Five-time reigning Classic Physique Olympia champion Chris Bumstead and former Bikini Olympia champion Courtney King recently shared the news of their new baby girl, Bradley Shay Bumstead, born on April 22, 2024.
Bumstead has since resumed training with a new workout program consisting of high-volume supersets to maximize muscle pumps and increase strength.
Bumstead’s Back and Arm Workout Routine
Below are the exercises performed in order by Bumstead during his back and arm workout.
- Giant Set — Pull-ups
- Superset — Standing Cable Triceps Pushdown & Overhead Triceps Extension
- Superset — Dumbbell Hammer Variations and Cable Curl Circuit
- Superset — Lying Cable Face Pull & Poliquin Lateral Raise Finisher
Watch as “Father Bum” unlocks his newfound dad strength to overcome a giant set of pull-ups and a brutal biceps curl circuit in the video below:
[Related: Is Training to Failure Better For Hypertrophy?]
Pull-Up Giant Set
Dreading his first exercise, Bumstead aimed to improve his admittedly poor pull-up performance.
If I don’t do pull-ups, I lose all my strength in pull-ups.
The sleep-deprived bodybuilder scored a respectable six reps for his first set but found he quickly burned out during subsequent sets.
While Bumstead could train on machines or with free weights, bodyweight pull-ups offer functional and potentially superior lat-activating benefits (1).
Bumstead utilized a wide, shoulder-width, semi-supinated, neutral grip during his giant set. He took 10 seconds of rest between variations. Bumstead’s new program calls for three sets of this exercise.
Standing Cable Triceps Pushdown/Overhead Extension
Bumstead trains his triceps via tight contractions and slow eccentrics with deep stretch at the bottom of the position. Pushdowns angle the body for better mind-muscle connection; overhead extensions fully stretch the triceps under a load. Bumstead stabilized his legs and core, hinging at the hips to transfer strength forward.
Grip variations were narrow and shoulder-width to emphasize inner and outer head stimulation. The movements were performed back to back for three sets, each with one minute-and-a-half breaks in between each.
Dumbbell Hammer Variations and Cable Curl Circuit
Hammer curls are a staple in Bumstead’s arm training. He finds his biceps insertions to be less than ideal. While short biceps are generally an aesthetic disadvantage, everyone has genetic “flaws.” The Classic Physique GOAT (greatest of all time) has few. Bumstead hopes hammer curls help build his brachialis to fill the gap near his lower biceps.
Bumstead first angled himself on a 45-degree weight bench. He performed two-arm dumbbell curls with 40-pound weights per hand, alternating between full and partial reps. The sets combined low reps with high intensity.
Bumstead chose cable curls using a curved bar and semi-supinated grip. He leveraged crossbody hammer curls to further promote brachialis hypertrophy.
I’ve never really done so many supersets for arms. I feel mind-muscle connection and pump in my arms so much more than I ever have”.
[Related: 2024 World’s Strongest Man Results & Leaderboard]
Lying Cable Face Pull/Poliquin Lateral Raise
Finishing with precision, Bumstead attached double straps to a high pulley and performed face pulls lying on a flat bench. This targets the traps and upper back while enhancing lifting posture.
For his last superset, Bumstead injury-proofed his delts using a tri-technique named after famous strength coach Charles Poliquin. The Poliquin lateral raise starts with a hammer curl into a bent-arm lateral raise, extending the arms before lowering the weights. That’s one rep, then repeat.
Although the exact number of sets and reps were not specified, the video captured each exercise performed twice. The last few minutes of the video included a day in the life content and a visit to the Raw Nutrition headquarters. Forgetting to outro his arm workout the day prior, Bumstead snuck it in after his leg session.
Olympia Defense as a Dad
Bumstead’s 2024 off-season is more challenging now with a newborn at home. However, he still has time before stepping on stage again because the qualifying cutoff for competitors into the 2024 Olympia is on Sept. 15, 2024.
Featured image: @cbum on Instagram
