Chris Bumstead goes into detail about his Olympia 2020 training and diet prep.
During our conversation with Chris Bumstead, he stated that this was his best contest prep ever before the 2020 Mr. Olympia. Our interview was conducted about 13 weeks away from the big event – so his confidence this close to the competition is telling indeed. With that in mind, we wanted to get more detail on exactly how he has been prepping for the Olympia 2020 both in his training and his diet. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Chris Bumstead shares his Olympia 2020 workout routine and diet prep.
As stated above, Chris Bumstead believes he had his best off season prep of his career. He’s gotten into a training and diet groove that is really 100% focused on bodybuilding. He even said that as he’s gotten closer to pre-contest prep, he basically only has enough energy to eat, train, and sleep.
With his training and diet firing on all cylinders, now is the best time to glean some insight through his training and diet plan regimen. Chris Bumstead shares the full details in the video above – but we have also have a breakdown below.
Chris Bumstead’s Olympia 2020 Workout and Diet
- During the offseason: train one body part per day.
- During Pre-Competition prep: train arms twice a week. Workouts are high intensity/high volume.
- 5-6 exercises per body part.
- Max three working sets – only if they are normal sets to failure. Compound and isolation sets require less sets.
- If a workout includes compound movements, only do two working sets max.
- During pre-competition prep, include one isolation movement. This will be only one working set (high volume with a double drop set).
- During the isolation exercise, focus on forced reps and controlling the negative.
- Diet: meals are usually chicken and rice and fish and rice. Very basic foods.
- Supplementation: start day with a Multi-vitamin for muscle maintenance and immune health. A pre-workout will give you a marked increase in power and focus. During cutting phase it is crucial to stimulate fat burning metabolism with an elite fat burner that will help optimize your body’s muscle to fat ratio. Lastly, meal replacements on the go will be valuable to your routine. Repairing body tissue with the cleanest protein will provide maximum muscle growth support.
Schedule
- 8am wake up (gets minimum 8 hours).
- FAT BURNER
- Morning cardio: treadmill brisk walk for 25 minutes. If leg day: stairmaster for 25 minutes.
- Breakfast, MULTI
- Work
- 2nd meal (PROTEIN)
- Late afternoon: 3rd meal, PRE-WORKOUT, and workout.
- Come home from gym and have 4th meal.
- Second round of cardio in the evening (25 minutes).
- Sleep (usually latest midnight).
Chris Bumstead’s Advice For Aspiring Bodybuilders
After detailing his workout and diet plan, we asked Chris Bumstead what sort of general advice he would give to bodybuilders looking to do Classic Physique. While he didn’t have specific advice for the division, he did have important advice for aspiring bodybuilders overall.
Bumstead believes it is paramount to make sure that a person is enjoying the process of bodybuilding. Yes, training and strict dieting can be challenging – but it should be a fun challenge. If the entire process of bodybuilding makes a person stressed, it will reflect in the body.
Bodybuilding is so intensely focused on the look of a physique, not necessarily the athleticism. Because of this, if the body reacts negatively to stress it can ruin a person’s entire contest prep. You could look flat or fade too quickly once on stage. The mind/muscle connection is real – and it’s affected by your mood just as much as your focus.
You can watch Chris Bumstead’s full comments in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above and see him star in Generation Iron 3!
