Bodybuilding legend Dorian Yates made the most of his time inside the gym throughout his career and that hasn’t changed in retirement. In a recent Instagram post shared on December 5, 2024, Yates explained why he doesn’t take part in workouts twice a day and underlined the importance of recovery for muscle growth.
Dorian Yates led a reign of terror in the Men’s Open division, having conquered the Mr. Olympia stage for six consecutive years. In that time, he weaponized mass and granite conditioning like no other competitor, which led to him overwhelming his rivals on stage including Shawn Ray, Kevin Levrone, and Flex Wheeler.
Yates adopted training principles he learned from the late Mike Mentzer and Arthur Jones, which focused on intensity and going to failure instead of performing a fixed number of reps or sets. This allowed him to spend much less time inside the gym compared to his peers. Now, he’s imparting wisdom to fans and competitors who wish to follow in his footsteps.
Twice-a-Day Gym Sessions? Dorian Yates Breaks Down Why Less is More
In his latest offering on Instagram, Dorian Yates explained why he never trained more than once a day and stressed the importance of recovery for growth.
“Training in the gym twice per day?🤔
Here’s the Shadow’s take on training in the gym twice per day…
Back in his competitive bodybuilding days, Dorian was only ever in the gym for maximum, 1 hour… and that was for legs!
Remember the process; stimulate, recovery, growth.💪”
Yates emphasized that you should be able to accomplish everything in one session, after that, you are diminishing gains and inhibiting muscle growth.
“Coming into the gym twice a day when you should be resting, I mean, we got the job done. It’s like, I don’t know how long it took us, 20- 25 minutes to do delts? Well, if you want to do something else, do it in one session, you know what I mean?”
“You never need to be here more than an hour anyway, so the rest of your, here is damage initiation of the process of growth” Dorian Yates explained.
This is far from the first time Dorian Yates has implored his followers to prioritize recovery. He believes if your goal is muscle growth, you ‘send the message’ at the gym with strenuous activity and recover with rest, sleep, and food to effectively build the physique.
Having led one of the most successful bodybuilding careers of all time, to this day, individuals are learning how to maximize their training efforts, thanks to his guidance. Perhaps two-a-days have their place for some people, but Yates believes if you train with enough intensity and forethought, it might only take one session a day.
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