Dana Linn Bailey is an American professional bodybuilder, fitness model, and social media celebrity. She won the 2011 Jr. USA — the first women’s physique contest in IFBB history and the 2013 Women’s Physique Olympia.
With close to 500K subscribers, Bailey is probably one of the most famous female fitness YouTubers. Additionally, she has 2 million followers on Instagram — putting her combined fan count to 2.5 million on the two social media platforms.
Dana Linn Bailey
(IFBB Women’s Physique Professional bodybuilder, business owner)
| Full Name: Dana Linn Bailey (Women’s Physique bodybuilder) | ||
| Weight | Height | Age |
| 123 – 135 pounds (56 – 61 kilograms) | 5’5” (165.1cm) | 39 years |
| Date of Birth | Era | Nationality |
| May 30, 1983 | 2010 | American |
Early Life
Dana Linn Bailey via @danalinnbailey
Born on May 30, 1980, Dana Linn Bailey started her fitness journey when she was five years old. Her parents encouraged her to participate in swimming classes, which helped her develop a competitive attitude and focused her attention on contact sports such as soccer, field hockey, and basketball.
Dana had become a decent soccer player by the time she reached university (West Chester) and played for them as a starting defender.
When Bailey could not continue her soccer practice after university, she started looking for other avenues to help her meet her fitness goals. This is when she found the gym and started learning the ins and outs of bodybuilding with her boyfriend (now husband), Rob Bailey.
As she started seeing progress in her physique, she kept pushing herself — ultimately landing on the Olympia stage and winning the show.
Competition and Career
Before switching to a full-time bodybuilding career, Dana taught Physical Education at Conrad Weiser Middle School in Robesonia, Pennsylvania until 2007.
Unbeknown to many people, Bailey started her bodybuilding career as a figure competitor. Her first figure competition was the 2006 Lehigh Valley Championships. She competed in the figure division until 2010.
Dana Linn Bailey stepped on stage as a Women’s Physique competitor for the first time in 2011. She entered the debut Women’s Physique contest — the 2011 Junior USAs in Charleston, South Carolina, and made history by winning her class, overall, and becoming the first women’s physique professional in the NPC/IFBB.
Dana Linn Bailey Competition History
- 2011 Jr. USAs — First place and Overall
- 2012 Desert Muscle Classic — Fourth place
- 2012 New York Pro — 16th
- 2013 Tampa Pro — Second place
- 2013 Dallas Europa — First place
- 2013 Olympia — First place
- 2014 Olympia — Second place
- 2015 Arnold Classic — Second place
- 2018 Arnold Classic (powerlifting) — 877 lbs total (397.5 kg) did not place
- 2019 Brute Showdown Women’s edition — Second place
Although we do not see Dana Linn Bailey on the stage anymore, she has not slowed down in the gym. She trains with the same intensity (if not more) as in her golden competitive years. Her training videos are a potent source of pre-workout motivation.
Bailey is much more than a bodybuilder. She is an entrepreneur and owns a gym chain, supplement brand, and clothing line.
Dana Linn Bailey Diet Program
When Bailey is not competing, she does not follow a strict calorie-restricted diet plan. Instead, she focuses on eating clean and nutrient-dense whole foods.
Dana follows a high-protein diet as it helps in building muscle mass and strength, lessens hunger, and burns fat.
Bailey Diet Principles
These are the dieting principles Dana swears by:
1. Achieve Equilibrium
Dana believes that if you are training for longevity and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, you shouldn’t be too restrictive with your diet. You should follow a diet that suits your lifestyle.
2. Eat Protein in Every Meal
Dana Linn Bailey recommends eating high-protein food in every meal. Not only does protein help in building muscle mass and losing weight, but it can also help you feel full for longer — reducing your chances of munching on junk food during the day.
Since Dana does not like to spend too much time preparing her meals, she adds peanut butter, whey protein smoothies, or meat brownies to her meals for convenience.
3. Carbs are Not Your Enemy
Most fitness rookies eliminate carbs from their diet while trying to lose bodyweight. While this technique could help you shed excess body fat, you will also see a loss of muscle mass.
Not only is a carb-restricted diet bad for your muscle gains, but it can also negatively impact your overall health. As per research, consuming fewer than 50 grams of carbs per day can cause flu-like symptoms — including headaches, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, and constipation. (1)
Bailey believes that some foods work better for you than others. At the beginning of her fitness career, DLB believed that brown rice was better than white. Although she stuck to this notion for several years, Bailey now uses the latter in her diet as she feels that white rice is a better source of carbs and tastes better.
