Ali Bilal has brought in one of bodybuilding's most accomplished names to help him address the area he believes needs the most work ahead of the 2026 Mr. Olympia.

Bilal traveled to Marbella, Spain, to train with six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates before making things Instagram official.

"Proud to officially announce that I'll be training with the legend himself, @thedorianyates, as I prepare for this year's Olympia," captioned Bilal.

Bilal concluded the Instagram caption by showing his excitement.

"Excited for what the future brings. This is just the beginning," wrote Bilal via his official Instagram account (@alihealth_1).

The pairing makes sense once you look at where Bilal has fallen short. He's spent the past two seasons chasing three-time Men's Physique champ Ryan Terry, who has consistently out-muscled him with a bigger, more developed back. 

Yates won six straight Mr. Olympia titles from 1992 to 1997, building a reputation for a back that redefined what the category could look like, as per Rick Saleeby of Generation Iron.

Inside Ali Bilal's Back Session With Dorian Yates

Before agreeing to work together long-term, Yates put Bilal through one of his signature high-intensity back sessions.

"We had a little chat. Ali told me that his back is his weakest point that he needs to focus on," Yates said in the YouTube video posted by Ali Bilal. "So I said there's maybe something I know one or two things about that. He took the flight. He came here."

The workout ran through machine pullovers, lat pulldowns, one-arm dumbbell rows, low cable rows, and bent-over dumbbell rear delt flyes, with Yates correcting form throughout rather than just piling on weight.

On lat pulldowns, Yates caught Bilal leaning back too far and pulled him up on it. "You're leaning back and not getting the lats; you're using upper back more," Yates said.

He didn't stop there, pointing out why that detail matters so much this close to a show.

"Everybody in the contest has got upper back, right? Not many people have the lower lats because they're not focused," Yates added.

Yates also had Bilal focus on driving the dumbbell from shoulder to hip during one-arm rows, then pushed him through forced reps on the low cable row. By the end, Bilal wasn't holding back how brutal it felt. 

"Beginning it felt pretty good, but at the end, I feel like throwing up," he admitted. Yates simply called it what it was, "It's a shock for your system."

Even with just weeks left before the show, Yates made clear the point wasn't to grind Bilal into the ground. During machine pullovers, he reminded him to keep the triceps relaxed. 

Bilal comes into Vegas off a New York Pro win, though that loss to Kyron Holden in Pittsburgh clearly stuck with him enough to make a change. The 2026 Mr. Olympia goes down September 24-27 in Las Vegas.

Written by

Rudra Dubey