Amidst his 2022 Olympia prep, building toward a potential fourth consecutive Classic Physique Olympia title, Chris Bumstead hired Hany Rambod as his coach. Rambod’s coaching resume is one of the most decorated in bodybuilding‘s history.
One of the perks of joining Rambod’s roster of athletes is training with the other Olympians currently enrolled. That includes two-time Mr. Olympia bronze medalist Hadi Choopan. On Nov. 21, 2022, Bumstead shared a video on his YouTube channel, wherein he trained legs with Choopan, who will attempt to dethrone two-time reigning Mr. Olympia Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay, on Dec. 16-18, 2022, in Las Vegas, NV.
Check out Bumstead and Choopan’s workout with Rambod below, followed by a breakdown of each exercise:
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Bumstead and Choopan warmed up with leg extensions with a short pause at the top of each rep. Choopan appeared surprised when Rambod had Choopan perform a drop set before moving on to Smith machine back squats. Choopan performed front squats instead and surprised the cameraman, who admitted to never having seen an Open competitor with such depth on their squat.
Choopan reached maximum knee flexion with each rep, biasing his quads with a shoulder-width stance. Choopan and Bumstead traded the same lifting belt back and forth between sets. Once the weight was heavy enough, Choopan loaded the barbell on his back rather than his front delts.
The squats weren’t over. The two Olympians moved from the Smith machine to Hack squats, continuing their compound movements to build mass on their legs. Choopan’s vascularity in his legs was already on display approximately a month before the 2022 Olympia. They closed with a drop set as Rambod had to remind Choopan to slow his reps down.
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With what appeared to be every weight plate available in the gym loaded on its sleeves, the bodybuilders repped out leg presses on a machine with a back pad at a steep angle. The difficulty of a leg press changes depending on the angle the back pad is positioned at — the more upright the pad, the more hip flexion, and therefore difficulty, there is.
The training session’s penultimate movement was walking lunges — Choopan with a loaded barbell and Bumstead with a dumbbell in each hand. Each rep achieved full knee flexion, which further biased the quads. Both men maintained upright positions, preventing the movement from biasing the glutes. For reference, leaning forward would be a more glute-biased squat because it would maximize hip flexion.
Machine hamstring curls were the first isometric movement of the session aside from the warmup. They were superset with machine calf raises followed by adductors that took nearly the entire weight rack for a ride. Though both men wore relatively baggy clothing, it was still apparent that their physiques were dialed in. Their vascularity was sharp, and their physiques imposed dominant silhouettes.
We’ll see how much further Bumstead and Choopan can dial in their physiques through the tutelage of Rambod leading up to the Olympia just three weeks out from this article’s publication.
Featured image: @hadi_choopan on Instagram