Video summary
Chris Bumstead, a Mr. Olympia competitor, outlines how his morning routine fluctuates significantly between off-season and prep phases depending on travel schedules and time zones. During the off-season, he typically wakes up around 7:30 or 8:00 AM without an alarm after living in various locations for six months. His early day involves twenty minutes of light cardio to suppress appetite, followed by a cold plunge where he dips at least his legs into the water before showering and eating breakfast. For off-season nutrition, Bumstead avoids repetitive foods like eggs due to getting sick quickly; instead, he prefers smoothies blended with oatmeal paired with Ezekiel bread toast and almond butter. In contrast, his prep routine is more dialed-in but remains fluid rather than regimented, focusing on natural flow based on the time of year. A key component of his morning in preparation involves breath work inspired by Wim Hof methods, consisting of three rounds of thirty breaths followed by an exhale hold. Bumstead discovered that this practice oxygenates the body effectively before cardio, eliminating the need for caffeine and allowing him to perform better during exercise sessions. Following the workout or light movement, he utilizes a sauna and cold tub combination, always finishing with cold exposure to maximize recovery benefits while maintaining high energy levels throughout his day. Bumstead addresses concerns regarding inflammation reduction through cold plunging versus muscle hypertrophy gains, clarifying that he adopted this practice primarily for managing autoimmune issues and systemic health rather than solely for post-workout recovery. He advises avoiding immediate cold therapy after intense workouts when the body is sending blood to muscles for repair; instead, he performs long sessions on rest days or in the morning before training later in the day. This approach has helped reduce joint inflammation without negatively impacting hypertrophy, allowing him to train harder despite a potential minor loss of muscle mass if it means feeling better overall. Beyond cold plunges and breath work, Bumstead emphasizes the importance of movement, sunlight exposure, and digestion management throughout his daily life. He frequently walks after meals to mediate insulin sensitivity and aid gastric function, noting that contralateral movements like walking help muscles across the stomach contract effectively. To support knee health specifically, he incorporates exercises such as walking backwards with weights or pushing a treadmill belt manually when equipment is unavailable, which targets the tibia rather than just calves. He also utilizes apps designed for his father to track these specific joint-friendly routines and integrates them into his own training regimen. The discussion concludes with Bumstead's commitment to digital minimalism by placing his phone on airplane mode before bed and avoiding it until after completing his morning tasks, a habit that supports better sleep quality even if the device remains in the room as an alarm clock. He acknowledges challenges like extreme heat affecting outdoor walks but adapts by taking them near parks or offices with access to cooling areas. Throughout these varied strategies, Bumstead maintains consistency in food intake while remaining flexible enough to manipulate routines only when digestion issues arise, ensuring his body stays optimized for both performance and long-term health.
Read the full video transcript
talk to me about your morning routine
what does that look like typically
depends on the time of year really okay
so let's say off season and prep
offseason I wake up and I usually just
do a bit of light cardio what sort of
time do you typically get up
it's been brutal lately I've been in
different time zones for the last six
months so it's just whatever time zone
I'm on okay but lately I've just been
not putting on alarm and I've been
waking up about 7 30 8 o'clock or so
lately and I normally wake up and I just
do like a little bit of cardio just like
20 minutes just to make sure my
appetite's gone and then I have a cold
plunge I usually dip my legs in there at
least if not my full body and just like
are up to my waist then shower eat go to
work what will you tend to have off
season what will breakfast look like
again it varies consistently I get sick
of food really quick especially
breakfast foods so I usually don't like
eating eggs when I'm eating a lot of
food so I normally just make a smoothie
and then I'll have like oatmeal like
blended into the smoothie and some like
Ezekiel bread toast and almond butter
okay and then what about prep which I'm
guessing is significantly more dialed
prep evolves and like I just I'm not
trying to like I evolve so I'm very
fluid like my routines are like what
time do you train depends on the time of
year like it's just wherever I feel
natural I just kind of flow into that
state and do what I can and I kind of
thrive in that structure rather than
really regimented but in prep
I'll wake up in the morning and I
usually will like do like a breath work
thing because I get sucked in that and
it's not even for like At first I tried
to do it for like mental to like kind of
like tap deep into my mind and now it's
just related to oxygenate my body before
like waking up doing cardio because I
realized if I did a little bit of breath
work and like just like you know like
