Derek Lunsford suffered a setback prior to his victory in Las Vegas.
Derek Lunsford is just days removed from winning his second Olympia title. He was crowned champion for the third time overall in bodybuilding — and second as Mr. Olympia. While it was an extremely successful year for Lunsford, it did not come completely without issue.
On Wednesday, Lunsford shared a video on YouTube revealing that he suffered a torn pec just two weeks before taking the stage in Las Vegas.
“It was 16 days ago that I had a very serious injury to my chest. I actually tore my chest doing dumbbell presses.”
Lunsford entered the 2025 season with big plans and has reached them thus far. He won the first-ever Men’s Open Pittsburgh Pro title, which came after his victory in Columbus during the 2025 Arnold Classic. He set his sights on the Olympia to complete the trifecta. After his win at the Olympia, Lunsford became the second bodybuilder to ever lose a title and win it back — joining Cutler himself.
Derek Lunsford Reveals Serious Injury
The injury, which occurred on Sept. 10, took place while Lunsford was performing dumbbell presses with a 70kg weight. On this particular day, he thought about going up in weight but wanted to focus on controlling the weight through the entire movement.
“For me, it’s a moderately heavy weight but that day, it just felt very good. I thought I should go 75 or 80, every rep was feeling so good. I got a couple reps in and I instantly knew what happened…I saw my career flash before my eyes.”
Lunsford knew right away that he suffered this injury and it eventually began to bruise. This did not happen right away and he was able to “kind of flex it” right after. As time went on, it began bruising and it put his performance in Las Vegas in jeopardy.
“The following day, I woke up with some bruising in the chest. Since then, the last couple weeks, extremely cruised, but by the grace of God, this has been healing so fast.”
Derek Lunsford was able to make a quick recovery and return to the gym ahead of the Olympia. It took time to get back to full strength but he was able to get close to it days before the show, putting on the best performance possible.
“This was a very serious injury that could have taken me out of this year’s Olympia and potentially my entire career. 16 days later, here we are today, and I am almost able to train at 100%.”
For more news and updates, follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
