Dorian Yates’ Legendary 1993 Back Day Workout Shows Why He Dominated Mr. Olympia

Six-time Mr Olympia champion Dorian Yates became known for a “Blood & Guts” approach that involved giving more effort to fewer sets, but a recent revisit to his training logbook has shown that warm up methods such as “pre-exhaust supersets” were also practiced from time to time, like in 1993 when the British bodybuilder won is second Mr Olympia title.

What Modern Lifters Can Learn From Dorian Yates’ Training Logbook

Thanks to this master of muscle’s meticulous bookkeeping, Dorian Yates can pinpoint the exact date of this workout to July 11, 1993, and The Temple Gym, known affectionately as “The Dungeon” served as the setting for this rare, extensive set session. “You’ll see some exercises here that weren’t featured in the Blood & Guts video, like bench rows and seated cable rows for example,” explained the man they called ‘The Shadow” in a recent Instagram post for his 2 million followers. “Blood & Guts was a snapshot in time of the exercises I did, however the intensity remained the same throughout!”

What Was Dorian Yates’ 1993 Back Workout?

Pullover superset with Underhand pulldowns

  • Barbell Rows
  • Bench Rows
  • Close-Grip Cable Rows
  • Rear-Delt Machine Flys
  • Barbell Shrugs
  • Barbell Hyperextensions
  • Partial Deadlift

Why This Workout Was More Than Traditional Blood & Guts Training

Building muscle is all about hitting hypertrophy, and this vast list of movements will certainly lead to the desired effect. While Yates often ops for single sets to failure, the big man has always been willing to expand his efforts, so while supersets were not something that Yates did on a consistent basis, this snapshot from the summer of 1993 shows that he did, on occasion, entertain an exhausting rep scheme. For example, his first exercise, the pullover, included 2 warmup sets and 6 working sets, hitting 2 forced reps following failure. As if that wasn’t intense enough, the iconic bodybuilder alternated his pullovers by supersetting them with underhand pulldowns. That would be enough to finish most mere mortals.

For superior back mass, Yates continued with barbell rows, including 7 warmup sets and 7 working sets, reaching a monstrous 440 pounds in weight, while bench rows (or single-arm dumbbell rows) were employed to pound the lats, rhomboids, and traps with eight working sets. Yates added further negative movements during the lowering/eccentric phase, to find the ultimate level of failure once again.

Ten working sets of close-grip cable rows, with 300 pounds on the pins, would certainly have tested Yates’ spirit as he sweated through each scintillating rep, no doubt visualizing his next Olympia win with each row. But when it came to the rear-delt fly, The Shadow outdid himself once again, blasting through 12 working sets, and tagging on some forced reps for good muscle building measure.

Proving his legendary status as a competitive bodybuilder was hard earned, Yates continued this level of intensity throughout his back building workout, hitting 40kg for 10 working sets of hyperextensions, and 405 pounds for six sets of partial deadlifts.

Attempting to follow the elite performer’s plan, Yates’ IG followers were blown away by his prowess. “Lol, his warmup sets are most of our last sets,” joked one fan. “These weights are wild,” said another. “Absolute legend of the game,” commented yet another inspired gymgoer.

Be sure to try this retro workout for yourself but figure out a comfortable weight before going all “Blood & Guts” like the big Brit!

To follow Dorian Yates on Instagram, click here. 



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