Six-time Classic Physique Olympia winner Chris Bumstead is no stranger to the spotlight, but in a candid conversation, the recently retired bodybuilding legend revealed a side of bodybuilding that’s rarely seen on stage.
Speaking with longevity expert Gary Brecka on the Ultimate Human Podcast, Bumstead was honest about some of the untold dangers of professional bodybuilding—while at the same time, expressing gratitude to the sport that helped make him a household name in the fitness industry.
“Bodybuilding is not a healthy sport,” Bumstead tells Brecka. “You put your body through anabolic steroid use, cutting weight, bulking up weight—this is hard on your organs. The vast majority of bodybuilders say that exchange is worth it. I’m willing to borrow from my future.”
Chris Bumstead Opens Up About Health Scare
Bumstead’s own career has been marked by both notable triumph and life-threatening adversity. In 2018, before his first Olympia win, he faced a scary health crisis. “I got really sick, and I didn’t know what was going on,” he says. “It was autoimmune to my kidneys. I had this insane amount of inflammation, edema in my legs. I put on 15 pounds in a day, and I had like, no knee, no ankle, it was just inflamed.”
The Olympia icon, 22 at the time, was forced to confront the limits his body could handle along with more potential risks he was taking in order to be the best.
Bumstead told Brecka that this illness became a turning point in his bodybuilding approach “There’s a reason I got sick, and bodybuilding is not a healthy sport at all is because you put your body through so much,” he says. “I was just that I was college. I was drinking a lot. In between my off seasons, there was a lot I was doing. So then my shift went on to my health focus.”
Bumstead’s candor extends to the mental and emotional toll of bodybuilding. “It’s a very lonely sport… you’re not showing up for other people. You’re showing up for yourself,” he says. The discipline required is relentless: “To do that every day for 10 years, that’s what makes it hard.”
Gratitude, Growth, and Redefining Success
For all the mental and physical hardship, Bumstead’s gratitude for bodybuilding is palpable. “My journey began to become more than just like becoming a better body, but a better self,” he says. “How can I use the challenge pushing myself to new windows to discover parts about myself I didn’t know before and become a better version of myself?”
He credits his family and his wife for keeping him grounded, even as he scaled the heights of his profession. “To me, success isn’t just having some trophies on my shelf. It’s, you know, finishing my career, proud of who I am, how I treated people, the relationship I built and kept along the way.”
Bumstead shares with Brecka that while a sport oftentimes pushes the body to its breaking point, it also forges discipline and humility. “There’s so much you can do, but there’s always a level beyond what you’re capable of,” he says. “It kept me with a sense of humor my entire journey.”