How could one go wrong when following in the footsteps of one of the most well-known and successful bodybuilders?
The Chris Bumstead workout routine is the way to go when looking to take your body from good to great. His secret lies in following a routine and diet which aims at getting the best possible results by carefully exercising each muscle group and eating healthy food.
Follow the advice and tips from the Olympia Classic Physique champion to succeed in bodybuilding. This article gives you a peek into Chris Bumstead’s workout routine and diet so that you know how to go about it.
Table of Contents
Who is Chris Bumstead?
Chris Bumstead is a Canadian bodybuilder born in 1995. Chris Bumstead has played various sports and enjoyed being active even from a very young age.
Bumstead first began competing in 2014 at 19. He then went on to win the IFBB North American Bodybuilding Championship and his International Federation of BodyBuilding and Fitness pro card in 2016.
His career skyrocketed after that, placing second in the Mr. Olympia event in the Classic Physique division in 2017 and 2018 and holding first place in the same event from 2018 to 2021.
He has, therefore, positioned himself as an authority in the bodybuilding world. Consequently, he has a large following on all the social platforms he is active on where he shares his workout and diet tips.
Chris Bumstead’s Workout Routine
It should go without saying that for someone to place so high in the rankings amongst the world’s bodybuilders, they must follow a training program both off-season and while competing. Bodybuilders must follow a successful workout plan alongside a diet plan because hitting the gym without following the proper food intake will hinder your bodybuilding plans.
The Bumstead workout plan follows various workout principles that help athletes reach their bodybuilding goals.
One of the basic workout principles that Chris Bumstead’s workout follows is the importance of compound motions. Compound exercises focus on a plethora of muscle groups simultaneously, thus, encouraging muscle stimulation and more considerable increases.
The compound exercises work with the “bro-split” and PPL systems. The “bro-split” means choosing activities to hit multiple muscle groups weekly. The PPL (push-pull-legs) training split works on each muscle group twice a week. This program allows Bumstead to alternate between muscles, thus allowing him to protect muscles from injury or favor muscles that need extra building.
Exercises for Each Muscle Group
The muscle groups targeted by Chris Bumstead’s workout are mainly: the back, chest, hamstrings, quadriceps, shoulders, and triceps. He follows this training regimen for three consecutive days, followed by a day of rest and then another three days.
Chris Bumstead’s workout plan follows a general structure that he tries not to deviate from very much. However, he doesn’t always follow strict guidelines. Therefore, the exercises he follows may change to accommodate his needs better.
The Chris Bumstead workout plan allows him to use various movements while still emphasizing the essential parts of this plan. When Chris Bumstead trains, he is always aware of his body and ensures that he does not strain injured muscles, allowing them time to heal; this may bring about slight changes in the overall routine. However, the core of the routine remains the same.
Back and Biceps
The Chris Bumstead workout begins with back training, a vital part of bodybuilding. Usually, he starts with the lateral pulldown as a warm-up.
He begins at the Lat machine with a shorter grip allowing him to exercise the mid-back section. The warm-up session is then completed with lateral pulldowns and dead hangs. Dead hangs are essential to the workout as they prepare the scapula for the following intense back workout.
Once completing the warm-up, the workout routine begins with bent-over barbell dip rows and reverse barbell curls using a shoulder-wide overhand grip to build up back thickness. These are followed by bench dips and an incline bench dumbbell row using a neutral grip to increase the range of motion.
Another essential step in the back workout routine is the Prime row machine which helps build the muscle-mind connection. The last part of the back exercise routine consists of the single-arm cable row exercises.
Moving onto his biceps Chris then turns to the EZ-bar Cable curl. The EZ-bar cable curl ensures a full range of motion enabling optimal muscle engagement. The EZ-bar cable curl exercise is completed with a drop set. Finally, the bicep workout ends with concentration curls, which target the short biceps head that builds strength and definition in the upper arms.
The Complete Back Routine:
- Deadlifts
- Bent-Over Rows
- Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns
- Wide Grip Assisted Pull Ups
- Straight Arm Pulldowns
- Dumbbell Rows
- Machine Rows
- Hyper Extensions
Chest Workout
Chris begins his chest workouts with two or three sets on the pec deck as a warm-up. The pec deck’s track focuses on chest activation and has better results than other exercises, such as cable crosses, chest presses, dips, and push-ups. He then continues with the incline dumbbell press for upper pec development and lighter sets of incline presses. He prefers a neural grip so he can cross his elbows, gaining more muscular contraction.
A few sets on the hammer press machine or hammer curls are followed by four sets with four 45-pound weight plates, three and a quarter plates, and finally, three 45-pound plates. The chest workout continues with a cable crossover and a press. At this point, Chris usually adds some triceps exercises on the rope pushdowns and overhead cable triceps extensions for some extra volume.
Chris Bumstead’s Chest Workout
- Pec Deck Flyes
- Push-ups
- Incline Dumbbell Press
- Incline Neutral Dumbbell Press.
- Hammer Press
- Hammer Curls
- Cable Flyes/Press
- Pec Deck Flyes
- Rope Pushdowns
- Seated Overhead Cable Tricep Extension
Quads, Hamstrings, and Glutes Workout
The first step in the quads and hamstrings workout routine begins with lying leg curls and the hip abduction machine. After a warm-up, the Chris Bumstead plan begins with leg curls, inner thigh squeezes, standing lunges, and leg extensions.
