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Dorian Yates' chest workout is not an easy one to follow. The bodybuilder, also known as The Shadow, is renowned for his incredible size.
Yates reached a point where he was nothing short of a monster with unbelievable muscles. Considering the way he built his physique and the mass he achieved, it was no surprise that he secured six consecutive Mr. Olympia titles in the 1990s.
One of the most prominent muscle groups in Yates’ physique was his chest. He used a combination of compound and isolation exercises to grow his pectoral muscles.
Yates believed in giving his 100% to one or two sets. Therefore, he would usually focus on a couple of warm-up sets before going all out on two sets - at the most - using 8-10 reps.
Dorian Yates Chest Workout
The following is Dorian Yates' chest workout that he used to get bigger and push himself beyond the boundaries to become a six-time Mr. Olympia winner:
1) Incline Smith Machine bench press: 2 sets of 8-10 reps
2) Hammer strength chest press: 2 sets of 8-10 reps
3) Incline dumbbell flye: 1 set of 8-10 reps
4) Cable crossover: 1 set of 10-12 reps
One of the reasons Yates' chest workout only had one or two sets per exercise is because he implemented a unique approach to exercises. The professional bodybuilder used different equipment for his exercises and always focused on warm-up sets to exhaust his muscle fibers.
He would always focus on compound movements first before moving to isolation movements. That enabled him to activate and burn out the bigger and smaller muscles and fibers of his chest.
If you want to build your chest like Dorian Yates, you also need to train like him:
Dorian Yates Training Tips
While one or two sets of each exercise doesn’t sound tough, it’s a way that Yates used every time to build himself. On that note, here are a few tips Yates used during his chest workout:
1) Train Beyond Failure
The Shadow believed in giving his all during every set. As a result, he would push his muscles to failure and beyond (assisted forced reps or drop sets). That allowed him to put the most intensity on his muscles during the short number of sets.
2) Focus On Eccentric
Ideally, if you’re focusing on bodybuilding or weights, you can push more down than you can lift up. As a result, Yates would use that to create microtrauma that triggered muscle growth.
3) Record Workouts
This is another important tip used by several bodybuilders. When you record your workouts, you have a visual representation of your progress.
Not only does that allow you to motivate yourself, but it also helps you understand at what rate you’re progressing. Once you know that, you will be able to modify your workouts accordingly.
4) Train Each Muscle Group Twice a Week
When you’re not focusing on multiple sets for each exercise, you should be able to recover faster between each workout.
In that case, you can work on each muscle group twice a week and produce better results. If you look at Yates' chest or any other workout, he would focus on more than one muscle group per day to increase the frequency for the groups.
Bottom Line
You can try Dorian Yates' chest workout if you feel you can train yourself to fail for each set. However, that doesn’t mean you need to do that every time you go to the gym.
Yates trained to be a professional bodybuilder, but you might want to train for a muscular physique. As the goals are different, the ways to accomplish the same will be different. Up until then, you should try Yates' chest workout at least once a week.
