Chris Bumstead Push Pull Legs | The Ultimate Guide!

Are you curious about the Chris Bumstead push pull legs program?

Chris Bumstead is one of the most popular bodybuilders in the world today. He is a 3x Classic Mr. Olympia winner, and is currently training to defend his title for a 4th consecutive year!

So what does his push / pull / legs workout look like?

Chris Bumstead trains 6 days per week using a push / pull / legs split. He trains each muscle group twice per week using high-volume workouts, including up to 3-4 exercises per body part in a single workout!

Chris says these high-frequency, high-volume workouts are perfect for building size and strength.

Here is Chris Bumstead’s exact training split. Check it out:

The Chris Bumstead 6 Day Push / Pull / Legs Split

• Day 1: Chest / Shoulders / Triceps
  
• Day 2: Back / Biceps
  
• Day 3: Quads / Hamstrings / Calves
  
• Day 4: Chest / Shoulders / Triceps
  
• Day 5: Back / Biceps
  
• Day 6: Quads / Hamstrings / Calves
• Day 7: Off

The push / pull / legs split is a way of organizing your training where you perform 3 separate workouts for your entire body.

You have a “push” day where you train your chest / shoulders / triceps, a “pull” day where you train your back / biceps, and a “legs” day where you train your quads, hamstrings and calves.

The main advantage of the push / pull / legs split is that it reduces your overlap between muscle groups, and lets you train with more frequency.

Chris Bumstead really likes the 6 day push / pull / legs split because it lets him train each muscle group twice per week.

Many fitness experts like Jeff Nippard and Stan Efferding believe training muscle groups twice per week is optimal for hypertrophy, so the Chris Bumstead push pull legs program is a very “science-based” way to train.

Here is Chris Bumstead himself talking about his new training program:

As you can see, Chris trains each muscle group with two completely different exercises each week.

This is a great way to train with more variety and prevent your body from adapting to your routine.

Now let’s take a closer look at the exact push, pull and leg workouts that Chris uses!

Chris Bumstead Push Workouts

Chris Bumstead trains his chest, shoulders, and triceps twice per week on Monday and Thursday.

He says training these muscle groups together on the same day is a great strategy, as it speeds up your recovery between workouts.

Chris has a very simple exercise template that he uses for all of his push workouts:

The Chris Bumstead Push Workout Template

• Chest: 2 exercises (1 compound / 1 isolation)
• Shoulders: 2 exercises (1 compound / 1 isolation)
• Triceps: 2 exercises (1 compound / 1 isolation)

Chris Bumstead uses 6 exercises to train his chest, shoulders, and triceps during his “push” workouts.

He likes to train each muscle group with 1 heavy compound exercise and 1 lighter isolation exercise. This is a great strategy to use on your push workouts, as you get the best of both worlds!

So what do Chris Bumstead’s push workouts actually look like?

Chris likes to start his push workouts with the bench press or close grip bench press.

After that, he moves onto other compound exercises like the dumbbell or barbell overhead press.

Finally, he finishes his workout with different isolation or “mind-muscle connection” exercises for his chest, shoulders and triceps.

Here is Chris Bumstead’s first weekly push workout. Check it out:

Chris Bumstead’s Push Workout #1

• Exercise #1: Barbell press (incline or flat), 3 sets of 5-8, 5-8, 10-12 reps
• Exercise #2: Alternated DB shoulder press, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #3: Chest flies variation (your choice), 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #4: Triceps extension variation (your choice), 4 sets of 7-10 reps
• Exercise #5: Lateral raises, 4 sets of 10-12 reps**
• Exercise #6: Dips, 3 sets to failure

**Keep the rest time less than 1 minute

Click Right Here to watch the workout video.

This is a very simple, but effective way to design a push workout.

Chris starts the workout with heavy compound exercises like the bench press and alternating dumbbell overhead press.

Putting these exercises first in his workout makes a lot of sense, as they are heavy compound movements, and Chris wants to lift as much weight as possible on them.

Chris Bumstead starts this workout with a heavy barbell exercise for chest: either the flat bench press, or the incline bench press.

“For push day 1, my first exercise is the barbell flat or incline press.

Personally, I like incline a lot more, but I do like the flat bench press sometimes to mix things up.”

