Are you curious about the Dorian Yates diet?
Do you wonder how “The Shadow” organized his diet plan to build muscle in the offseason, and come in absolutely shredded for |his bodybuilding competitions?
Then you’ve come to the right place.
In this comprehensive guide, I will show you how to use the Dorian Yates diet plan to take your physique to the next level!
Introduction
- Part 1: The Dorian Yates Diet Plan
- Part 2: The Dorian Yates Workout Routine
Dorian Yates is one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time.
He won the Mr. Olympia competition 6 times in a row from 1991 – 1997, something that only a handful of other bodybuilders have achieved.
Dorian is best known for his intense “Blood And Guts” training style, where he performs 1 all-out working set to failure per exercise. However, Dorian believed that diet and nutrition are at least as important as your workouts for getting huge and shredded!
Dorian Yates Stats
- Date Of Birth: April 19th, 1962
- Height: 5 Feet 10 Inches
- Weight: 265 Pounds
- Body Fat: About 3 Percent
- Nickname: “The Shadow”
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The Dorian Yates Diet Plan
Dorian Yates knows the importance of following a strict diet for building muscle.
During his entire competitive bodybuilding career Dorian ate 7 huge muscle-building meals per day. Dorian says that he beat a lot of bodybuilders with better genetics than him because he had the discipline to follow his diet 365 days per year!
Here is the exact diet that Dorian Yates used to become one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time. Check it out:
The Dorian Yates Bodybuilding Diet
Meal 1
- 12 egg whites
- 4 whole eggs
- 200 grams oats
- 2 bananas
- 2 slices wholemeal toast
- Jam (on the toast)
Meal 2
- 2 Scoops whey protein
- 1 banana
Meal 3
- 2 scoops whey protein
- Simple carbs
- Powdered amino acids
- Creatine
Meal 4
- 300 grams grilled chicken
- 150 grams brown rice
- Mixed vegetables
Meal 5
- 2 scoops whey protein
- Rice cakes
Meal 6
- 300 grams filet mignon
- 300 grams sweet potatoes
- Mixed vegetables
Meal 7
- 12 egg whites
- 2 whole eggs
- 150 grams oatmeal
Now that is a TON of food! Dorian Yates says that he ate 4,000 calories per day when dieting, and up to 6,500 calories per day when he was eating to build muscle mass!
In order to eat all of this food, he ate up to 7 balanced meals per day.
Dorian says that spreading out your daily calories over 6-7 meals is the only way to consistently eat this much food each day.
“Your goal should be to eat 6 or 7 small meals.”
In terms of his overall diet, Dorian says that he always shot for about 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.
Dorian weighed as much as 275 pounds in the offseason, so for him that meant eating upwards of 400 grams of protein every single day!
“I always aimed for 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight.”
After setting his protein goals, Dorian focused on using carbs and fats for energy. Dorian was a big believer in using carbs to grow.
He often ate up to 600 grams of complex carbs per day!
Some of his favorite carb sources included oatmeal, toast, potatoes, rice, and rice cakes.
Of course, he also ate plenty of healthy fats, as they play a crucial role in your hormone production. Some of his favorite fat sources included whole eggs and fatty steak.
“The remainder of your calories should come from complex carbs and healthy fats.”
Dorian says that his offseason breakfast alone had up to 1,500 calories.
He liked to wake up and eat 12 egg whites, 4 whole eggs, 200 grams of oats, 2 bananas, and 2 slices of wholemeal toast! That’s enough food to feed an entire family of 5… and this is just Dorian’s breakfast!
Dorian says that he went for a 45 minute walk immediately after breakfast. His next 2 meals were his pre-workout and post-workout shakes.
For these meals he liked to have whey protein, plus some simple carbs like bananas or carb powders.
Later in the day he had several large meals consisting of foods like chicken, steak, potatoes, rice, and mixed green vegetables. These are staple foods that almost every bodybuilder eats to build muscle mass.
Finally, Dorian’s last meal of the day is a slightly smaller version of his breakfast.
Of course, it is still enough to feed several people! He eats 12 egg whites, 2 whole eggs, and 150 grams of oatmeal. It’s hard to imagine eating that much clean “bodybuilding” food per day.
However, Dorian Yates is a champion, and he was willing to do whatever it took to reach his goals!
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Dorian Yates Diet Tips
Dorian Yates knows how hard it can be to set up a proper bodybuilding diet.
That’s why he’s put together this list of helpful tips to get you on the right track!
Tip #1: Track Your Macros!
Dorian Yates believes it is absolutely essential to track your macronutrients. In other words, if you are serious about building muscle then you should track the exact number of proteins, carbs, and fats that you eat in a day.
Dorian weighed all of his meals on a small food scale.
That way he knew exactly how much food he was eating at every single meal, so he could make small adjustments to continue making progress.
Tip #2: Eat Big To Get Big!
Dorian says that if you want to be a world-class bodybuilder, then you have to eat a lot of food on a daily basis!
Dorian ate up to 6,500 calories when he was “bulking,” and around 4,000 calories when he was dieting down for his bodybuilding competition.
Of course, Dorian wasn’t eating junk food to hit his daily calorie requirements. Instead, he focused on the following clean bodybuilding foods:
- Whole eggs
- Egg whites
- Chicken
- Steak
- Whey protein
- Oats
- Potatoes
- Rice cakes
- Bananas
As you can see, Dorian focused on the classic bodybuilding foods like eggs, oats, chicken, steak, potatoes, and so on. Dorian’s food selection was as simple as it gets!
Tip #3: Whey Protein Shakes Are Acceptable!
Dorian says that using a few whey protein shakes throughout the day is perfectly acceptable.
