Dorian Yates is still sharing his elite bodybuilding knowledge, even though he isn't gracing the Mr. Olympia stage anytime soon.

The six-time Mr. Olympia recently detailed his grueling leg day on Instagram, explaining the key to his routine: pre-exhausting the quads before the main lifts.

Two days ago, the 63-year-old retired bodybuilder posted in his gym wear, doing his leg extension exercise, which looked visibly exhausting. And in a long caption, he explains what a typical leg day looks like for the 6x Mr. Olympia.

The leg extension, performed on a Flex leg extension machine with weights behind the machine instead of on the side, pre-exhausts the quads and charges them for the rest of the workout.

He ended the caption with "Putting absolutely everything into this set, an explosive drive on the way up with a big squeeze in the quads. Immersing myself into the movement, visualizing the muscle fibre contracting and lengthening...total mastery of each rep."

And this is not the first time he has talked about the same. Back in 2024, he talked about the same, asserting that pre-exhaustion can be a 'means' toward isolation exercise, especially for weaker muscle groups.

What does Dorian Yates' rest of the leg day look like

Besides the leg extension, exercises that Dorian Yates loves to do are the seated hamstring curls, lying hamstring curls, and the bodyweight squat.

They may not look enough to build the kind of tight legs Yates had and still somewhat has, but they are enough to support the muscles at whatever age. It means that one kick from you can push the door down three blocks.

Here is a detailed layout of Dorian Yates' entire leg day workout routine during his Mr. Olympia days.

Pre-training routine:

After eating his pre-workout meals, which included 200g of oatmeal, 12 egg whites,4 whole eggs, 2 bananas, and 2 pieces of toast with tea. His post-workout meal was much lighter and only included a whey protein shake with a banana.

After some mental training, he would arrive at the gym and spend the next 10 minutes on the bike and the other 10 minutes stretching. And then began the training that would make Hercules proud.

Quad Training

Leg extensions to pre-exhaust quads -

3 sets of 15 reps (warmup)

1 set with increased weights of 10-12 reps

1 all out working set to failure.

Smith machine squats -

2 warmup sets with 50% and 75% weights of the final set.

Working set to failure, which for Dorian was 10-15 reps.

Hack squats -

1 warmup set with 70% of the final set weight.

1 final working set to failure, and with that, quad training was complete.

Hamstring training:

Lying hamstring curls -

2 warmup sets of 10 reps with 50% and 70-75% weight of the final set.

1 final set of 8 reps with a partner assist.

Stiff legged deadlift -

1 warmup set

1 final set of 10-12 reps to failure

Calf training:

Standing calf raises -

1 warmup set 12 reps (setting the weights at 1000lbs)

1 final set to failure, which was reached in 10-12 reps (weights were set at a whopping 1500lbs)

Seated calf raises -

1 warmup set of 10-12 reps

1 final set of 10-12 reps with a partner assist to reach failure.

Would you try any out? If yes, which ones, and if no, why? Tell us in the comments.

Written by

Ruwa Javed

Edited by

Joyita Das