Even though Chris is a bodybuilder, he still wants to get stronger, so he always starts his chest / shoulder / tricep workouts with a heavy pressing movement.

For shoulders, Chris has been experimenting with the alternating dumbbell shoulder press.

Here are his thoughts on this exercise:

“This is something I’ve been doing a lot of lately – where you press one arm at a time.

It just allows you to focus on each arm and perfect every rep.”

Chris says that he doesn’t always have his workout 100% mapped out in advance.

Instead, he uses this workout as a template, and he adjusts things based on how he is feeling that day.

For example, Chris starts his workout with either the incline bench press or flat bench press.

He also gives himself the chance to use any chest or triceps isolation exercise, depending on how he is feeling that day and what equipment is available.

For example, Chris often uses a machine or cable fly for his chest, or incline ez-bar extensions or cable pushdowns for his triceps.

Finally, Chris finishes the workout with a few sets of lateral raises, and 3 sets to failure on weighted dips for his triceps.

Here is Chris Bumstead’s second weekly push workout. Check it out:

Chris Bumstead’s Push Workout #2

• Exercise #1: Close grip bench press, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #2: Standing barbell overhead press, 4 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #3: Pec dec flies, 1 set of 8-10 reps, 2 sets of 40 seconds TUT
• Exercise #4: Overhead triceps extensions (your choice), 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #5: Lateral raise (any variation), 4 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #6: Push ups (any variation), 3 sets to failure

Click Right Here to watch the workout video.

Chris Bumstead’s second weekly push workout looks a lot like his first weekly workout.

The main difference is his choice of exercises.

For example, Chris uses the standing barbell overhead press instead of the seated dumbbell overhead press for shoulders.

He says he really likes this exercise for overall size and strength. Check it out:

“With the standing overhead press I really feel like I’m getting more chest and core involvement and it makes me feel more athletic overall.”

Once again Chris sticks with two primary exercises per body part.

He uses close grip bench presses and overhead extensions to train his triceps, overhead presses and lateral raises to train his triceps and pec dec flies and push ups to train his chest.

In my experience, using two exercises per body part on your “push” day is a really nice sweet spot to aim for.

Finally, Chris Bumstead finishes the workout with more “mind-muscle connection” exercises like pec dec flies, overhead tricep extensions, lateral raises, and push ups.

This is a very smart way to design a push-focused, or chest / shoulders / triceps workout.

Now let’s look at Chris Bumstead’s pull workouts!

Chris Bumstead Pull Workouts

Chris Bumstead trains his back and biceps twice per week on Tuesday and Friday.

These are two of his weaker muscle groups, so he often trains them together to really hammer them with a lot of volume and intensity.

So how does Chris organize his back and bicep workouts?

Just like with his push workouts, Chris uses a simple exercise template for all of his pull workouts. Check it out:

The Chris Bumstead Pull Workout Template

• Back: 3 exercises (2 for back width / 1 for back thickness)
• Biceps: 3 exercises (2 for biceps / 1 for brachialis, forearms)

Chris Bumstead uses 6 exercises to train his back and biceps during his “pull” workouts.

He likes to train his back with 3 compound movements – 2 of them are pulldown or pull up focused movements to target his lats, and 1 is a heavy barbell row or deadlift variation to build his “back thickness.”

For biceps, Chris likes to perform 2 regular curling exercises, plus 1 movement with a neutral or “reverse” grip to target his brachialis and forearm muscles.

This is a very smart way to organize your pull workouts, as you hit each major muscle group from multiple angles for optimal results.

So what do Chris Bumstead’s pull workouts actually look like?

Chris like to start his pull workouts with lat pulldowns or pull ups.

He then moves onto “heavier” back exercises like barbell rows or deadlifts. Finally, Chris finishes his back routine with another pull up or pulldown variation, and then moves onto biceps.

Here is Chris Bumstead’s first weekly pull workout. Check it out:

Chris Bumstead’s Pull Workout #1

• Exercise #1: Lat pulldowns (any grip), 3 sets of 8-10 reps**
• Exercise #2: Barbell bent over rows, 3 x 6-8, 6-8, 10-12
• Exercise #3: 60 degree incline DB curl, 4 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #4: Pull ups (any grip), 3 sets to failure
• Exercise #5: Standing ez-bar curls, 2 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #6: Standing ez-bar curls, 2 sets of 40 seconds time under tension

**On the last set perform a double drop set to failure

Click Right Here to watch the workout video.

