The Perfect Workout by Dorian Yates
The Perfect Workout
The Six-Time Mr. Olympia's Complete Guide to Making Gains
Training for Optimum Gains
During my six-year reign as Mr. Olympia, the one aspect of my program that garnered the most interest was my training. It was widely recognized as being more intense, meticulous, and purposeful than that of my peers at the time. Millions of people go to the gym and work out every day. What makes their workouts any different from that of a champion, or a future champion? You’ll soon see that there is indeed a world of difference between simply going through the motions of a group of exercises versus the type of workout that stimulates muscle growth each and every time.
Goal Setting
The real key to improving your workouts is to have goals, both short- and long-term. If you’re not really working on achieving anything specific, why would you bother to train terribly hard in the first place? It’s critical that you have both types of goals. A long-term goal like turning pro or weighing 250 pounds when you’re just 170 now is too daunting. It can seem like making those things happen is going to take far too long, and you can easily get discouraged. Instead, break all long-term goals down into smaller ones, and set realistic time limits for each one.
Whatever your goals may be, you need to clearly define them in your mind. The next important step in this process is to write them down. Once something is down on paper or in a computer file for you to see, it instantly becomes stronger and more imprinted in your mind.
Training Journal
That leads us to what I feel is one of the most valuable tools in creating perfect workouts, the training log. I used my journal to write down goals and workouts every day from when I began bodybuilding in 1984 to the day I retired after the 1997 Mr. Olympia. Every month in the off-season, I would choose about 10 key exercises like the incline barbell press, barbell row, leg press and so on and set a goal for how much stronger I wanted to be in a month’s time.
In addition to writing down all my workouts, I entered my meals and even my energy levels and moods. Every so often I would go back and study these pages, looking for trends. If I noticed that something was producing results, I kept it. If something else didn’t seem to be effective, I discarded it. This allowed me to gain a much better understanding of the various foods, exercises, techniques and so on that my particular body responded best to, so I could fine-tune my entire program.
Visualization and Mental Rehearsal
In addition I would always consult my training journal immediately before leaving my home to go train. I would retreat into my office where it was quiet, and review my last few workouts and my goals. I noted the exercises I had done last time for the body part I was about to go train, how much weight I had used, and how many reps I’d gotten. I would then write out the workout I was about to perform, with all the same details.
I thought of bodybuilding as my mission in life. I was a warrior, and each workout represented a battle I had to win. It’s simply not possible for every workout to be better than the last, but I can honestly say I never had a bad workout in all my years of competing. If I ever felt myself feeling run-down or getting sick, I would not train that day. Why bother working out if you can’t give your best effort? That’s a mistake I see a lot of bodybuilders make.
Making progress became harder and harder the bigger and stronger I got, but I knew I had to keep pushing through my previous limits. Your mind and body always want to quit when a set becomes painful or difficult, but if your goals are powerful enough, that’s not an option.
Motivation: Do You Need a Training Partner?
A good training partner or at least a good spotter is essential if you are going to train to true momentary muscular failure, and not just for safety reasons. Think about it for a moment— true failure in an exercise like the bench press is when you are in the bottom position and simply cannot budge that weight another millimeter. You can’t do that on your own, or else in the leg press you would be stuck, pinned to the pad quite effectively, with a half-ton of iron bearing down on you! Having a good spotter gives you the confidence to take your sets all the way to failure. You know that you won’t get stuck under a weight, so you don’t have to hold back any effort.
It should be said that good spotting is almost an art form. A proficient spotter knows exactly how much to help toward the end so you can eke out that final rep, the one that takes you past where you’ve been before and into a new zone where you can grow.
Concentration During the Workout
It’s very important to maintain total concentration during your workout. Some people are able to talk and joke around between sets and switch right back to serious mode once it’s time for their set (Arnold, obviously as we saw in “Pumping Iron,” had that ability). For me, I never wanted any distractions. The only conversations I had with my training partner during the workout were regarding what was next, or how much weight to put on, things of that nature.
I stared at the floor between sets as I never wanted to catch the eye of anyone else in the gym, which would invite conversation. Luckily, I owned the gym and everyone knew that when Dorian was training, you let him be. They all respected my workouts and what I was trying to accomplish in my sport. If you have difficulty staying out of conversations, I recommend the same thing— avoiding eye contact. You may also consider wearing headphones or ear buds to further discourage any unwanted interruptions.
Music
It’s worth mentioning that you can definitely use music to enhance the quality of your workouts. Music has long been known to be capable of changing moods. Some music can help you relax, and other music can put you in a state of excitement and aggression. You know the old cliché, “Music can soothe the savage beast?” It can also bring out the savage beast, so to speak. For about five years, every time it was time to train legs I would put in the Guns ’N Roses CD “Appetite for Destruction.” As soon as the first track, “Welcome to the Jungle,” started, I always felt a mix of nervous energy and trepidation. Leg day was the toughest workout of all, and I knew it was time to really challenge myself. We all have some type of music that gets us hyped up. Whether it’s hard rock, rap, or house/techno, use it to your advantage to stoke the fires of your perfect workout.
Sleep and The Pre-workout Meal
It also goes without saying that one must be well-rested and well-nourished to put forth his or her best effort in the gym. I always slept a solid eight hours a night plus an hour’s nap each afternoon, which took care of my rest. I usually trained in the late morning, so early upon rising I would have a large breakfast of egg whites and oatmeal with some fruit. That would be about three hours before my workout commenced. An hour before the workout, I would have a protein shake with no carbs, along with a strong cup of coffee and perhaps an ephedrine tablet (these were legal and widely-used at the time).
My feeling on having only a light liquid meal of protein before training was that I didn’t want any big fluctuations in my energy levels as you would see with insulin responses to a meal containing carbs. Of course, this was all back in the early to mid-’90s, when we didn’t have any of the pre-workout supplements that enhance the pump and provide extra energy and mental clarity. Had they been available, I probably would have used them.
Can You Make Your Workouts Perfect?
If you’ve read and apply all the guidelines I’ve set out for you this month, you should never again ask yourself, “I wonder if I’ll have a great workout today or not?” It’s not up to fate. It’s all up to you, and it requires motivation, organization, and some prior preparation. Great physiques are built, one perfect workout at a time. The more perfect workouts you can string together, the closer you will be to that physique you dream of.