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Five times Mr. Olympia champion Chris Bumstead is one of the greatest athletes the sport of bodybuilding has ever witnessed. Hailing from Canada, Cbum is a fan favorite at the moment, and looking forward to winning his sixth Olympia title this year.
While many fans might consider him a perfect human being and look up to him, only a small portion of them are aware of the unfortunate disease he is suffering from.
Born in 1995, 29-year-old Chris Bumstead was born with an auto-immune disease called IgA Nephropathy. First diagnosed with this back in 2018, before his first Olympia win, Bumstead was told by the doctors that the disease is incurable.
Chris Bumstead reveals the agony of suffering from IgA Nephropathy
Months before his Olympia debut, Bumstead was diagnosed with this chronic disease that directly affects kidney functions, which leads to extreme amounts of water retention in the body. Being a professional bodybuilder himself, apart from the trauma that most patients go through, this could directly impact his professional life as well.
Going through this misery, Bumstead had a lot of mental trauma back then. In a YouTube video from September 2018, Bumstead stated what the doctors told him:
"He determined from the biopsy, I have a rare form of IgA disease which is an immune system. So potentially my immune system was kind of attacking itself. And we figured out that’s what happened four years ago or whatever. And it can flare up kind of any time in your life." (13:10)
Later, in an interview with BarBend, Chris Bumstead also discussed the post-treatment preps that he did for Mr. Olympia. He revealed:
"2018 was a rough prep, 2019 was better but not perfect, and 2020 was better than all my preps combined. I was healthy during and after, and my body showed it onstage. Like we spoke about before, my attention to detail extrapolated when these conditions were presented to me. I had to keep everything really close to perfect and focus on a healthy lifestyle. I’ve done such, and it’s paid off."
Apart from this chronic condition, Chris Bumstead also has had a minor speech impediment since his childhood years. Due to Bumstead's inability to speak properly, he has to enunciate every word to make it clear.
Talking about this, Bumstead revealed in a video featuring his coach Hany Rambod, that his tongue is too wide for his mouth. He further revealed:
"I can’t speak very well...I need to go to Speech Pathology class. My tongue doesn’t know how to speak the English language." (01:00)
"It’s too wide, not too long. My tongue didn’t fit my mouth. When I’m relaxed, my tongue hangs over my teeth on all sides like a Frenchie. Yeah, like it’s just too big for my mouth."
Despite all this, Chris Bumstead is not the one to give up easily. He doesn't let his weaknesses get the better of him. A while back when he released his supplement line, he used his insecurities in his favour and named his pre-workout supplement 'Thavage.' (Savage) While the move was instantly appreciated by many bodybuilding veterans, this proved the mental resilience of Chris Bumstead.
