Brandon Hendrickson admits he is embarrassed by his Olympia 2019 physique and is extremely confident he will land first place this year.
Brandon Hendrickson has had a rocky past two years. Things started off in high spirits with a big Men’s Physique win at the Olympia 2018. Things took a turn for the worst the following year, where he not only did not keep his Olympia title but fell down to fourth place. A sharp contrast to his 2018 status. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Brandon Hendrickson openly admits his failings at Olympia 2019 and is confident he will be unstoppable this year.
It’s been a while since we’ve been able to sit down and talk with Brandon Hendrickson. Brandon was featured as a main cast member of Generation Iron 3. Since then, Brandon has had a roller coaster of a career with a major drop in his placing at the 2019 Mr. Olympia. It was shocking to see a returning champion fall so far from grace.
For Brandon Hendrickson, it’s all in the past. Not only that, but he’s open and honest about his entire experience at the Olympia 2019. He has no ill will and agrees that he should not have won. It wasn’t a mistake. It was his own failings that led to a lesser physique compared to the competition that year.
Brandon Hendrickson posing earlier this year at the Arnold Classic 2020 (above).
Brandon Hendrickson opens up about all of the factors that created a perfect storm pushing him down to fourth place. Simply put, he was trying to do too much at once while preparing in the final days of the competition. He believes that he was on point and confident all the way up through to Friday. Then things started to fall apart. He describes being so busy and stressed that he didn’t go to sleep until 1am the night before the competition.
Brandon describes how much stress can affect your physique at a bodybuilding competition. Those final days before a competition are crucial. If anything physically or mentally goes wrong – it can have vast affects on how the body reacts.
“I’m honestly embarrassed of what I brought,” Brandon Hendrickson admits in our interview. “Like, I can admit that and I’m comfortable with talking about that because I know the mistakes that were made and I know what I need to do to fix them.”
That’s the key and what Brandon is focusing on this year as he prepares for (an admittedly different) Olympia this year. As we segue from his loss in 2019 to looking towards the future Olympia 2020, Brandon is confident he will be bringing “2018 Brandon 2.0.”
His confidence is actually electric. Throughout this entire segment of the interview, Brandon has never been more confident. Usually a humble competitor, Brandon consistently asserts that there is nothing stopping him from winning this year. He details how his training is better than ever before. He’s focusing more on resting and improving his weak points. He is seeing improvements every single week. He feels unstoppable.
It’s the kind of confidence that gets you excited to see the competition. All told, this seems like a different kind of Brandon Hendrickson than what we saw the year before. If his momentum continues this way – we doubt we’ll see another fourth place finish at Olympia 2020 in December.
You can watch Brandon Hendrickson’s full comments in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above.