This is an extremely smart back and biceps workout by Chris Bumstead!

He starts the workout with heavy compound back exercises like lat pulldowns and barbell rows.

Chris says his back is one of his weakest body parts, so he wants to hit these exercises first in his workout while he has the most energy.

“I always start my back workouts with lat pulldowns.

It’s a great way to get the blood flowing and get a good stretch in your lats and your spine.”

Chris Bumstead says that his back and biceps still lag behind the rest of his body so he goes all-out on his pull workouts.

After the heavy barbell rows, Chris performs 1 more pulldown variation, and moves straight into his biceps training.

Chris is training his upper back again later in the week, so he doesn’t want to beat himself up too much by performing more than 3 back exercises.

After finishing his back exercises, Chris moves right into his 3 main bicep movements.

One interesting thing that Chris does is he uses “time under tension” sets for his last bicep exercise.

Instead of aiming for a specific number of reps he aims for 40 seconds of time under tension with the weight. This is a very interesting strategy that the powerlifting coach Dave Tate has used in the past for building muscle.

Here is Chris Bumstead’s second weekly back / biceps workout. Check it out:

Chris Bumstead’s Pull Workout #2

• Exercise #1: Pull ups (any variation), 3 light sets with bodyweight only
• Exercise #2: Rack pulls, 2 sets of 8-10 reps
• Exercise #3: Hammer curls, 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Exercise #4: Supinated grip row or pulldown, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #5: Cable curls, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #6: Seated cable rows, 2 drop sets for 20 total reps
• Exercise #7: Standing DB curls, 1 “run the rack” drop set to failure

Click Right Here to watch the workout video.

Chris’s second weekly pull workout is even more intense than his first.

He trains his back and biceps with 3 different exercises performed from a wide variety of angles.

Chris also throws in some light pull ups while he is warming up on rack pulls to loosen up his back and get his lats firing correctly.

Here are Chris’s thoughts on pull ups:

“Pull ups are something I’ve been incorporating more of lately.

Pull ups are the OG back exercise.

I feel like I’m getting a great mind-muscle connection with them.”

Chris finishes his workout with one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favorite training methods, the “run the rack” drop set.

Chris picks up the 40 pound dumbbells and reps them out just shy of failure. Then he goes to the next lightest pair of dumbbells and reps them out too.

He just keeps going until he is lifting the 5 pound dumbbells at the end of the rack. Talk about brutal!

Now let’s look at Chris Bumstead’s Mr. Olympia winning leg workouts!

Chris Bumstead Leg Workouts

Chris Bumstead trains his quads, hamstrings and calves twice per week on Wednesday and Saturday.

Chris Bumstead is known for his great leg development, but he is always looking to improve these muscle, so he really attacks his leg days with a lot of volume and intensity.

So how does Chris organize his back and bicep workouts?

Just like with his push and pull workouts, Chris uses a simple exercise template for his 2 weekly leg workout. Check it out:

The Chris Bumstead Leg Workout Template

• Day 1: Hamstrings focus
  
• Day 2: Quads focus

Chris Bumstead likes to focus on quads or hamstrings in his leg workouts.

That doesn’t mean he only trains one muscle or the other on his leg days.

For example, Chris likes to perform walking lunges on his hamstrings day – an exercise that clearly works the quads and hamstrings together.

However, for the most part, Chris likes to emphasize one exercise or the other on his leg workouts.

He trains the smaller muscles like calves, adductors, and glutes twice per week. Here is Chris Bumstead’s first weekly leg workout. Check it out:

Chris Bumstead’s Legs Workout #1

• Exercise #1: Walking alternating lunges (barbell on back), 3 sets of 12-15 reps
• Exercise #2: Romanian or conventional deadlift, 3 sets of 6-12 reps**
• Exercise #3: Hip thrusts or glute kick backs, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #4: Seated calf raises, 6 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #5: Leg curls (any variation), 2 set of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #6: Leg curls (any variation, 2 sets of 40 seconds time under tension

**Perform sets of 6-8 reps if conventional deadlift or sets of 10-12 reps if Romanian deadlift

Click Right Here to watch the workout video.

This is Chris Bumstead’s hamstrings-focused leg day.

