Sorry for being absent. I've had a busy spring/early summer.
For starters, I finished my Master's degree last week. If you didn't know, I decided to go back after ten years out of school. The truth is, I always planned on getting at least a Masters degree. The only reason I didn't was because of the success of Hunt Fitness. During my Junior and Senior years of college, the business blew up. Upon
graduating, I wanted to see what I could do with it, so I dedicated my full-time effort toward it. And, as they say, the rest is history.
But as I sit here on July 1st, 2024, I'm excited for the year's second half. I want to accomplish a lot —more podcasts, articles, and, most importantly, newsletters. I might even return to YouTube...IYKYK.
So, let's start the second half of the year strong. I have a new article for you to check out. This one is on 5x Mr.
Olympia Chris Bumstead's 2024 offseason training and nutrition plan. I dug into his current protocol and uncovered what he is doing to win his 6th Olympia title. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!
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For years, a large part of the fitness community has disliked the state of pro-bodybuilding. At the highest levels, the sport has rewarded bigger and bigger physiques. While there is a market for these mass monsters, a 300-pound behemoth with a distended gut is far
from inspiring for most gymgoers.
In fact, if you ask the average guy at the gym what the ideal bodybuilding physique is, you will likely hear names from forty or fifty years ago—legends such as Frank Zane, Robbie Robinson, Mike Mentzer, or Arnold.
The aesthetic physiques of the golden era stand as a testament to the true essence of the sport—what a bodybuilder should look like. This era's profound influence has not only endured but has also given birth to
an entire class dedicated to its revival. The modern Classic Physique division is a nostalgic nod to the past and a promising glimpse into the future.
And for the past five years, Chris Bumstead has dominated the Classic Physique division. He is the reigning Olympia champion, having claimed the title every year since 2019. With a staggering 23.9 million followers on Instagram and close to 4 million subscribers on YouTube, it is indisputable that Chris is the current face of pro
bodybuilding.
Chris epitomizes the Golden Era. He's got an ideal blend of size and shape, and for the first time in decades, the lifting community has a champion bodybuilder they want to look like. So, how does the most aesthetic guy on the planet train and eat? Let's dig in and find out.
Chris Bumstead's 2024 Off-Season Workout
Chris has always been a fan of unconventional training splits. He likes to spread his
training across eight or nine days instead of the traditional seven-day week. For 2024, he is on a nine-day split. However, as a new dad, some flexibility exists to move rest days around if needed.
Here is his 2024 off-season training split:
Day #1: Chest, Triceps, and Rear Delts
Day #2: Back and Biceps
Day #3: Quads and Calves
Day #4: Rest
Day #5: Shoulders
Day #6: Arms
Day
#7: Chest and Back
Day #8: Hamstrings, Glutes, and Calves
Day #9: Rest
Chris has been fortunate to work with the renowned bodybuilding contest prep coach Hany Rambod for the past few years. However, this offseason, he's teamed up with Justin King, an Arizona-based strength and conditioning coach known for his work with NFL players. This new collaboration is about getting his body to feel better and injecting some fresh ideas into his
training.
Admittedly, Chris doesn't follow a strict program, meaning exercises change from workout to workout. That said, the overall structure of his training is consistent.
Day 1: Chest, Triceps, and Rear Delts
The day begins with the sun glistening off the steel as Chris opens the garage door to his new personal gym. It's a large warehouse space he has filled with an assortment of his favorite pieces of
equipment. It's a bodybuilder's playground.
Chris always begins his chest workouts with an incline dumbbell press. Over the years, he has found that focusing on incline angles works best for him. This year, he is emphasizing slow eccentrics—3 to 4 seconds down, a one-second pause at the bottom, and pressing up fast.
After four sets of incline dumbbells, he moves over to a flat machine chest press. This is where things start to get interesting—ten sets of ten
reps. Yes, you read that right. German Volume Training (GVT) is a method popularized by the late strength coach Charles Poliquin. It involves doing ten sets of ten reps with little rest in between. It's brutal.
After pushing through the GVT, Chris jumps into a triceps gauntlet. He does two rounds of a three-exercise tri-set, only resting enough time to move from exercise to exercise.
The session ends with a superset of a single-arm triceps exercise with a
rope facepull. On the facepull, focus on holding the peak contraction for a few seconds while squeezing the rear delts.
The Workout:
1: Incline Dumbbell Press: 4 sets x 6-8 reps
2: Machine Chest Press: 10 sets x 10 reps
Tri-set
3: Barbell JM Press: 2 sets x 8-10 reps
4: Machine Dips: 2 sets x 10-12 reps
5: Standing Overhead Cable Tri Extension: 2 sets x 12-15 reps
Superset
6: Standing Single Arm Forward Cable Extension: 3
sets x 12-15 reps
7: Cable Facepull: 3 sets x 12-15 reps
Day 2: Back and Biceps
The second workout is for the back and biceps. One change Chris has made to his back training (really, all muscle groups) this year is to emphasize extended ranges of motion. His goal is to get a good stretch at the bottom and full contraction at the top.
First up are underhand grip barbell rows. A favorite of Dorian Yates, the supinated
barbell row hits the lats a little differently than the traditional overhand grip variety. After four sets of those, it's back to German Volume Training. He does ten sets with a chest-supported dumbbell row, an underrated exercise that makes cheating incredibly hard.
After the two back exercises, it's on to the biceps. Chris starts the biceps portion of the workout with a tri-set consisting of EZ bar preacher curls, standing reverse-grip EZ bar curls, and low pulley cable
curls.
The last two exercises are a back and biceps superset: machine pullovers and Fat Gripz preacher curls. The superset works because the machine pullover is one of the few back exercises that doesn't involve the biceps.
Read the rest of the article below: