and separation needed to make them look finished rather than simply large.
That matters because bodybuilding is judged as a package. A competitor with a spectacular back can still lose if his legs disappear from the front. A huge chest can be neutralized by a wide waist. Choopan rarely gives judges that kind of obvious trade-off. His structure is compact, his muscle bellies look dense, and his conditioning tends to sharpen the transitions between body parts.
The 2025 Olympia made the distinction clear. Derek Lunsford beat Choopan by a narrow margin, but the pose-by-pose discussion was not about Hadi having a glaring flaw. It was about small advantages in specific comparisons: leg size, shoulder roundness, back width and back density in certain poses. Choopan still won poses because his thickness, detail and ability to open his back remained major weapons.
So if you are looking for a beginner-style answer such as “his arms are small” or “his back is weak,” there really is not one. His vulnerabilities are comparative. They show up only when another Mr. Olympia-caliber physique happens to have a stronger shape in that exact pose.
Legs: Elite Conditioning, but More Front Width Can Still Matter
Choopan’s legs are one of the last areas most lifters would call a weakness. His quads routinely show deep separation, his adductors give the thighs thickness, and when he is fully conditioned the lower body looks carved rather than merely muscular. His 2024 Arnold Classic win was a good example of how much visual damage that combination can do from the front.
Yet elite judging can turn a strength into a relative vulnerability. In the official 2025 Olympia pose breakdown, Tyler Manion pointed to Lunsford carrying more leg volume and width in the front double biceps. That does not mean Choopan’s legs were poor. It means Lunsford’s lower body created a wider silhouette, which helped the entire pose read as bigger while his waist stayed controlled.
This is the kind of difference that matters more on a compact athlete. Choopan’s density is excellent, but extra outer-quad sweep can make the X-frame look even stronger from a distance. If two athletes are equally lean, the one whose legs flare farther outside the hips can appear more structurally dominant in a front comparison.
There is also a trade-off. Chasing leg size indiscriminately would be a mistake if it thickened the waist visually, reduced separation or upset the balance between upper and lower body. The goal would not be “bigger legs at any cost.” It would be a little more usable stage width while preserving the crisp quad detail that is already part of Choopan’s identity.
That is consistent with the way his 2026 improvement discussion was framed: small additions, not a rebuild. When a former Olympia champion is already carrying this much lower-body muscle, a few percent of extra sweep or fullness can be more valuable than a dramatic bulk.
Back: Not a Weak Body Part — but One Rear Pose Exposes the Margin
The back is probably the best example of why “weak point” is too crude a label. Choopan can look enormous and highly detailed from behind, particularly in a rear lat spread. In the 2025 Olympia breakdown, Manion specifically credited him with thickness, density and detail when he opened the back fully. That pose went in Choopan’s favor.
The rear double biceps was different. There, Lunsford’s combination of width and three-dimensional density created more separation. Choopan still showed a strong back, but the comparison exposed how two poses can reward different visual qualities from the same body part.
For the rear double biceps, lat width is only part of the picture. The judges also see traps, rhomboids, spinal erectors, rear delts, arms, glutes and hamstrings at once. Lunsford is especially dangerous because his back can look broad and deep while the waist stays small. Choopan’s detail helps him enormously, but against that specific silhouette he can give away some visual acreage.
This is why simply saying “Hadi needs a bigger back” misses the point. Coach Milos Sarcev has argued that Choopan did not need to make the back dramatically bigger, thicker or wider for his 2026 push. The more realistic target is presentation and refinement: make sure the back opens fully, keep enough fullness through the rear poses and arrive conditioned enough that every ridge of existing muscle is visible.
For ordinary lifters, there is a useful lesson here. A body part can be developed yet still look weaker because of posing, proportions or the way neighboring muscles frame it. More tissue is not always the solution. Sometimes the better answer is improved execution, a slightly different emphasis, or simply getting lean enough for the muscle you already built to show.
Chest and Delts: Small Shape Differences Can Decide the Side Poses
Choopan has thick pecs and powerful arms, but the side chest comparison shows where another elite athlete can make him look less dominant. In the 2025 judging analysis, Lunsford’s shoulder was described as rounder and fuller in the side pose. That extra delt cap changes more than the shoulder itself: it makes the upper arm look larger, frames the chest and increases the three-dimensional look of the whole upper torso.
From the front, shoulder roundness can also influence how wide the physique appears. Choopan has a tight waist and flaring lats, so he already creates a strong taper. But if the delts look a little flatter beside a rival with extremely round caps, the rival can appear broader even before the eye reaches the lats.