Starting with the hamstrings is essential because they help warm up the knee joints, thus avoiding injury. The routine then moves on to sets on the leg press and the squat press machine for this movement. After some back extensions, Chris Bumstead’s hamstring routine continues with leg extensions and the sissy squat machine. The leg workout routine ends with standing and seated calf raises.
Chris Bumstead’s Quads Routine
- Adductors
- Standing lunges
- Leg Extensions
- Hack Squat Machine
- Leg Press drop sets
- Sissy Squat
- Calf Raise Machine
- Machine preacher curls
- Straight-legged deadlifts
- Reverse hack squat
- Lying leg curls
- Standing leg curls
Chris Bumstead’s Shoulder Day Workout Routines
Chris’s workout begins with rear delts and single-arm rear delt cable flys because these set the shoulders back and reduce shoulder pain.
For his shoulder workout routine, Chris prefers the Smith machine bench press for doing shoulder presses with dumbbells or barbells because it helps alleviate the stress on the shoulders and triceps. This part of the workout consists of 2 drop sets of 8 to 12 reps. The routine continues with two sets of seated dumbbell lateral raises with lighter weights which he gradually increases. Alternatively, he uses grip barbell skull crushers or EZ bar skull crushers. Next comes lateral raises on the machine, and the shoulder routine ends with three sets of machine reverse flys to work the rear delts.
What the Shoulders and Triceps Routine Consist of:
- Dumbbell shoulder press
- Dumbbell lateral raises
- Barbell front raises
- Machine lateral raises
- Single-arm cable Bench dips
- Upright rows
- EZ-bar skull crushers
- Rope face pulls
- Single-arm cable kickbacks
- Reverse grip barbell skull crushers
- Shoulder press
- Straight arm pulldowns
Rest Days
Trainers and sports physicians recommend that all bodybuilders get one or two days of rest a week, and a week of rest once every three months. If you do not wish to take a full day of rest, the split program can help ensure all muscles get adequate rest. This means focusing on alternate muscle groups while training to allow other muscle groups to recover.
Rest Days in the Chris Bumstead’s Workout Routine
The Chris Bumstead workout routine consists of three-day training intercepted by a day of rest, on the fourth day following chest, quads, calves, and back for thickness. On the fifth day, he resumes training for another three; shoulders, hamstrings, and back for width, closing the workout routines with arms before another day of rest. Taking a full day of rest allows the body to relax and the muscles to recuperate.
Bodybuilding Diet
When training to become a professional bodybuilder, a diet is just as important as a workout routine. This is because the foods consumed can help maximize training results, whereas incorrect eating may lead you further away from your bodybuilding goals.
A professional bodybuilder must have a lean, well-balanced, and muscular physique. To reach that goal, bodybuilders must follow a specific diet both in-season and off.
How to create muscle
Professional bodybuilders aim to add muscle; to do so, they must regulate caloric intake according to their body type and workouts. The goal is to gain lean muscle gradually and not simply increase body weight. To gain lean muscle, a bodybuilder must consume more calories than they burn. However, a simple intake of calories is not the key to bulking up; it also depends on the quality of those calories. Quality calories are mainly proteins, carbohydrates, and dietary fat.
So when bodybuilding training, a diet is divided into bulking and cutting. Bulking is building muscle, while cutting is preserving muscle and losing body fat.
Chris Bumstead’s Bulking Diet
Chris Bumstead’s diet consists of two larger meals; a pre-workout meal and a mid-workout meal. Dinner is usually a smaller meal before going to sleep. All food consumption consists of foods that offer high nutrition and enough micronutrients.
A Chris Bumstead diet breakfast has about 1000 calories and starts with a blueberry, raspberry, and banana smoothie containing glutamine, greens, fiber, chocolate whey protein, and oatmeal. He then eats three whole eggs, three slices of toast, and half an avocado.
He increases his meal intake during off-season training, often reaching six meals daily.
Getting Ready for the Olympia Classic Physique
Bulking up to get ready to win his next Olympia Classic Physique title, Chris Bumstead’s second meal of the day has another 1000 calories and consists of items like steak and rice or grilled chicken breast and rice. Grilled chicken breast and rice are one of his favorite pre-workout meals as it is easy to digest.
An example of a post-workout meal that adds another 780 calories is ground turkey, sweet potatoes, and a banana.
More healthy foods follow for the fifth meal of the day, which includes potatoes, ground beef, and avocados. For the sixth and final meal of the day, Chris Bumstead’s choice is a protein shake with oats and almond butter with a 600-calorie intake.
In a Few Words
The Chris Bumstead workout routine is a perfect example of a routine that will help athletes reach the top of their game. The combination of exercises and the system followed by Chris Bumstead allows for the perfect build of muscles to create the lean and muscular physique that is the envy of every fitness model.
Exercising muscle groups individually, followed by time for each muscle group to rest, it is only a matter of hard work and perseverance that will give you the desired result.
The Chris Bumstead workout has the best results combined with the Chris Bumstead diet. Combining the two ensures that your body and muscles get the perfect amount of nutrients needed in bodybuilding. Chris Bumstead follows a workout routine diet with which his intake of calories surpasses the number of calories he is burning.
Chris Bumstead is the perfect role model for all those beginning their bodybuilding journey.