Chris Bumstead & Dino, the top two Classic Physique Bodybuilders tackle a back workout
Five time Classic Physique Olympia Champion Chris Bumstead and the Classic Physique Olympia runner up and defending Arnold Classic Classic Physique champion Ramon “Dino” Rocha Queiroz is one of the most prominent rivalries on the modern bodybuilding stage. These two massive men have ranked as the top two Classic Physique athletes in the entire world for the last two years, with Chris Bumstead dominating the stage and taking home the Mr. Olympia title and Ramon Dino right on his heels.
Despite having an intense bodybuilding rivalry, Chris and Ramon have a very solid respect for each other, and on Jan. 16, 2024, Ramon published a video on his YouTube channel that showed him and Chris dominating an intense back workout in Brazil. Chris is known for his awesome growth in his back over the years, turning it from a weak point to a very solid strong point, and he even tore his lat before the 2023 Olympia. Despite that tear, Bumstead overcame the injury to win his fifth Olympia title in a row.
However, Chris still needed to recover and repair that muscle and rebuild it. So, he and Ramon tackled an intense back workout.
Chris Bumstead and Ramon Dino’s Back Workout
Here is a quick look into the two bodybuilders’ back workout from last week:
- Iso-Lateral Front Lat Pulldown
- Lat Pulldown
- Iso-Lateral Row
- Machine Bent-Over Row
- Iso-Lateral Low Row
- Straight-Arm Lat Pullover
Iso-Lateral Front Lat Pulldown & Lat Pulldown
The first exercise that Queiroz and Bumstead opened with was unilateral pulldowns. This exercise is great to bias the lats. Chris kept his arms tight to his torso, leading with his elbows to minimize the engagement in the biceps. They also used slow eccentrics and great mind-muscle connections to really increase the time under tension. Increasing the time under tension helps to get the blood pumping, and really works to break down the muscles.
The second exercise that Ramon and Chris performed were lat pulldowns with a wide grip. The two of them kept their torsos upright on concentrics and paused in the lats fully shortened positions. Paused reps are another great way to get blood flowing into the muscles.
Iso-Lateral Row & Machine Bent-Over Row
Moving on from the lateral movements, Chris and Ramon moved onto some movements for building up some solid back thickness, which were iso-lateral rows and machine bent over rows. When doing the iso-lateral rows, Ramon kept his chest against the machine’s pad for added stability. With the added stability, this allowed him to load more weight on the target muscle and get more out of each rep. He uses a full range of motion, but stops just short of the elbow being fully extended to avoid letting tension off of the muscles.
The duo then moved over to a custom bent-over row machine, which was a hybrid Smith machine with rails set at 45 degrees and a hip pad for support, quite the contraption. They grabbed the machine’s barbell and utilized an underhand grip, to hit more of the upper back, and flared their elbows on concentrics. This flare really helps to bias the upper back, which consists of the rhomboids, traps, rear delts, and teres major and minor.
Iso-Lateral Low Row and Straight-Arm Lat Pullovers
The last two exercises of this back workout consisted of the iso-lateral row and the straight arm pulldowns. The line of pull of the iso-lateral low-row machine helps with peak muscle contraction. Both Classic Physique bodybuilders trained to mechanical failure on the final set. This is when they cannot do another rep without compromising the form they are using. On top of that, they performed forced reps to muscle failure.
Ramond and Chris then finished up their back workout with straight-arm lat pullovers. Using a rope attachment with a neutral shoulder-wide grip, they maintained a little bit of elbow flexion to make sure they weren’t engaging their triceps, and really putting all of the emphasis on the lats.
Chris Bumstead and Ramon Dino Back Workout Wrap Up
Overall, these two names are some of the most popular names in the fitness industry right now. With both of them competing for the top spot in the Classic Physique Division, they still have a great respect for each other on and off the stage. Many speculate that Ramon will soon dethrone Chris and take the title in the Mr. Olympia Classic Physique division, but what do you think?
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