The chest is similar. There is no shortage of pectoral mass, but on a physique this complete the question becomes whether the chest looks equally full through every angle and whether it balances the delts and arms. Sarcev’s comments around Choopan’s 2026 preparation reportedly put the chest among the areas where a modest improvement could help. “Modest” is the key word. This is not a lagging chest in the recreational-bodybuilding sense.
The danger in trying to fix a tiny upper-body deficit is overcorrecting. Too much extra pressing volume can beat up shoulders and elbows without changing stage shape. A bodybuilder at Choopan’s level needs targeted hypertrophy: exercises and loading that bias the exact tissue he wants to improve while preserving recovery for everything else.
Visually, the target would be a slightly fuller shelf through the upper chest and a rounder shoulder cap so that the side poses hit harder immediately. Those are refinements that can swing a close comparison without changing the identity of the physique.
Arms Are a Strength — the Challenge Is Making Them Win the Whole Frame
Choopan’s arms are not a weakness. His biceps have obvious peak, his triceps carry thickness, and his forearms fit the dense look of the rest of his physique. In fact, the 2025 commentary noted the biceps peak as one of the qualities that stood out in comparisons.
But arms are never judged in isolation. In a front double biceps, the eye takes in shoulders, lats, waist, quads and arm shape simultaneously. A competitor can have the better biceps yet lose the pose because the opponent creates a wider taper or carries more leg mass. That is exactly why physique analysis based on cropped body-part photos can be misleading.
For Choopan, the best version of the arms is probably the one that keeps them in balance rather than chasing more circumference. If the delts become a touch rounder and the torso stays tight, the arms can look even bigger without actually adding much arm size. If the waist is controlled and the lats flare, the same biceps peak contributes to a stronger X-frame.
This is also where posing skill matters. Elbow height, wrist angle, lat expansion and torso position can make the front double biceps look radically different. On a compact athlete, small adjustments change the spacing between the arms and torso and therefore change how wide the upper body appears.
The takeaway is almost the opposite of a typical weak-point prescription. Choopan does not need an “arm specialization phase” because the arms are already doing their job. The higher-value improvements are around them: maximize shoulder shape, preserve the waist, keep the back open and make the lower body wide enough that the entire pose reads as complete.
Conditioning, Structure and Posing Are Why His Weaknesses Stay So Small
Choopan’s greatest advantage may be that his strengths reduce the visibility of his weaknesses. He is compact without looking compressed, thick without usually looking blocky, and conditioned enough that individual muscle groups remain distinct. That creates a physique judges can read quickly from every angle.
Conditioning is especially important. When body fat and subcutaneous water are low enough, separation through the quads, glutes, hamstrings, lower back and shoulders adds visual depth. That depth can compensate for giving up a little raw width. A slightly smaller muscle can beat a larger one if it looks harder, more separated and better controlled.
Posing does the same thing. Choopan has years of experience making a dense frame look expansive. His rear lat spread is a good example: opening the lats correctly allows the back to display thickness and detail at the same time. The 2025 analysis gave him that pose even though Lunsford had the stronger rear double biceps. The body part did not change between poses; the presentation did.
His recent Olympia record shows how narrow the margin is. Choopan won the title in 2022, then finished second three consecutive times from 2023 through 2025. That is not a physique being exposed by a fatal flaw. It is a physique living in the tiny competitive space where one or two poses can decide the entire weekend.
For 2026, the immediate stage comparison will not happen because Choopan is absent from this year’s Olympia lineup. That makes the improvement question more theoretical for now, but it does not change the hierarchy of priorities: preserve the signature conditioning and density, add only targeted fullness where it improves shape, and avoid sacrificing the compact waist and balance that make the package so difficult to beat.
There is a useful programming lesson in that for non-professional lifters. Once a physique is reasonably balanced, weak-point training should become more selective, not more chaotic. Pick one or two areas that actually change your silhouette, add enough high-quality volume to create progression, and keep the rest of the body on productive maintenance or normal growth work. Throwing extra sets at every muscle because none of them looks perfect usually just spreads recovery too thin.
It also helps to judge progress with the same context used here. Compare similar poses, lighting and body-fat levels rather than reacting to one flattering or unflattering photo. Look for changes in proportions: shoulder-to-waist ratio, quad sweep, back width, chest fullness and how smoothly the body parts connect. The more advanced the lifter, the more those small proportional changes matter.
So does Hadi Choopan have real weak body parts? Not in the way most people use that phrase. His closest thing to weaknesses are relative gaps that appear against specific elite rivals: a little less leg width from the front, slightly less shoulder roundness in some poses, and less rear-double-biceps width or density than the very best back in the lineup. Everything else is refinement. That is what happens when the starting point is already a Mr. Olympia-winning physique.
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