After nearly three decades of retirement, Dorian Yates still trains to this day, though at a much lower intensity. In a recent Instagram post, he revealed the training protocols he follows at 63.

The 6x Mr. Olympiya took to his Instagram to share a montage of himself doing seated rows with the caption highlighting, “Thought I’d show you all a little of my weight training; I’m pretty limited from my bicep and tricep injury on my left arm, which makes it mechanically weaker since the muscle has shortened quite a bit when it got torn.”

Yates highlighted how, nowadays, his workout routine is quite limited to certain movements: “I can’t really do many pressing exercises.” However, there are certain exercises he still performs even if his body doesn’t allow him to push much: “I still can do pulldowns and rows for back, and for delts, it’s just some light dumbbell lateral raises.”

The former Mr. Olympia knows that his body will not be able to push the heavy loads he used to handle in his prime. So nowadays, the 6x Olympia champion makes sure that his workouts mainly revolve around functional training, “for movement and to help recovery.”

Most of his leg workout orbits around “bike work and some stuff with kettlebells.”

He concluded by saying that he doesn’t really need to lift all those weights anymore: “My goal is to maintain my muscle mass; I am 230lbs and lean.”

That said, although he himself keeps a safe distance away from HIIT workouts at 63, he has shared a “cheat code” that people can follow for better muscle growth.

Dorian Yates’ 10 exercises for better muscle growth

Yates made his career by performing HIIT workouts. Sources say that he used to train 3–4 days a week and focused on hour-long HIIT sessions. So, when he was asked about his top 10 exercises for muscle growth, he had the perfect answer.

• Leg Extension
• Squat or Leg Press
• Nautilus Pullover
• Pulldown
• Bench Press Movement
• Chest Fly Movement
• Lateral Raise – Dumbbells or Cables
• Standing Calf Raise
• Concentration Curl
• Cable Triceps Pushdown

Yates believed that isolation movements handle more load than compound movements, which is why it’s better to focus on them predominantly.

What are your thoughts on his workout? Have any tips and tricks up your sleeve?

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Written by

Suryakant Das

Edited by

Joyita Das