You need to figure out which food sources work the best for you and then double down on them.
4. Don’t Be Scared of Dessert
When not competing, Bailey does not believe in suppressing her cravings. She isn’t afraid of indulging in ice cream, pizza, Lucky Charms cereal, and chocolate.
However, she does not make a habit of eating junk food and tries to burn off the excess calories in her next workout.
5. Eat To Reach Your Goal
With all said and done, DLB understands that every individual has different needs and should follow a diet that helps them achieve their goal most efficiently.
According to Bailey, if you want to transform your physique, you should follow a personalized diet plan consisting of nutrient-dense whole foods.
Dana Lin Bailey Diet Plan
The Women’s Physique Olympia champ eats five meals a day to ensure her metabolic rate remains in top gear. This is what her daily meal plan looks like:
First Meal
- 1 whole egg
- 1 cup of egg whites
- Almond milk
- Oatmeal with fruit
Second Meal
- Greek yogurt
- Almonds
Third Meal
- 6 ounces of grilled chicken breast
- White rice
- Frank’s Redhot sauce
Fourth Meal
- 6 ounces of grilled chicken breast or tuna
- Sweet potatoes
- Broccoli
Fifth Meal
- Low sugar cereal
- 2 rice cakes
- 1 tbsp of almond butter
- 2 scoops of whey protein
Foods To Eat on Dana Linn Bailey Diet Program
DLB’s diet consists of the following food items:
- Egg Whites
- Green Vegetables
- Poultry
- Greek Yogurt
- Oatmeal
- Fruit
- Light Dressing
- Water
- Whey Protein
- Spinach
- Fish
- Almond Butter
- Sweet Potatoes
- Nuts
- Reduced-Fat Cheese
- Coffee
- Peanut Butter
Foods To Avoid on Dana Linn Bailey Diet Program
Knowing what to avoid is as important as knowing what to eat while dieting. These food items are a strict no-no on the Dana Linn Bailey diet program:
- Processed Foods
- Junk Food
- Chemical Ingredients
- Refined Sugar
- Fast Food
- Artificial Additives
Dana Linn Bailey Workout Program
Bailey started lifting weights when it was not considered cool for girls. She is one of the first female lifters who normalized lifting heavy and became famous in the process.
DLB is strong and has great muscle symmetry, size, and definition. In brief, what she is doing is working for her and could work for you, too. Following her training routine will shorten your learning curve and give you a head start.
Workout Principles
Dana Linn Bailey uses the following training principles to make her workouts more effective:
1. Best of Both Worlds — Powerlifting and Bodybuilding
Dana’s training incorporates both bodybuilding and powerlifting protocols. She performs 1RMs (one-rep max) to improve her strength and focuses on annihilating her muscles with longer TuTs (time under tension) to damage muscle fibers so they can grow back bigger and stronger.
It helps her build muscle mass, conditioning, and symmetry while improving her overall strength.
“My training is a mix of powerlifting and bodybuilding. I absolutely love the challenge of powerlifting.” — Dana Linn Bailey
2. Constantly Switch Things Up
DLB does not follow the same workout for more than a few weeks. She adds variety to her training by performing different variations of the exercises or switching between bodybuilding, powerlifting, and CrossFit training routines.
Performing the same workout over and over again is a sure-shot way of heating a plateau. You need to constantly switch up your workouts to ensure your muscles don’t get used to your training style.
3. Plan for Success
To make the most of your workouts, you should plan your workouts in advance.
Benjamin Franklin could not have been more apt when he said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Following a program allows you to fix your weak areas and double down on your strengths. On the other hand, going with your gut feeling in the gym will most likely lead you to easy exercises, and you’ll end up leaving gains on the table.
4. Rest is as Important as Training
Remember: When you are in the gym, you break down muscle tissues. The muscles grow back bigger and stronger when you are resting. An effective nutrition and rest program fastens your recovery process after a hard workout.
Your goal should be to sleep at least 7-8 hours every night. If you cannot get the recommended hours of sleep in a single stretch, make up for it by napping in the noon.
5. Have Fun
You must enjoy your transformation program. If your training, diet, and recovery program feel like a chore and you go through it half-heartedly, you are more likely to quit.
Before you start your transformation journey, find out which strength sports interests you the most — it could be weightlifting, powerlifting, or bodybuilding. Try all of them for a few weeks before settling on one.
You could also cycle between different training protocols to spice things up and keep your workouts interesting.
