Chris Bumstead Builds Girthy Legs With This Off-season Workout

Chris Bumstead is inching towards the fifth Classic Physique Olympia title slowly but surely. The reigning champ went through an off-season leg workout to add strength and size to his already impressive physique.

Bumstead is one of the most famous active bodybuilders and a global superstar. He is the posterboy for the Canadian bodybuilding community and has proven his worth by establishing dominance over the IFBB Pro League’s Classic Physique division. His resume includes a whopping four Classic Physique Olympia titles. After snatching it from the former champ Breon Ansley at the 2019 Olympia, Bumstead has defended the Classic Physique Olympia title at the 2020, 2021 and the 2022 Olympia.

Having reigned supreme over the division for a long time, the 28-year-old bodybuilder intends to defend the strap a few more times before calling it a career. Olympia is Bumstead’s primary focus and he is not keen on competing at other Pro shows. Having recovered from the bicep tear he suffered ahead of the 2022 Olympia, Bumstead has eased his way back into training. He recently unveiled a private gym in-the-making and shed light on the 2023 Olympia diet.

Bumstead is on the mission to win his fifth Classic Physique Olympia title in 2023. He went through a leg training session as a step in the direction of achieving the goal and posted the video on his YouTube channel. So let’s delve into the champ’s workout and see how he is building the tree-trunk legs this off-season.

Chris Bumstead goes through a full leg workout

CBum targeted all the major muscles – quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and calves as well as the adductor group of muscles with this training session for overall leg development. He admitted that bringing big adductors is one of the goals of his preparation this year. As a result he is putting emphasis on working the adductor muscles.

Leg Extensions

This quad isolation movement served as the beginner to the training session. Knees are without a doubt the most crucial joint for most of the lower body movements. Therefore, it is essential to maintain healthy knees to avoid subsequent derailment of your training journey. Sufficiently warming the knees up before heavy workout is one of the key elements of staying injury free.

Apart from building the quads, leg extensions are an excellent way to warm up the knee joints. However, this exercise can also be harsh on the knees if done with heavier weights without caution. CBum performed three sets of 12 reps of leg extensions to get the party started and took to the next exercise.

Hack Squats

This compound movement followed up the leg extensions in Bumstead’s leg workout. He performed hack squats on the Cybex hack squats machine. Hack squats target the same primary muscle group that the traditional barbell squats do. While quadriceps are the main target muscle of the movement, the posterior chain of muscles are heavily involved in the movement. But what separates hack squats from barbell squats is the fact that it is generally a lot safer for most people to perform as it puts far less stress on the lower back due to the angle of movement as well as the set-up. 

Hack squats are not a replacement to the barbell squat but a great addition to the leg training routine. The Classic Physique king annihilated three sets of the exercise maintaining a 12 to 15 rep range and took to the next exercise.

Leg Press

To stimulate the quads and other leg muscles further, the 28-year-old phenom performed the leg press next. One of the most effective ways to build muscle and strength in the lower body, leg press compliments primary leg exercises like barbell squats really well. This compound movement targets the quads as well as hamstrings, glutes, adductors and abductors. 

Leg press offers increased safety compared to free weight exercises and its variations can help emphasize different parts of the muscles. CBum cranked out three working sets of the exercises and wrapped up after doing a double drop set to failure.

Walking Lunges

This walking variation of the static lunges helps strengthen the leg muscles as well as core, hips and glutes. Additionally, this exercise can help increase the range of motion by increasing flexibility in the glutes and hamstrings. It also improves functional strength as the movement pattern resembles everyday movements like walking, sitting down, ducking down to pick an object etc.

Bumstead pushed through two sets of the exercise and shifted his focus to working the calves next.

Seated Calf Raises

While the standing calf raises work the gastrocnemius muscles in the calf region, the seated variation of the exercise works the soleus muscle which lies underneath it. CBum performed two sets of seated calf raises to failure and took to the final exercise of the day.

Hip Adduction Machine

Adductors are a group of muscles that lie on the inner side of the thigh that helps adduct (bring together) the legs. Bumstead did two sets of hip adduction on the machine to work these muscles and called it a day in the gym.

Overall, the workout included:

• Leg Extensions
• Hack Squats
• Leg Press
• Walking Lunges
• Seated Calf Raises
• Hip Adduction Machine

Chris Bumstead has fended off the competition successfully so far. While experts within the bodybuilding community predict that he can have a great run in the Men’s Open division, Bumstead does not see it as an effort that is worth making. It will be interesting to see how the remainder of his career unfolds.

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

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