Exercise Scientist Breaks Down and Critiques Chris Bumstead’s Upper Body Training

Exercise scientist Dr. Mike Israetel is back to evaluate another major name in fitness, this time, he took a closer look at the lifting technique of Chris Bumstead. In a recent YouTube video, Dr. Mike Israetel criticized Bumstead’s upper body training, including chest and back. 

Since 2019, it’s been impossible to ignore the dominance of reigning Classic Physique Olympia Chris Bumstead. Not only has he led a flawless record since taking the throne from Breon Ansley, but ‘Cbum’ leveraged that success to become one of the most popular fitness stars in the world. Boasting a mind-shattering 23.5 million followers on Instagram, fans take notice anytime they hear about the Canadian superpower. 

Bumstead overcame numerous obstacles that stood in his way en route to becoming a five-time Classic Physique Olympia champion. In addition to suffering from a lat tear during contest prep, Bumstead watched his close friend and brother-in-law Iain Valliere, abruptly retire from the sport. With his eyes fixated on another gold trophy, Bumstead has been quietly enjoying his off-season. 

In comes sports physiologist, Dr. Mike Israetel, who blends humor and scientific studies into his workout breakdowns. He recently sat down to criticize and assess the upper body lifting technique of Chris Bumstead, offering his alterations. 

Exercise Scientist Scrutinizes Chris Bumstead’s Upper Body Lifting Techniques, Gives Tips for Improvement

Back Training 

Dr. Mike Israetel starts by assessing Bumstead’s form during a few back movements. 

“Ah, bent rows, these aren’t the worst bent rows I’ve ever seen. He’s getting some really good stretch and contractions. I would adore if Mr. Chris Bumstead bent over considerably further and thus it would require him to use less load, he could get a deeper stretch and he would be able to maximize his back growth while minimizing his fatigue, which means over the long term he would be able to maximize his back growth even more and minimize the fatigue that would prevent him from growing other muscles as well.” 

Taking a closer look at Bumstead’s one-arm dumbbell rows, Israetel explains why the stretch portion of the movement helps with muscle growth. 

“One-arm dumbbell rows,” said Dr. Mike Israetel. “This is precisely the exercise that you can leverage for this thing. This is what it’s best at [stretching]. This is its best marginal comparative advantage to other exercises, why not do that?” 

Chest Training 

As for chest training, Israetel offered some tips to Bumstead, most notably for achieving a deep stretch and for more effective contractions. 

“The technique looks quite good here. I would like to see Chris open up a little bit more. Have a little bit less of an elbow angle because he’s doing kind of a combination of a push/fly, there’s nothing wrong with that but I’d like to see him try a pure fly where he keeps his elbows a little bent and also stretches super deep in that position.” 

To reap the most benefits possible from chest training, Israetel advised Bumstead to control the eccentric and the descent. 

“This is good, he’s getting a really deep stretch which is awesome. I would love to see him control the eccentric a little bit to control the descent a little bit more. Make it a little slower, I would love for him to pause one or two seconds at the bottom to get that really crazy deep stretch in the pecs, other than that, I think this is really great technique.” 

“Interesting, close-grip from Chris here which means he’s not going to be doing a whole lot of locking out which for the chest really isn’t important anyway so no big deal,” adds Israetel. “I would normally take a much wider grip to preferentially train the chest.” 

He adds that lifters tend to rush the eccentric because they are fixated on performing additional reps. 

“One reason why people like to rush the eccentric is the fact that they get really in their head about I want to do more reps, if I can make each repetition a little bit quicker and easier, I can do more reps. But we’re not there to do reps, we’re there to stimulate the muscle as much as possible.” 

Order of exercises 

For chest growth, Israetel maintains that the order of exercises isn’t as important as the stimulus-to-fatigue ratio.  

“With the chest, and stimulative exercise to the chest are really just all good. You can do your flyes first, your presses first, whatever feels better for you, there really is no wrong answers. As for the order of the exercises here [for Bumstead] I don’t see a grand logic anymore complex than let’s try a bunch of different machines and hit a bunch of different angles.”

There’s quite a bit of redundancy they use several different kinds of flies, and several different kinds of presses. They do some flat presses and some incline pressing, which I like, and some flying which I like but I would say, one fly movement, one incline press, and one flat press is kind of all you need for your chest training.” 

Lastly, Dr. Israetel gave his parting thoughts on ‘Cbum’s’ lifting technique, which left him overall impressed. 

“From what I could tell, very good technique, especially on those one-arm rows. I would like to see Chris do a little bit more of a full range of motion, especially on that eccentric by a small margin, he was doing very well.

I would love for him to control his descent more. I think he would just get more out of the movement with less fatigue.” 

“I would love for him to bend over further on his bent rows and potentially choose machines that are better at accentuating that deep stretch,” adds Exercise Scientist Dr. Mike Israetel. 

From examining the fat loss potential of diet soda to revealing his hypertrophy hierarchy, there isn’t a topic in fitness that Mike Israetel shies away from. Using science-backed data and tools to justify his opinion, Israetel’s knowledge of exercise mechanics is among the best in the world. 

As for Chris Bumstead, fans look forward to seeing him compete once again in the Classic Physique division. All roads lead to the 2024 Mr. Olympia competition, occurring October 10-13 in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Watch the full video from the Renaissance Periodization YouTube channel below: 

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