Chris says squats are his #1 favorite exercise for overall leg development.

However, he skips squat in this workout, and focuses on a variety of leg exercises including lunges, deadlifts, hip thrusts, calf raises and leg curls.

He starts the workout with some walking dumbbell lunges to warm up his knees, and then moves right into his heavy hamstrings exercises.

Chris says that the walking lunges have dramatically improved the health of his knees in recent years. Check it out:

“I love starting my leg workouts with lunges.

It’s a great way to warm up your knees and to really get the blood flowing.”

After the walking lunges, Chris performs his favorite “posterior chain” exercises, including deadlifts, glute kickbacks, and different type of leg curls.

Once again we see Chris using the “time under tension technique. Earlier we saw him use this method on bicep curls, and now we see him using it on leg curls.

Rather than going for a specific number of reps he sets a timer on his phone and just goes for 40 total seconds.

This is a great strategy, as research shows 40 seconds of time under tension per set is probably optimal for overall muscle growth.

Here is Chris Bumstead’s second weekly leg workout. Check it out:

Chris Bumstead’s Legs Workout #2

• Exercise #1: Back squat, 4 sets of 8-10, 8-10, 8-10, 4-6
• Exercise #2: Leg press, 2 sets of 40 seconds TUT
• Exercise #3: Leg press calves, 2 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #4: Hip adductor machine, 4 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #5: Standing calf raise machine, 4 sets of 10-12 reps**
• Exercise #6: Leg extension machine, 4 sets of 10-12 reps****

**Perform 10-12 reps to failure, then perform as many partial reps as you can out of the bottom position

****On your last 2 sets perform a triple drop set. Perform 10-12 reps to failure, drop the weight, go to failure, drop the weight, go to failure, done!

Click Right Here to watch the workout video.

This is Chris Bumstead’s quads-focused leg workout.

He starts the workout with his all-time favorite leg exercise: back squats!

Chris says that he injured his knee a while ago and couldn’t perform back squats for almost 8 months!

He did leg presses, hack squats, leg extensions, and all of his other quad exercises. However, his legs shriveled up on the Mr. Olympia stage, and he realized regular back squats are his key quad movement.

Today, he almost always includes them in his quad-focused leg workouts, as they do more for his overall quad growth than any other exercise.

“Nothing compares to squats! I remember one year, I had really bad knee issues.

I couldn’t squat for about 8 months. I was still training quads hard, leg presses, lunges, everything I normally do, but my legs did not look the same.

Squats will forever be my go to movement for legs!”

For this workout, Chris performs 4 heavy sets of squats in the 4-10 rep range, and then performs various accessory exercises for his lower body.

One interesting thing about this workout is Chris performs 2 double drop sets on leg extensions for his last exercise.

Here are Chris’s exact thoughts on this technique:

“I always found hammering out triple drop sets at the end is a great way to finish them off.”

Overall Chris’s lower body workouts are less demanding than his upper body workouts.

This makes perfect sense considering Chris is competing in classic bodybuilding.

The classic bodybuilding look is all about aesthetic legs, a narrow waist and a wide upper body with flaring lats and shoulders!

Chris Bumstead Bro Split Workouts!

Chris Bumstead is a huge fan of the classic push / pull / legs split.

However, most of the time he trains each muscle group once per week on its own separate training day.

This is known as a “bodybuilding bro split” because many of the world’s top bodybuilders train this way.

Here is the exact training split that Chris Bumstead uses to take his training to the next level:

The Chris Bumstead Training Split

• Day 1: Chest
• Day 2: Quadriceps
• Day 3: Shoulders
• Day 4: Back
• Day 5: Arms
• Day 6: Hamstrings
• Day 7: Off

As you can see, Chris Bumstead trains each major body part on its own separate training day.

He has a chest day,  a back day, a shoulder day, an arm day, and so on. He even trains his quads and hamstrings on separate workouts!

This may seem overkill, but Chris Bumstead likes to blast each muscle group with 4-6 exercises, so having a separate training day for each body part is absolutely essential.

Like most bodybuilders, Chris Bumstead likes to train chest towards the start of his training split.