Workout Split
DLB follows a five-day training routine. She allows her muscles two days to recover from her intense training. This is what her workout split looks like:
- Monday: Chest
- Tuesday: Shoulders
- Wednesday: Back
- Thursday: Legs
- Friday: Arms
- Saturday: Rest
- Sunday: Rest
Workout Splits
- Best Workout Splits
- 3-Day Workout Split
- 4-Day Split Workout
- 5-Day Workout Split
- 5-Day Dumbbell Split
- The Pectoral Split
- Functional Training Split
- Full-Body Vs. Split Workouts
DLB Training Plan
Dana Linn Bailey follows a high-volume and high-intensity training regimen that will torture your muscles into growing.
The heavy compound movements help in building muscle mass and strength, whereas the isolation movements add definition and firmness to her physique.
Monday: Chest
- 5 Rep Max Bench Press
- Bench Press (90% 5 RM): 4 sets of 5 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 5 sets of 12, 10, 8, and 6 reps
- Incline Cable Fly: 4-5 sets AMRAP
- Cable Cross Fly into Dumbbell Floor Press: 4-5 sets of AMRAP
Tuesday: Shoulders
- Seated Cable Front Raise: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Seated Cable Face Pull: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Standing Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Seated Cable Overhead Press: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Seated Dumbbell Overhead Press: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Rear Fly: 4 of 8-12 reps
- Alternating Front Raise into Clean and Press: 4 sets of 10 reps
Wednesday: Back
- Bent-Over Cable Lat Pulldown: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Close-Grip Seated Cable Row: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Wagon Wheel Barbell Deadlift: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Wide-Grip Seated Lat Pulldown: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Behind-the-Head Lat Pulldown: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Barbell Row: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Reverse Push-Up on Rack: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
- Machine Rear Delt Fly: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
Thursday: Legs
- Seated Leg Curl: 2 sets of 10 reps
- Pause Squat: 5 sets of 6-8 reps
- Long Pause Squat: 5 sets of 3 reps
- Lying Leg Curl: 4 sets of 10 reps
- Barbell Stiff-Legged Deadlift: 5 sets of 15, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps
- Elevated Dumbbell Sumo Squat: 4 sets of 15 reps
- Superset
- Single-Leg Extension: 4 sets of 10 reps
- Bulgarian Split Squat: 4 sets of 10 reps
Friday: Arms
- Straight Bar Curl: 4 sets of 10-12 reps
- Dumbbell Hammer Curl: 4 sets of 10-12 reps
- Reverse Grip Cable Curl: 4 sets of 10-12 reps
- Reverse Grip Pulldown: 4 sets of 10-12 reps
- EZ-Bar Skull Crusher: 4 sets of 10-12 reps
- EZ-Bar Close Grip Press: 4 sets of 10-12 reps
- Overhead Rope Cable Extension: 4 sets of 10-12 reps
- Rope Extension: 4 sets of 10-12 reps
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Bonus: DLB Full-Body Circuit
If you are running short on time and need a quick fitness fix, follow the following DLB full-body HIIT circuit routine to burn fat, build muscle mass and conditioning:
- Box Jump: 30 reps
- Toes to Bar: 30 reps
- Elevated Push-up: 30 reps
- Ring Pull-up: 30 reps
- Bar Dips: 30 reps
- Clean and Jerk: 30 reps
Supplements
The Women’s Physique Olympia champ uses the following supplements to support her intense training routine:
1. Fat Burner: Helps ensure DLB is not storing excess body fat. Keeps her shredded throughout the year.
2. Multivitamins: A multivitamin supplement is a great way of ensuring that you are meeting your daily micronutrient needs. Falling deficient in the micronutrient department can negatively impact your mood, energy levels, memory, and strength.
3. Pre-Workout: A pre-workout supplement can help enhance the quality of your workouts by improving your focus, and muscle pumps, and delaying fatigue. (Strong options)
4. BCAA: Help increase muscle growth, decrease DOMS, reduce exercise fatigue, and prevent muscle wasting.
5. Whey Protein: It is no secret that whey protein is a darling of the bodybuilding community. It helps build muscle and burn fat at the same time.
Wrapping Up
Dana Linn Bailey is known for her intense training style and dedication. Her high-volume workouts are a great fit for men and women alike. If you want to get the best bang for your buck on the DLB transformation program, make sure you have nothing left in the tank by the end of the workout. Best of luck!
References
- Paoli, A et al. “Beyond weight loss: a review of the therapeutic uses of very-low-carbohydrate (ketogenic) diets.” European journal of clinical nutrition vol. 67,8 (2013): 789-96. doi:10.1038/ejcn.2013.116
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