What makes the Dorian Yates workout routine unique?
What is so different in this routine that it has a seperate fan following? Here’ what :
one would imagine a bodybuilder to spend every waking minute in the gym, never skipping a day at the gym, that’s were Yates surprises us with his one hour a day split across 4 days of the week on rests between
Dorian Yates was influenced by Mike Mentzer’s HIT training method and incorporated his own variations to it.
His philosophy for training is based on doing different exercises for different groups of muscles , 4 days a week with maximum intensity for only one set to failure , excluding warm-up sets for 30 minutes each day.
Yates believed that doing one intense set per day was enough stimulation for the muscle , being done with light weights whereas very hard sets and additional sets would break the muscle unnecessarily.
Yates also suggests doing cardio on off-training days says it helps the blood flow to the newly developing muscles.
He believed that doing cardio right after a workout would inhibit active muscle growth.
His routine did not involve lifting heavy weights or big monstrous equipments but rather doing reps slowly with a perfect technique. He did a quick pulling (concentric phase of pull-ups) and a extremely slow lowering down ( eccentric phase of pull-ups)
Yates also believed in right eating at right intervals as a key to healthy,fit body. He said maintaining a regular eating rhythm was as essential as working out. He states that if the body knows when it will get food , it doesn’t need to store food and energy and the available energy would go into muscle growth.
His routine was drastically different from those typically seen on the Californian state where many a bodybuilders sweat it out with their trainers pushing them to their limits.
It’s important to note that Yates had no guru, trainer or coach, it was simply his efforts and determination which took him places.
One another note-worthy aspect of Yates and his belief was to aim to complete long term goals. If your aim was to gain 1Kg doing bench press, and if you got there at the end of the month, then that is progress.
Dorian Yates never did pull ups , bench press or squats which are considered the foundation of muscle building. He did Hack squats instead of squats and inclined bench press instead of bench press.