Bodybuilding legend Dorian Yates attacked his training sessions with calculated aggression and methodical technique. In a recent Instagram reel shared on November 11, 2024, ‘The Shadow’ revealed his approach to pre-exhausting muscles to maximize results inside the gym.
Dorian Yates was no stranger to testing himself against the upper echelon of the Men’s Open class. He ushered in a new era of mass monsters in the 1990s en route to claiming six consecutive Mr. Olympia titles, regularly denying aesthetic threats like Shawn Ray and Kevin Levrone a chance to hold the honor.
To build such a monstrous physique, Yates mastered not only nutrition but technique-driven training. Using principles he learned from the late Arthur Jones and Mike Mentzer, Yates carefully crafted his physique by going to failure instead of relying upon a fixed number of reps or sets.
Dorian Yates Discusses Pre-Exhaust Training, Says to ‘Envision Yourself as the Muscle’
Having displayed his physique on the sport’s greatest stage, he naturally picked up creative and effective methods for training. From how he approached workouts mentally to capitalizing on pre-exhaustion, he reached the top of the sport and is now offering up valuable wisdom for his fans to absorb.
“Let’s talk about pre-exhaustion!😎”
Since most of your larger muscle groups are limited in strength on compound movements, by a weaker muscle group, you can use pre-exhaustion as a means of doing an isolation exercise to failure prior to performing a compound exercise.
Yates explained the purpose of pre-exhausting the muscles and how it can be useful for weaker muscle groups.
“By pre-exhausting a muscle, it assures that the targeted muscle does all the work it can during a compound exercise. It’s particularly useful to use if you find a certain muscle gives out before the intended, targeted muscle. For example your biceps giving out before your lats on pulldowns.”
He provides an example of when he uses pre-exhaust techniques during a workout.
“For example, Dorian pre-exhausted his lats by performing pullovers first before compound exercises and for his quads; by performing leg extensions first.”
“He did try this with delts and chest too by performing side raises and pec deck before a pressing exercise, but it didn’t feel great in his shoulder joint.”
However, Dorian Yates always encourages his followers to try it out and decide what works best for their training routines.
“Of course give it a go and see how you get on.
But as ever, you MUST envision yourself as the muscle. Feeling every aspect of the movement and how the muscle fibres would perform during each phase.💪”
Yates also briefly touched on post-exhausting muscles, using this specifically when he feels more tension in his joints.
“The reason is (for post-exhaustion), I feel if we do the isolation exercises for delts or chest, I tend to feel it in the joint a little more than if I do a basic close.
So, it’s not like don’t do it, you can try it, try to do the isolation first and press afterward and see how it feels, but for me, I feel it, like if I do a compound push first, the joint’s a bit more warmed up. So, that’s really the reason why” Dorian explained.
Although Yates boasts jaw-dropping longevity today, his efforts haven’t been without his fair share of struggles. He recently underwent a total right hip replacement surgery at 62 years old. Fortunately, the operation was a success and he intends to continue spreading knowledge within the bodybuilding community while he heals up from the ordeal.
Dorian Yates continues to provide invaluable insights to the bodybuilding and fitness communities. Despite his recent surgery, Yates wasted no time educating his fans on social media. Be sure to give Dorian Yates’ pre-exhaust method a try and let us know how it goes!
RELATED: Dorian Yates’ Guide to Bodybuilding Gains: When to Opt for Machines vs. Free Weights
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