The four-time Classic Physique champion is taking time to get back into the swing of things.
In some ways, Chris Bumstead may be at a crossroads in his professional bodybuilding career. After earning his fourth consecutive Classic Physique title at the 2022 Olympia — giving him more championships than all other winners combined in the division’s history, which began in 2016 — Bumstead seemed to want to take a breather. In mid-January 2023, three days before Olympia, the athlete revealed that he had suffered a right biceps tear and would take some time to recover properly. As the superstar looks forward to the next steps in his athletic journey, he provides the latest update on his current status.
On January 23, 2023, Bumstead posted a video to his YouTube There he grinds through a leg workout: One of his first filmed sessions of the new calendar year. At the same time, he revealed what has happened with his body and training regimen since tearing his biceps muscle.
Before diving leg-first into his routine, Bumstead shared how he’s been recovering in the roughly month since he extended his Classic Physique reign and tore his right biceps. The bodybuilder maintained that he hadn’t trained regularly in roughly five weeks, except for occasionally paying attention to his legs.
2023 Mr. With the Olympia officially scheduled for November 3-5, 2023, in Orlando, FL, Bumstead appeared content to take his time and not go back to full throttle.
“I did legs once a week,” Bumstead noted. “Not working hard. So, I’m just letting my body recover right now. But Olympia is nine months away.
In addition to taking it easy in the gym for now, Bumstead explained that he’s gained roughly 12 pounds by the 2022 Olympia. He weighed about 251 pounds when the video was recorded.
With more details about his health, Bumstead gained strength by training his legs. (Note: The athlete did not reveal the specific sets and repetitions for all the different sections of his exercise.)
Leg extension and leg press
To start his session, Bumstead elected to do a superset of some leg extensions and a leg press. They performed both movements unilaterally and treated their muscles with warm-ups before switching to compound exercises.
Leg press
With his practice out of the way, Bumstead focused on the moderately heavy leg press. Rival maintained that he didn’t want to push it too much as he got back into a quality groove.
“… because I don’t want to put the plates on right now,” Bumstead said. “Partly because my knees are unstable right now, and I want to make sure they’re equally strong.”
Back squat
In the “meat and potatoes” part of his workout, Bumstead incorporated some traditional back squats. As if the athlete had a single plate on each side of his barbell for practice before slowly increasing the weight through a few sets. Nearby, Bumstead appears to have two plates on either side, which equate to 225 pounds (Bumstead is thought to have used a standard 45-pound barbell.)
Walking Dumbbell Lunge
As he began to wind down his leg session, Bumstead continued to attack his lower body with a few sets of walking dumbbell lunges. The athlete holds 70-pound dumbbells in each hand throughout this segment.
Seated calf raise
To finish his exercise, Bumstead did the seated calf raise. Capping the overall session was that he attached two 45-pound plates to his machine for each set.
At the time of this writing, it is clear that Bumstead will be working towards a fifth straight Classic Phys Olympia title this coming November. While bodybuilding legends like Samir Banout have suggested the athlete try his hand at competing in the men’s open division – similar to the 2023 Arnold Classic in March – Bumstead has previously made it clear he would not consider a change until 2024. Not to mention that moving the department would not be wise for someone still recovering from an upper body ailment.
Whatever the near and long-term future holds for Bumstead, it’s likely he’ll continue to share in-depth looks at what’s next in his bodybuilding pursuits.
Featured image: Chris Bumstead on YouTube