Every exercise serves a purpose, and according to Dorian Yates, upright rows have none. In a recent Instagram clip shared by @endless.bodybuilding, 6-time Mr. Olympia, revered for his incredible physique, reveals why he never had and never would perform upright rows.

“Never done upright rows. Just a silly exercise. What is it? Is it a bit of biceps? Is it a bit of traps? Is it a bit of delts? It’s like a nothing exercise,” Yates said. “Never done them. Waste of time,” he said with conviction.

Yates revealed that he doesn’t like performing upright rows and even lunges, calling them ‘silly exercises.’ He believed that the exercise doesn’t target any specific muscle group effectively but instead spreads across the biceps, shoulders, and traps.

Yates’ workout philosophy is simple- every exercise should target a specific muscle group and have a clear purpose.

According to him, the best way to train shoulders is to pick an exercise that trains your delts. For biceps, practice movements that are specifically designed for the biceps. The same goes for traps.

Exercises like upright rows and lunges, he believed, simply attempt to train several muscle groups at once without any of them receiving the right stimulus needed for growth.

Yates’ training philosophy was clear and simple, helping him build the incredible physique that skyrocketed his career.

How Dorian Yates liked to train his arms for maximum muscle growth

Yates’ workout philosophy may sound unconventional, but we cannot deny that it worked for him.

According to Yates, you should only train one body part each week. As per The Barbell, Yates did not believe in overtraining- he trained only four days a week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday) while resting the other days.

He also believed in logging each of his workouts so he could train his body optimally.

“Preparation is key. You must already have your workout planned from start to finish. This includes: exercises, goals, weights, and reps. Keep a logbook of every workout. Beat your previous workout with your next workout.”

Furthermore, he talked about progressively building up from moderate-intensity warm-ups before leading up to a working set.

His arm workouts consisted of exercises like-

• Smith Machine military press
• Seated dumbbell side laterals
• One-arm cable laterals
• Dumbbell shrugs
• Pushdowns
• Lying EZ-bar triceps extensions
• Nautilus one-arm extensions
• Hammer strength machine rear delt flys
• Bent-over dumbbell rear lateral
• Incline dumbbell curls
• EZ-bar curls

Note that he didn’t perform all these arm workouts in one session. He preferred to divide them into days where he could target multiple muscle groups at one time instead of overtraining each muscle daily.

Do you agree with Yates’ opinion about upright rows?

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Written by

Avantika Das

Edited by

Zaid Quraishi