Wim Hof style like three rounds of 30
breaths and hold an exhale repeat three
rounds in the morning and then I went
and did cardio I didn't need caffeine I
was wide awake and I could like Blaster
my cardio way easier and I just felt way
better wow and then after that I'll
usually sauna or cold tub and combine it
I'll always cold up if I sauna because I
like finishing with colds and then
cardio will be higher at that point and
then I'll go shower and eat and the goal
that I do in the mornings it's nothing
crazy like it's just simple as that but
I usually try and put my phone on
airplane mode when I go to bed and not
look at it until the shit's done yeah
that's such a hack do you sleep well if
it's on airplane mode it doesn't matter
if I'm gonna guess you sleep with your
phone outside of your bedroom as well
um and I still usually keep it I usually
have an alarm still or I just have it in
the corner of the room and it's on
airplane mode but I just don't it's
basically a break until after my mode
gets turned off yeah are you not
concerned at all there's a lot of talk
on the internet about reducing
inflammation through using cold plunge
when you're trying to maximize
hypertrophy is this something that
you're not particularly worried about
I think there's a lot of and again I'm
not the Science Guy but I've looked into
it too and I never started doing it for
purely recovery and hypertrophy I
started doing it because of my
autoimmune and just overall systemic
inflammation and health and I just knew
that it would be better for me to reduce
my inflammation
and so I what I looked into was it was
saying that immediately after a workout
when you're getting that like high
inflammation response which is we're
sending blood and nutrients to the
muscle to recover that's when you want
to avoid it so typically if I do like a
long like a 10 minute session that's on
my rest day but if I'm just doing it in
the morning I do it in the morning and
then I don't work out till later in the
day and I don't do it after I work out
so I have a full two meals go to sleep
wake up in the morning and I'll do it
then and it hasn't affected me at all if
anything it's it's helped my joints from
being overly inflamed so I can
continually train and push myself so if
I lose like two percent hypertrophy but
my joints feel better to train harder to
me the outcome is just worth it it's a
trade-off yeah yeah what about walks and
stuff like cardio yeah continuing to
just get yourself moving sunlight
exposure stuff like that yeah I think
like do I do it or do the real I
definitely do it more in prep again I
definitely slack off more than I should
in my off season but I do cardio my off
season so that I can eat I usually just
do a treadmill in there but when I'm in
prep I'll just like roam around outside
a little bit after a meal just to make
sure I'm adjusting properly and I also
to take my mind off life sometimes and
just kind of relax but I'm not too like
crazy methodical with these things I
just make sure everything's on point and
then if my digestion never goes to [ __ ]
that's when I start manipulating things
but I'm super consistent with my food so
normally my digestion is pretty good
tell you what's crazy have you ever worn
a glucose monitor one of those things on
the back of your arm if you ever do that
and it doesn't even need to be a
particularly high carb meal but if you
spike your glucose and then go on a walk
the difference is unbelievable really
yeah yeah it just seems to mediate
insulin sensitivity so well yeah
um and there's also muscles I think that
cross basically across your stomach that
when you walk that sort of contralateral
movement that actually helps uh
digestion okay so yeah walks after um
after food Stu McGill the back pain
specialist is one guy that gave me that
forever and ever and ever ago and uh
yeah trying to do that that's one
advantage of living near a park you know
or being in a house
it's hard in Florida though yeah it'll
be like 110 degrees in humid so if I'm
in the office I go take a walk outside
and come back trench and sweat yeah true
it might be good for the uh for the
calorie burn but that's one thing I was
I was talking to a couple of friends
about that moved into this awesome new
apartment complex one of the things that
you don't see is a price that you pay is
if you do want to go out for a walk it's
like five minutes yeah it's five minutes
to get downstairs well if you take the
stairs that could be part of your walk
uh yeah this has a kind of lame though
aren't they they're kind of tough yeah
but going downstairs is at least good
for your knees so true what are you
doing for knee Health are you into the
knees over toes stuff at all have you
gone to this I I I've dabbled in that I
downloaded the app for my dad because he
has any issues and then I don't think he
used it so I just started using it
myself and I just took some things that
like I found I could put into my routine
super easily like walking backwards with
a weight and when I don't have like a
sled I'll do it on the treadmill turned
off yep I'll just turn off the treadmill
and push the tread I'll warm up like
that I go on the stairs walk up it turn
around walk backwards and some videos if
you've got records upstairs yeah I
trained my like tibia rather than just
my calves too some banned stuff pushing
my knee backwards I've definitely
implemented that it seems to be helping
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