Chris Bumstead Gives A Tour of His Private Gym

Chris Bumstead recently gave bodybuilding enthusiasts a full tour of his private gym.

The Canadian bodybuilder is the reigning Classic Physique Olympia champion and has won the coveted trophy five consecutive times from 2019 to 2023. The unparalleled work ethic and focus have helped CBum reach to the absolute top and the private gym, over the last 1-plus year, has helped him train with increased efficiency.

Bumstead is one of the biggest bodybuilding stars in the world today. As a result, it is difficult for him to train at public or commercial gyms without being identified. While he enjoys interacting with fans, it does act as a distraction during workouts and shifts the focus away from important things.

This led to him building a private gym, the Bum Lifting Club, as he calls it. The 29-year-old admittedly spent a fortune in putting it together but benefited a lot from training privately in terms of focus and quality of his workouts. Bumstead said about his private gym:

“This is probably one of the best investments I have ever made. It’s not always about putting your money in stocks and bonds to make more money. It’s about putting money into crazy things that make you better.”

In a recent video posted on his YouTube channel, Bumstead walked the fans through his gym and shed light on how different equipment helped shape his incredible physique.

Chris Bumstead acquaints bodybuilding enthusiasts with his private gym

Lower body isolation machines

Bumstead has purposely kept the leg exercise machines closer to the gym entrance to ensure the place is ventilated. The gym houses two different leg extension machines to fire up the quads and Bumstead explained:

“One of them is the old-school Icarian quad extension. It’s a lot lighter but feels better – more contraction on my quads. That’s something I use at the end of the workout for supersets, drop sets, and stuff like that.”

He added:

“When I have to go really heavy, this Prime plate-loaded machine is the absolute best because you can stack 500 pounds on that.”

Similarly, CBum uses the seated and lying leg curls machine to train the hamstrings. Being a fan of Prime plate-loaded machines, the Canadian bodybuilder uses one for lying leg curls. He shed light on its features:

“You can change the tension curve whether you need it at the bottom or the top. It has been one of my favorite ones.

For seated leg curls, Bumstead uses a Precor curls machine. Although it does not offer any changes in tension curves, he uses it because of how the exercise feels to the hamstrings.

Sitting alongside the curls machines in CBum’s gym is the Cybex Abductor and adductor training machine, which is no longer produced.

“I also have this sled, which I have used, like, three times. But knees over toes guy – so it’s good for your knees. So if my knees ever get f*d up, I have it on deck.”

Chris Bumstead has a regular seated calf raises machine in the gym which he loves to use. In addition to this, he possesses a Gymleco Tibia raises machine, which he has been using for overall calf development.

Dumbbells

Bumstead has a strategically placed dumbbell stand right next to the gym door. The Canadian bodybuilder has kept dumbbells with 5-pound increments up to the 50-pound dumbbell. After this, his dumbbells increase by 10 pounds, starting with 60 pounds.

“For the time being, I just wanted to use heavier weights and didn’t need to cluster more dumbbells that I didn’t need. So went up by 10 pounds instead of five.”

Cable Machines

One of the best components of Bumstead’s gym collection is the Nautilus Humansport Freedom trainer which can be used for multiple arm movements along different planes and angles. More specifically, the machine can be used for nine horizontal and 12 vertical movements.

But with all the benefits of this masterpiece, the Classic Physique king still needs the eight stack, which proudly sits near the Nautilus machine. Unfortunately, Bumstead crashed his car into it when it was new but, thankfully, it still works.

Squat rack

Bumstead squat rack and dips machine set doubles down as the bench press set-up when required. The goal of Bumstead’s gym design was to make it a functional space. Since he is not big on performing bench presses and only does the exercise once in a blue moon, the squat rack does the trick. Bumstead explained:

“I don’t have a bench press in here at all – like a regular incline or flat bench press. So if I were to ever do flat, close grip or whatever, I’ll just put a bench in here [Below the squat rack].”

Arms Machines

Chris Bumstead has not hoarded the arms machines but the ones that he has, aid the Gym’s functionality. The Atlantis triceps dip press machine is the only one that sits in the gym at the moment. However, he explained:

“This machine is really good, it feels really great but it’s a little bit too light. So I have a gym pin that I put in there to make it a little bit heavier and it feels great.”

Bumstead is eager to get the Atlantis Overhead triceps extensions machine that he ordered a while ago.

Apart from free weights and a preacher curl set-up, Chris Bumstead uses the Gymleco curls machine to train the biceps. While speaking about the tricks to use this machine for maximum benefit, CBum said:

“If you have long arms, you lose a lot of the tension at the top. So I have to sit up at the top. If I do two hands sitting up higher, it absolutely feels amazing.”

Rowing Machines

Outside of the Hammer Strength plate-loaded machine, Chris Bumstead finds the plate-loaded T-bar rows machine as a value addition to his collection.

“I think it’s one of the most crucial backpieces. Bent-over rows are great but sometimes your lower back is just taxed and if you’re trying to isolate your back instead of hips, hip hinge, getting it all out of there, this machine is incredible for it.”

Bumstead then proudly showcased the Star Trac horizontal rowing machine that was recommended to him by none other than the great Dorian Yates.

“I’d never tried this before but Dorian had sent it to me and like, ‘Yo. Check it out. Just try this one and see if you like it’, and I loved it.”

Another Dorian Yates-inspired piece in the ‘Bum Lifting Club’ is the Nautilus super pullover machine. Irrespective of whether he planned to use it frequently, Bumstead wanted this piece of equipment in the gym when he was designing it just because Yates used it.

