Dorian Yates's 4 Day Split
Dorian Yates was born 19 April 1962 in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, England. He is an English professional bodybuilder. He won the Mr. Olympia title six consecutive times from 1992 to 1997. He is widely considered one of the top athletes in modern bodybuilding history. He was raised in Hurley, in rural Staffordshire. When he was a teenager, his family moved to Birmingham. He started working out in 1983. Yates' professional record consists of 15 major contest wins and two second-place finishes.
Yates' career ended in large part due to chronic acute injuries, including torn biceps and triceps, the latter just three weeks prior to his final contest, the 1997 Mr. Olympia contest, which he won in spite of the injury.
Yates espoused a style of training known as HIT "High Intensity Training", which states that maximum muscle stimulation can be reached through short, high-intensity workout sessions rather than long duration workouts. The training style was originally popularized by Mike Mentzer.
Yates earned the nickname of "The Shadow" for his tendency to unexpectedly appear at major bodybuilding contests and win, despite having remained out of the public eye for long periods beforehand. He was reported to have turned down several large supplement endorsement contracts and avoided interviews and other television publicity in order to maintain privacy.
In 1987, Yates purchased Temple Gym, located on Temple Street in Birmingham. In 2006, he franchised four additional Temple Gym locations, three of which are in the UK.
Yates formed the California-based company Heavy Duty Incorporated in 1994 with Mike Mentzer and Ray Mentzer. The company marketed athletic apparel and bodybuilding-related books.
In 1998, Yates partnered with Kerry Kayes to form the bodybuilding supplement company CNP Professional, which marketed a Dorian Yates Approved product line in the United States. He left the company in 2006 to form his own company, Dorian Yates Ultimate Formulas, which offers a line of protein and weight-gain supplements. He started a second company in 2010, EU Peptides, which sells pep-tide hormones and other pro-hormone supplements. In 2011, he founded a third company, DY Nutrition, which specializes in preworkout formulas and has released several training DVDs. He left EU Peptides in 2012. In recent years, he has conducted several seminar tours internationally to discuss nutrition and his experiences in bodybuilding. He offers training videos and written commentary on his official website. In 2015 he produced the documentary All I Know is Pain.
Welcome to Dorian Yates Hypertrophy 4 Day Split, where we dive into the specifics of the workout and the athlete's methodology! Explore our featured workouts below:
About the Program
Category: Hypertrophy
Dorian Yates, one of the biggest and most spectacular bodybuilders of all time, used a program similar to the one shown here. While we can't promise that you'll win six Mr. Olympia titles if you stick to it, we can promise that you'll see great results over time.
As you can see, this exercise schedule makes use of rest days by only training for a total of four days per week. Compared to the greater volume training routines used by the majority of bodybuilders, this is a radical departure. Since the regimen won't be as strenuous, natural bodybuilders can use it as well.
The muscles are trained on separate days over the course of the week. Working the shoulders, triceps, and abs on day one. Day 2: the back; Day 4: the chest; Day 6: the biceps; and Day 7: the legs. Depending on your end goal, you may want to incorporate cardio into your rest days.
Workout Schedule
Shoulders & Tri’s & Abs
- compound
1. Smith Machine Shoulder Press
- 1×15 warmup set, 1×12 warmup set, 1×8-10
- isolation
2. Seated laterals
- 1×12 warmup set, 1×8-10
- isolation
3. One-arm cable laterals
- 1×20 warmup set, 1×8-10
- isolation
4. Dumbbell Shrugs
- 1×12 warmup set, 1×10-12
- isolation
5. Triceps pushdown
- 1×15 warmup set, 1×12 warmup set, 1×8-10
- isolation
6. Lying EZ-curl barbell extensions
- 1×12 warmup set, 1×8-10
- isolation
7. Ab Exercises
- Do random ab exercises for how many sets/reps you want
Back
- isolation
1. Machine Pullover
- 1x12-15 warmup set, 1x10 warmup set, 1x6–8 working set
- compound
2. Hammer Strength pulldowns
- 1×12-15 warmup set, 1×12 warmup set, 1×8-10
- compound
3. Barbell rows
- 1×12 warmup set, 1×8-10
- compound
4. Hammer Strength one-arm rows
- 1×8-10
- isolation
5. Hammer Strength rear-delt machine
- 1×8-10
- isolation
6. Bent-over dumbell raises
- 1×8-10
- isolation
7. Hyperextensions
- 1×10-12
- compound
8. Deadlifts
- 1×8 warmup, 1×8
Chest & Bi’s & Abs
- compound
1. Incline barbell press
- 1×12 warmup set, 1×8 warmup set, 1×8
- compound
2. Hammer Strength seated bench presses
- 1×10 warmup set, 1×6-8
- isolation
3. Incline dumbbell flyes
- 1×10 warmup set 1×8
- compound
4. Cable Crossover
- 1×10-12
- isolation
5. Incline dumbbell curls
- 1×10 warmup set, 1×6-8
- isolation
6. EZ-curl barbell curls
- 1×10 warmup set, 1×6-8
- isolation
7. Nautilus curls
- 1×10 warmup set, 1×6-8
- isolation
8. Ab Exercises
- Do random ab exercises for how many reps/sets you want
Quads & Hams & Calves
- isolation
1. Leg extensions
- 1×15 warmup set, 1×12 warmup set, 1×10-12
- compound
2. Leg presses
- 1×12 warmup set, 1×12 warmup set, 1×10-12
- compound
3. Hack Squats
- 1×12 warmup set, 1×10-12
- isolation
4. Lying leg curls
- 1×10-12 warmup set 1×10-12
- compound
5. Stiff-legged deadlifts
- 1×8-10
- isolation
6. Single-leg curls
- 1×8-10
- isolation
7. Standing calf raises
- 1×10-12 warmup set, 1×10-12
- isolation
8. Seated calf raises
- 1×8-10