Here is one of his Mr. Olympia winning chest workouts that you can try. Check it out:

Chris Bumstead’s Chest Workout #1

• Exercise A1: Incline smith machine press, 3 sets of 6-8 reps, 2 minutes rest
  
• Exercise B1: Hammer strength flat press, 3 sets of 20 reps**, 2 minutes rest
• Exercise C1: Flat machine press, 3 sets of 20 reps**, 2 minutes rest
  
• Exercise D1: Pec dec machine, 3 sets of 10-12 reps, no rest
  
• Exercise D2: Parallel bar dips (forward leaning torso), 3 sets to failure, 2 minutes rest

**Performed with a weight around your 10-15 rep max. After you reach failure your training partner gives you generous assistance during the lifting phase of each rep

Click Right Here to watch the workout video.

Talk about an intense chest workout!

Chris Bumstead trains his chest using a total of 5 different exercises.

He uses what I call a “powerbuilding” approach, where you start the workout with heavy compound exercises, and then finish with higher-rep isolation movements to give that full, volumized look.

At the end of the workout, Chris even throws in some supersets to annihilate whatever muscle fibers are left in his chest!

Here is another one of his Mr. Olympia winning chest workouts that you can try. Check it out:

Chris Bumstead’s Chest Workout #2

• Exercise A1: 30 degree incline DB press, 3 sets of 8-10 reps, 2 minutes rest
  
• Exercise B1: Hammer strength flat press, 3 sets of 8-10 reps, 2 minutes rest
  
• Exercise C1: 30 degree incline DB fly, 3 sets of 8-10 reps, 2 minutes rest
  
• Exercise D1: Flat supine machine press, 3 sets of 10-12 reps**, no rest
  
• Exercise D2: Incline squeezing push ups, 3 sets of 10-12 reps**, 2 minutes rest
  

**Perform 8-10 reps to failure, then perform as many partial reps as you can in a row to failure.

Click Right Here to watch the workout video.

Talk about an intense chest workout!

Once again, Chris Bumstead follows his usual “powerbuilding” approach for building a huge chest.

He starts the workout with some heavy incline dumbbell presses with as much weight as he can handle. In this workout, Chris incline pressed the 150s… incredible!

After that, he moves onto a variety of other chest exercises to pump his chest full of blood and create as much muscular fatigue as possible.

He even finishes the workout with another one of his favorite chest supersets! Chris Bumstead trains his quads on day 2 of his bodybuilding bro split.

Chris actually likes to train quads separately from hamstrings, as he can use more volume and intensity this way.

Here is one of Chris Bumstead’s go-to quad workouts. Check it out:

Chris Bumstead’s Quads Workout #1

• Exercise #1: Machine hack squat, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #2: Walking DB lunge, 3 sets of 20 reps
• Exercise #3: Horizontal leg press, 3 sets of 20 reps
• Exercise #4: Leg extension, 3 sets of 20 reps
• Exercise #5: Seated calf raise, 3 sets of 20 reps

Click Right Here to watch the workout video.

Chris Bumstead’s Quads Workout #2

• Exercise #1: Back squat, 3 sets of 6-8 reps
• Exercise #2: Walking barbell lunge, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #3: Machine squat, 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Exercise #4: Seated leg extension machine, 3 sets of 10-12 reps

Click Right Here to watch the workout video.

Talk about an intense shoulder workout!

In this routine, Chris Bumstead destroys his shoulders with 6 different exercises.

He performs 2 heavy overhead pressing movements, plus 4 shoulder isolation exercises for his front, side, and rear delts.

This is a ton of volume, but it works like magic for Chris Bumstead.

Here is another one of his high-volume shoulder workouts that you have to try. Check it out:

Chris Bumstead is one of the best bodybuilders in the world today, and it’s easy to see why.

He uses a science-based push pull legs program that is designed to build muscle mass as fast as possible!

If you are looking for a new push pull legs program, then I highly recommend you give Chris Bumstead’s PPL split a shot.

It may be just what you need to take your training to the next level!

Before you go, check out my other world-class bodybuilding articles:

• The Chris Bumstead Training Program!
• The Ronnie Coleman Training Program!
• The Dorian Yates Training Program!
• The Jay Cutler Training Program!
• The Arnold Schwarzenegger Training Program!

Trust me – you won’t find this cutting edge information anywhere else!

“Don’t ever believe the naysayers when they say your ideas are unrealistic.

They are just too small minded to see all the big possibilities that you see in this world!”

Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of luck on your strength training journey!