However, he now uses it quite often and shared his thoughts on it:

“It’s really cool, these old chain-driven machines I’m a huge fan of. They just look old school and rough and tough and they feel great. They don’t make [the kind of] machines they used to.”

Bumstead acquainted bodybuilding enthusiasts with his collection of high and low-row machines. The Panatta high-row machine, which offers pronated and supinated grips, is one of the machines that Bumstead loves to use in his workouts.

“It’s a high row and it pulls you right into the perfect spot and gets heavy real quick. So I’m a huge fan of this one.”

Cardio Section

Bumstead, who did not wish to clutter the gym with unwanted equipment, has a modest cardio set-up. It includes a recumbent bike, treadmill, and a stairmaster.

The cardio section seemed ordinary until CBum drew attention to an interesting piece, an inversion table. Bumstead explained:

“I got the inversion table so that I can get tall enough for Classic Physique Olympia, put an extra inch on my height. Don’t actually know if it does anything. I don’t use it very often, I used it like three or four weeks out of Olympia to try and be taller. I figured it was worth the risk.”

Chest Machines

Bumstead’s chest machines section includes three pieces – an incline press machine, a decline press machine, and flyes machine. CBum has to be careful with choosing the incline pressing machine as he explained:

“Most incline machines hurt my shoulder because I tore my labrum four or five times.”

The Panatta plate-loaded machine offering neutral and pronated grip, as per preference, is one of the machines that suit well with the Classic Physique Olympia champion’s shoulder condition.

Another one, an incline machine prototype built by Pure Muscle has caught Bumstead’s imagination. It comes with a built-in mechanism to convert it into a unilateral or bilateral machine with a push of a lever. This is a blessing in disguise for Bumstead, who admittedly has strength imbalances and prefers lifting unilaterally to make sure that both arms lift the same amount of weight.

“This Feels really good, it’s slightly converging. Most machines come out and push [straight away from the body] whereas the actual movement of the pecs is to bring the elbow across the body so this one forces you to do that.”

Next, the Star Trac chest flyes machine could find its way into Bumstead’s gym only after he started training under Hany Rambod’s guidance. CBum started using it when Rambod highlighted that his arms are long. The coach advised to consider eliminating forearm strength from flyes to direct the focus on the chest.

The Star Trac machine enables just that as the Canadian bodybuilder explained:

“Essentially it’s taking your whole forearm out of your body and you don’t have to think about gripping.”

To work the muscles from different angles, Bumstead uses two variations of this chest flyes machine – with a 10-degree incline and a 45-degree incline. It fulfills the requirement of isolation movement in the 29-year-old’s training routine as he no longer uses the Pec Deck machine, except for occasional rear delt work.

Shoulder Machines

Chris Bumstead admitted that his shoulder training has been lagging in recent times. However, the gym houses a wide array of shoulder training equipment. The first one in order was the Prime plate-loaded overhead press machine.

“I like the Prime plate-loaded machines a lot. This one’s really good. It’s a little bit of a wider grip that pushes it up instead of forward and close. So you’re not strong in this position but it isolates your delts a little bit more.”

Another overhead press machine, an Arsenal Strength plate-loaded machine, has a completely different movement pattern which is more compact and angled in. It sits right next to the Prime piece and Bumstead feels that it is more safer for the shoulders.

“[Arsenal machine] engages a little bit more triceps and I can get a bit stronger like that. But [Prime and Arsenal] are two completely different presses. I try not to have copycat equipment having the same things in here.”

Lower-body compound exercise machines

The Cybex Smith machine is the center of Chris Bumstead’s leg equipment. Bumstead explained that the machine offers a smooth movement pattern along the vertical axis, unlike some other pieces that move at awkward angles. However, its only drawback, as Bumstead highlighted, is that the bar does not go all the way down. Therefore, he has to stand at an elevated level while performing exercises like Romanian deadlifts.

A Panatta machine offering both standing calf raises and the Viking press is a unique machine in Bumstead’s private gym. He feels that the machine embodies the spirit of ‘the era of efficiency’.

Belt squats are integral to Chris Bumstead’s lower body training routine and the machine he owns for this exercise is the best one he has worked with in his entire training journey.

“Last year, I have been doing a lot of belt squat, going really wide and getting deep. It feels so good on your lower back, it gets the outer sweep, you get nice and deep like a sumo squat and it feels incredible.”

The machine also helped Bumstead get rid of some health issues and discomfort stemming from barbell squats. He explained:

“I also have also spoken a lot that I used to get migraines, headaches and all this stuff from squatting a lot. Because I just have a really bad trap and neck pain. From holding the bar [during barbell squats], it f*d my neck up. It is a really good movement that I put in that’s very similar to a squat but no pressure on your spine.”

To build the glutes and lower hamstrings strength, Bumstead has been using the glutes hamstrings raises machine occasionally, occupying a space in his private gym.

The Cybex leg press and Cybex squat press machines are CBum’s go-to equipment for lower-body pressing exercises. Bumstead attributes a lot of his 2023 Olympia success to these two machines.

Bumstead insists that getting huge legs is a direct result of getting a full range of motion. The Atlantis Pendulum squats machine enables this and Bumstead has been using it a lot in recent months.

According to CBum, dumbbells, leg presses, and hack or pendulum squats constitute everything you need to build a solid lower body. The final piece of the puzzle, the Cybex hack squat machine is also one of Bumstead’s favorite machines in his gym.

Chris Bumstead is the most dominant champion in the Classic Physique division’s history. Elite contenders like Wesley Vissers and Ramon Rocha Queiroz have been working hard to dethrone him. Working without distractions in his private gym will only help CBum stay ahead of the curve.

Catch Chris Bumstead’s gym tour below, courtesy of his personal YouTube channel:

 

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