Chris Bumstead Crushes Off-Season Arms Workout, Flaunts Fully Healed Bicep

Chris Bumstead is a Canadian professional bodybuilder competing in the Classic Physique division of the IFBB Pro League. He is the reigning Classic Physique Olympia champion that defended his top spot at the 2022 Olympia competition that took place from Dec. 15 to 18 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. This was Bumstead’s third successful defense of the title since snatching it from former champion Breon Ansley at the 2019 Olympia. CBum has successfully defended the top spot at the 2020 and 2021 Olympia as well.

The 28-year-old champion faced a tough challenge from young up-and-coming contenders like Roman Rocha Querioz and Urs Kalecinski en route to the 2022 Olympia win after a challenging prep season. Apart from suffering a few injuries during the prep, Bumstead had to end his coach-client relationship with Iain Valliere for the latter to be able to concentrate on his own bodybuilding career. Bumstead pulled off the win after appointing Hany Rambod as his head coach. However, he later revealed to have entered the 2022 Olympia with a torn bicep.

The reigning champ recently returned to the gym after taking a few weeks off. He had been taking peptides PPC 157 and TB 500 to heal the injury and also took a few stem cell injections. CBum had previously announced that he will retire from the competitive sport after one or two more Classic Physique Olympia wins. He recently reiterated that he is not targeting a ninth or tenth win at the Olympia. Additionally, he shut down the possibility of competing at the 2023 Arnold Classic and stated that winning Olympia titles is his priority. Bumstead is readying himself to officially start the off-season training and he is currently following a 3500-calorie diet.

Recently, CBum went through an arms workout and shared an update about the bicep injury. The video of this workout was uploaded on Bumstead’s personal YouTube channel. So without further delay, let’s take a closer look at the detailed account of this training session.

Chris Bumstead goes through an arms workout, gives an update about arm injury

At the beginning of the video, Bumstead revealed that this was his first official arm day in a long time due to the bicep tear he suffered heading into the 2022 Olympia competition. He admitted that the arms feel ‘sore’ after the chest or shoulder workout as they have not been trained in a long time. Therefore, CBum is easing his way into the usual training routine rather than rushing things at the moment.

“I’m trying to do movements that I haven’t done in a while because I’m doing it light…” Bumstead added.

With that, CBum jumped right into the workout.

Close Grip Barbell Bench Press

Bumstead started his arm day with the close-grip barbell bench press. Although this compound movement primarily targets the chest, the close grip helps activate the triceps more and makes the exercise more arms-focused. CBum performed a couple of sets of this exercise with two plates and moved on to the next exercise.

Cable Curls

After working the triceps with the first exercise, CBum shifted his focus to the biceps and did the cable curls with moderate weights using a straight bar attachment. The cable machines keep the muscles under tension throughout the range of motion and help bring about hypertrophy more effectively. Bumstead used moderate weights for this exercise and cranked out a few sets.

“They’re going to be really not exhilarating workouts for the time being. But I’m just going to go to, like, 70 to 80 percent failure on my biceps and kind of go not really heavy, not really hard. I should make sure I’m not re-hurting it. I should make sure I think, progressively, I should do more and more weight,” Chris Bumstead said.

Bumstead does not have any pain in the torn bicep as of now. However, if he starts experiencing any pain, CBum will have to get himself checked and slow down a little bit in the gym. Bumstead is focusing his energies on building a strong mind-muscle connection during this phase and he is approaching the training with extreme caution.

Machine Overhead Triceps Extensions

CBum went back to working the triceps next and performed the overhead triceps extensions on a selectorized machine.  He pushed through a few solid sets of this movement with slow and controlled motion before taking up the next task at hand.

Machine Preacher Curls

Chris Bumstead went back to working the biceps with the machine preacher curls. This is arguably the most effective biceps exercise as the triceps are pressed against the pad during the movement. Therefore biceps are stimulated to a far greater extent. The Canadian bodybuilder performed some solid sets of this exercise.

“My arm actually feels really good. Felt tight on the (cable) curls over there but I feel nothing on the (preacher curls). So it didn’t hurt. So feeling positive,” CBum admitted.

Dumbbell Hammer Curls

The reigning Classic Physique Olympia champion did this exercise as the finisher to the arm workout. Hammer curls work the Brachialis and the Brachioradialis muscles in the arms in addition to the biceps brachi. Bumstead got a few sets of this exercise under his belt and wrapped up the arms training session.

Overall, the workout included:

• Close Grip Barbell Bench Press
• Cable Curls
• Machine Overhead Triceps Extensions
• Machine Preacher Curls
• Dumbbell Hammer Curls

Upon completing his workout, Chris Bumstead proudly flexed his right bicep, displaying signs of recovery from the previous tear.

“It was right there. No tear. I don’t even have swelling right now. So I’m gonna be back to it,” Chris Bumstead said, pointing to the location of the tear on his biceps.

Chris Bumstead is now gearing up to start the off-season training and diet to improve his physique further and start a march towards his fifth consecutive Classic Physique Olympia title. If Bumstead prioritizes both his health and training, he has the potential to retain the Classic Physique Olympia title, outpacing top contenders for another year.

You can watch the full workout video here, courtesy of Chris Bumstead’s personal YouTube channel:

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