Foam rollers aren’t just for flexibility. Some of the best bodybuilding coaches in the world use them to help their athletes build bigger, stronger chests.
- Reigning five-time Classic Physique Olympia champion Chris Bumstead uses “roller flyes” to make his chest workouts just a little bit better.
When you’re at the top of the bodybuilding world, every milligram of mass matters. Here’s why, and how, Bumstead utilizes a foam roller to enhance his chest workouts — and how you can do the same.
Chris Bumstead: Roller Flyes for Chest Gains
Defending his title for a sixth time requires Bumstead to tighten every screw and enlist every expert he can. Deep into his contest prep, Bumstead turned to renowned bodybuilding coach Joe Bennett for help during a chest workout.
Before Bumstead could start blasting through sets of cable flyes, Bennett strapped a foam roller to Bumstead‘s weight bench. On Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, Bennett outlined four reasons why:
- Range of Motion: “The roller allows most people’s shoulder blades to retract further at the bottom,” Bennett said. “More retraction leads to a bigger pec stretch.”
- Efficiency: According to Bennett, adding a foam roller to the bench for your cable flyes turns the exercise into a one-stop shop that trains the muscle’s full contractile range of motion.
- Output: “Using a bench allows you to lift heavier loads, since you don’t have to balance your center of mass,” Bennett remarked.
- Comfort: Bennett believes that roller flyes offer a more orthopedic comfortable experience than using a weight bench alone.
“It feels really good,” Bumstead said of the chest training technique. “It’s like a complete contraction.”
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Chris Bumstead: Getting Creative
Bumstead may be at the top of his game, but all of the world’s best bodybuilders know how to make their favorite exercises work in their favor. Performing roller flyes on chest day is just one example of a training technique that you can borrow from the pros.
Here are a few other ways to ante up your chest workouts:
- Deliberately arching your back and pinching your shoulder blades together provides a two-for-one benefit to hypertrophy. According to Bennett, back arching helps stretch the pecs and can also protect your shoulder joints from aggravation or injury.
- If you build your chest workout around the bench press, don’t fret too much about your grip. Studies show that bench press grip doesn’t significantly impact which muscles do the most work but can make a world of difference when it comes to comfort. (1)
- Bumstead himself has called the incline dumbbell bench press his most “essential” chest exercise. If you’re having trouble finding a comfortable level of incline on the bench, you can stick a small weight plate under the foot or heel to make a finer adjustment to the angle of the seat.
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Bumstead will attempt to defend his Classic Physique throne for a sixth consecutive time at the 2024 Olympia, which runs from Oct. 10-13 in Las Vegas.
With muscle-making experts like Bennett in his corner fine-tuning his chest workouts, Bumstead’s odds look pretty good.
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References
- Saeterbakken AH, Stien N, Pedersen H, Solstad TEJ, Cumming KT, Andersen V. The Effect of Grip Width on Muscle Strength and Electromyographic Activity in Bench Press among Novice- and Resistance-Trained Men. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jun 14;18(12):6444. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18126444. PMID: 34198674; PMCID: PMC8296276.
Featured Image: @cbum / Instagram
