Two-time Mr. Olympia Mamdouh Elssbiay, better known as “Big Ramy,” was the guest on this week’s roundtable episode of The Menace Podcast with host Dennis James, Chris Cormier, and Milos Sarcev. There had been many rumors that Elssbiay had been dealing with injuries, and he acknowledged that he’d been undergoing stem cell treatments with hopes of returning to the form that made him the 16th man to hold bodybuilding’s biggest title. He said that further medical evaluation was needed to determine how to proceed.
“They did an MRI on my spine because they thought the nerve wasn’t connecting to the muscle,” Elssbiay said. “They said there was only the inflammation around my elbow that is affecting the nerve there. So, the blood isn’t going to flow.”
Cormier followed by asking if Big Ramy is able to train, and he said that he couldn’t until the beginning of June, but he’s also traveling, so he’s simply waited until he settled back into a routine before hitting the gym again.
“I trained today, upper body, and I felt pretty good.”
There has been a lot of conversations about whether the 16th Mr. Olympia should take an extended break, as in not compete in the 2023 Olympia in Orlando, Florida on Nov. 2-5. The former champion was honest about his feelings when he hears that kind of talk.
“I feel bad when I hear somebody tell me ‘You have to stop.’ I think the only thing you can tell someone that is competing is ‘Yeah, you can do it.’”
If Elssbiay does choose to step back on the Olympia stage, you can watch him face off against current champion Hadi Choopan and the rest of the best bodybuilders in the world by going to www.mrolympia.com for ticket information. In the meantime, you can also subscribe to the Muscle & Fitness YouTube channel to see this episode in its entirety. New episodes of TMP air every Sunday at 3 pm Eastern time.