Chris Bumstead is making the most of his time in the gym to stay ahead in the Classic Physique division. Recently, he annihilated a back training session in the gym with the goal to bring ‘a thick back this year’.
The Canadian IFBB Pro bodybuilder has risen to the status of the greatest active bodybuilders with a string of dominant wins on the grandest stage of bodybuilding – The Olympia. After snatching the Classic Physique Olympia title from rival Breon Ansley at the 2019 Olympia, Bumstead has defended it successfully in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The 28-year-old has been undeterred in the face of adversity and persevered over difficult situations. Fellow Canadian bodybuilder and long-time friend Iain Valliere has coached CBum for the majority of his career. However, the duo mutually decided to end the client-coach relationship before 2022 Olympia so Valliere to focus on his own career in the Men’s Open division.
Even if it was difficult, they swallowed the bitter pill and CBum entered the 2022 Olympia under famed coach Hany Rambod’s guidance. In spite of having suffered a bicep tear, Bumstead managed to bring the Sandows trophy home for the fourth consecutive time.
The champ took his own sweet time after the show and went through the treatment to heal the bicep completely. Having recovered, he is now slowly intensifying the off-season training for the 2023 competitive season.
His recent back training session was a part of this effort and Bumstead tackled it with furious intensity. The video of this session was posted on CBum’s personal YouTube channel. So let’s end the wait and take a look at the exercises he did to build a thick and wide back.
Chris Bumstead goes through a back workout
Bumstead usually prefers to start the training session with cable lat pulldowns or dumbbell exercises to warm up the back muscles before doing the heavy work. However, it was an unusually busy day in the gym and he had to stay away from the cable machine or dumbbell area to save on time. As a result, he started the training session with an unusual warm-up movement.
Hammer Strength Underhand Grip Pulldown
The 28-year-old headed to the machine area. He then went on to do the underhand grip pulldown on the plate loaded machine to warm up the lats before jumping into the heavy movements.
“Avoiding the cable dumbbell area for now. For the first time in my life I’m warming up on something other than cable pulldowns,” Cbum stated.
Bumstead performed multiple warm-up sets of this exercise unilaterally and tackled other heavy movements in the workout as he went along.
Incline Dumbbell Rows
Incline dumbbell rows are among the most effective ways to focus on the muscles and build a thick back. The exercise uses gravity to avoid other muscles from compensating for the back muscles during the lift. Since the chest is supported on the backrest of the bench toward gravity, the back muscles are forced to do all the work required for lifting the dumbbells. Hence, it helps with back development more effectively.
“I’m doing these with 85 (lbs dumbbells) right now given that I am weaker but it’s also lighter… And just squeezing full like deep range of motion like arching my back and pulling back further and pulling my elbows back as far as I can feel good. (The back’s) going to be thick this year…” CBum said.
CBum performed some solid sets of this exercise to get a good pump in the back muscles. He then jumped into the next one.
Machine Rows – 2 variations
Bumstead next performed rows on the Hammer Strength Iso-lateral rows machine. Both weight horns of the machine move independently. This enables removing strength imbalances, if any. CBum pushed through a few sets of the movement using slow and controlled motion. He then took to another variation of machine rows. He performed the exercise on a selectorized machine with a swivel handle and pushed through a few sets of the movement.
Superset – Neutral Grip Lat Pulldown and Bent Over Straight Arm Pulldowns
CBum wrapped up the training session with this superset. He performed the neutral grip lat pulldowns first and superset the movement with bent-over lat pulldowns. Bumstead used a band attachment for doing the bent-over straight-arm pulldowns. Lat pulldowns primarily focus on the latissimus dorsi muscles. On the other hand, straight-arm pulldowns target the latissimus dorsi and the teres minor muscles. Both these muscles are responsible for extending the arm, which happens to be the primary action of this movement.
Chris Bumstead performed all the sets of these exercises in rapid succession with minimal rest periods. Following this, CBum wrapped up the training session and headed back home with exhausted back muscles.
Overall, the workout included:
Chris Bumstead plans to defend the Classic Physique Olympia title a few more times and walk into the sunset. As a result, he is training hard to stay ahead of the curve and fight off hungry, young contenders like Ramon Rocha Queiroz and Urs Kalecinski. If he continues to get better, he can definitely retire as a reigning champion of the world when it is time to walk away.
You can watch the full workout video here, courtesy of Chris Bumstead’s personal YouTube channel: