Dana Linn Bailey continues to impress and educate her followers through social media channels. Bailey is a retired professional bodybuilder, fitness model, and entrepreneur. She is among the pioneers of the Women’s physique division of the IFBB Pro League and is credited with a win at the first-ever Women’s Physique contest at the 2011 Jr. USA. Bailey became the inaugural Women’s Physique Olympia champion at the 2013 Olympia and achieved a runner-up finish at the show in 2014. Dana Linn Bailey also tried her hand at powerlifting and lifted a total of 877 lbs (396.9 kg) at the 2018 Arnold Sports Festival.
Bailey has become one of the foremost fitness influencers since retiring from the sport and enjoys a combined 2.5 million followers on YouTube and Instagram. She routinely shares fitness content on her YouTube channel which includes workouts, training collaborations with other influential people from the fitness industry as well as bodybuilding tips. In recent months, Bailey has shared her supplement stack as well as bodybuilding diet on her YouTube channel.
On Feb. 22, Dana Linn Bailey shared a push day workout on her YouTube channel. In the video, the former Women’s Physique Olympia champion explained the correct techniques to perform the exercises and also shared some important bodybuilding tips to get the most out of them. So without further delay, let’s take a closer look at the detailed account of this training session.
Dana Linn Bailey goes through a push day workout
Dana Linn Bailey started the training session with this bodyweight compound movement to warm up the muscles. She advised doing 50 reps of push-ups to get started.
“You don’t have to do it in a row. You can split it up into five sets of ten. I’m going to do as many as I possibly can,” Bailey stated.
She performed more than 20 push-ups in the first go and reached the number 50 in subsequent sets. After getting the blood flowing into the muscles with this exercise, Dana Linn Bailey took to the first compound movement of the day.
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Bench Press
Dana Linn Bailey started the training session with chest exercises and performed the most effective exercise for building the upper body pushing strength. Bench press is the most effective exercise for pectoral muscle activation and also activates the shoulder and triceps which are essential for building pushing strength.
“I try to do one big compound movement (in every workout), DLB said.
The former Women’s Physique Olympia champion performed warm-up sets to get to a working set of six reps. She added 5 to 10 lbs more weight in each consecutive set and moved on to the next exercise after cranking out four working sets.
Low-to-High Flyes
Dana Linn Bailey next took to this variation of cable chest flyes. For each set, she started with the incline position and performed 10 to 12 reps. Then she switched over to the seated position and did a few more reps to failure. In total, DLB pushed through four sets of this exercise with slow and controlled movements before taking up the next movement.
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
DLB shifted her focus to the shoulders and started with this compound movement once again. The retired bodybuilder performed the warm-up sets first and started with working sets once she could do six reps. After doing three working sets, Bailey did a drop set by dropping the weight by approximately 40 percent.
Dumbbell Lateral Raises
Bailey performed six to eight reps of one-and-a-half lateral raises in each set. To do this variation of lateral raises:
- Stand straight with dumbbells in both hands
- Raise the arms laterally all the way up to the shoulder level
- Lower the arms half way and raise them back up to the shoulder level
- Lower the arms down to the starting position.
- This counts as one full rep of one-and-a-half lateral raises
“Once you’ve pretty much fatigued that way, you’ll still be able to get some more (regular full reps). It’s actually a lot easier to do full range than adding that little partial because it’s just more time under tension,” Bailey stated.
Therefore after reaching near failure with one-and-a-half reps, Bailey performed a few reps of regular dumbbell lateral raises as a part of the same set. Dana Linn Bailey then finished the set with a few pulsing reps at the top with a resistance band.
To do the pulsing reps:
- Hold the ends of the resistance band in hands
- The center of the band is pinned under the feet
- Raise your arms laterally up to shoulder height
- Bring your arms down by the quarter of the full range of motion
- Raise them back up to the shoulder height and repeat this two to three times in a quick pulsing fashion
- Lower the arms down to the starting position
- This counts as one full rep
“So what this does, all that blood – you’re not letting it go down. Because every time you come down, blood leaves the shoulders and then you build it back up. So we’re going to (keep) as much blood in the muscle as possible,” Dana Linn Bailey explained.
Dana Linn Bailey performed this movement with a rest-pause method. In all, one set of lateral raises consisted of six to eight reps of one-and-a-half reps, four to six full reps and 20 to 30 pulsing reps with rest-pause method.
Dumbbell Skull Crushers
Dana Linn Bailey jumped into triceps exercises next and performed the dumbbell skull crushers. EZ bar is also one of her preferred equipment for doing this exercise. However, DLB likes to modify the movement slightly to get extra contraction in the triceps when she uses dumbbells. While explaining the way she prefers to perform this movement, Bailey explained:
“When you bring the dumbbells up (during skull crushers), number one, you never want to stack your wrists over your elbow over your shoulders. Coz you now have lost all the contraction from your triceps. So you always want them to be kind of angled back so that you’re pulling on your triceps at all times.”
DLB further added that she prefers to twist the wrists while lifting the dumbbells so that the thumbs face each other at the top of the movement. This helps her get a little extra contraction in the triceps. However, it is perfectly alright to bring the weight straight up without twisting the wrists as well.
Dana Linn Bailey combined the exercise with a close-grip dumbbell press. She performed four sets of this exercise with incrementally heavy weights maintaining a 12,10, 8, and 8 rep range. Bailey started every set with the dumbbell skull crushers, performed the specified number of reps, and switched to the close grip dumbbell press without changing the weight or taking a break and finished the set with this movement.
Triceps Rope Pushdowns
This triceps movement served as the finisher to the former Women’s Physique Olympia champion’s push-day workout. Bailey prefers to use the rope attachment more than a straight bar or an EZ bar. After pushing through a few solid sets of this exercise, DLB wrapped up the training session.
Overall, the training session included:
Warm-up
- Push-ups – 1 set of 50 reps
Workout
- Bench Press – 4 sets of 6 reps
- Low-to-High Cable Flyes – Incline and Seated 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps and 4 sets to failure
- Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 4 warm-up sets of 10 reps and 4 working sets of six reps
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises – Tri set of six to eight one-and-a-half reps, four to six full reps, and pulsing reps to failure
- Dumbbell Skull Crushers and Close Grip Dumbbell Press – Four sets of 12, 10, 8, and 8 reps (Start every set with dumbbell skull crushers and do the close grip dumbbell press without changing the weight or taking a break. A combination of both counts as one full set)
- Triceps Rope Pushdowns – 12 to 15 reps per set, number of sets as per choice
Dana Linn Bailey is a huge source of pre-workout motivation and insightful tips on bodybuilding. So head out to the gym and try this epic push-day workout to see the results.
You can watch the full workout video here, courtesy of Dana Linn Bailey’s personal YouTube channel:
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