Whey protein has a great amino acid profile, and it’s hard to eat 7 meals of chicken or steak per day.
Dorian liked to alternate between whole food meals and whey protein shakes throughout the day to get his protein requirements up!
Tip #4: Watch Your Carbs!
Dorian Yates says that carbs are a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, they are great for fueling your most intense workouts and for building muscle mass. On the other hand, if you eat too many carbs on a daily basis then you may start to gain unwanted body fat.
Dorian says the key is to track your carbs on a daily basis and watch how your body responds. If you are gaining muscle mass while staying lean, then you are on the right track!
Tip #5: Plan Ahead!
Dorian Yates was known for following his diet 365 days per year. To pull this off, he planned all of his meals out in advance.
For example, he knew if he was going to be running errands that he needed to have his meal replacement shakes ready.
He also always stocked up on bodybuilding foods like meat, eggs, oats, potatoes etc. so he never ran out of them in his home!
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The Dorian Yates Workout Routine
Dorian Yates knows that you need more than just a great workout routine to build muscle mass. You also need to follow a smart training routine!
So what did his workout routine actually look like?
Dorian Yates used a high-intensity bodybuilding training program called “Blood And Guts.” He trained 1-2 body parts per workout, and he performed 1 working set to failure per exercise.
Dorian says that his high-intensity training style is the fastest and most efficient way to build muscle mass!
“A lot of people have misconceptions about my training.
People think it’s just about throwing heavy weights around in the gym. We’ll use heavy weights, but it’s really about technique.”
“With bodybuilding, it’s about using the weight as a tool to put maximum stress on the muscle to trigger muscle growth.
It’s all about the intensity of the workout.”
Let’s start by talking about Dorian Yates’ training split. After that, we’ll take a closer look at the exact workouts that he used to become a bodybuilding champion!
Dorian Yates trained each muscle group once every 6 days using a traditional bodybuilding bro split. Check it out:
The Dorian Yates Training Split
- Day 1: Chest / Biceps
- Day 2: Quads / Hamstrings / Calves
- Day 3: Off
- Day 4: Shoulders / Triceps
- Day 5: Back / Rear Delts
- Day 6: Off
- Day 7: Repeat!
Dorian says that at the advanced level, using a bro-split like this where you only train 1-2 muscle groups per workout is absolutely essential.
Dorian liked to perform around 3-4 exercises per body part. If he was training his entire upper body on the same training day, then this would be impossible!
By spreading out his body parts throughout the week, he was able to train each muscle group with several exercises while keeping his workouts under 45 minutes.
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The Dorian Yates Chest / Biceps Routine
Dorian Yates trained his chest and biceps on day 1 of his 6-day training split.
Dorian’s chest and biceps were always his weaker body parts. He says the key to bringing up lagging body parts is NOT to train with more volume, or more exercises.
Instead, you must find your key muscle-building exercises for that body part, and then perform them with mind-blowing intensity!
“Any body part that’s weak or lagging behind, the answer is not to train it more frequently or do more exercises or more sets or more reps.
The answer is to do it with more focus and to use techniques that increase the intensity of the workout.”
“So slow down your negatives. If you have a training partner then do 1-2 forced reps at the end.
If you do an exercise on a machine, when you reach failure on the positive you can get somebody to lift it into the end position and lower it down again for a couple of more negatives.”
Here is the exact chest and biceps routine that Dorian Yates used when he was training to win the Mr. Olympia competition. Check it out:
Dorian Yates’ Chest / Biceps Routine
Dorian’s Chest Routine
- Exercise #1: 30 degree incline bench press, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure
- Exercise #2: Flat machine press, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
- Exercise #3: 30 degree incline DB fly, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
- Exercise #4: Standing cable crossover, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
Dorian’s Biceps Routine
- Exercise #5: 60 degree incline DB curl, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
- Exercise #6: Standing ez-bar curl, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
- Exercise #7: One-arm machine preacher curl, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
**Perform 1-3 extra forced reps after reaching failure with the help of your training partner.
As you can see, Dorian performed 4 different exercises for his chest, followed by 3 different exercises for his biceps.
Here is Dorian talking about his favorite chest exercises:
“My favorite chest exercises are the low decline bench press, low incline bench press and dumbbell flyes. So those are the best exercises for me.”
“For some people flat bench press works very well but for myself it was putting a lot of strain on my front deltoids and pec tendons and I didn’t think it was very efficient for the pecs.
So you have to experiment and figure out which exercises work best for you.”
Dorian’s biceps were another one of his weakest body parts.
He doesn’t have the massive biceps peak that many bodybuilders like Arnold Schwarzenegger naturally seem to have.
In order to bring up his lagging biceps, Dorian focused on picking the exercises that worked best for his body.
Here are Dorian’s thoughts on the best bicep exercises:
“Originally I was doing heavy barbell curls, heavy barbell curls because that is what most people were doing. My shoulders and forearms were growing but my biceps were still lagging.”
“I was able to improve my biceps by doing a very isolated exercise first.
My favorite bicep exercises were dumbbell concentration curls, cable curls and any type of machine curl that really isolated the biceps.”
“Again the key is controlling the negative, holding the peak contraction, perhaps using extra negative reps if possible.”
As you can see, Dorian liked to focus on biceps exercises where he could get a great mind-muscle connection.
He also really focused on emphasizing the negative, or lowering phase of his exercises to create as much muscle damage in his biceps as possible!
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The Dorian Yates Leg Workout
Dorian Yates says that training legs is one of the hardest things that a bodybuilder can do in the gym. When Dorian was younger he performed a lot of back squats in his training to build his legs.
His hero Tom Platz relied on back squats to build his legs, so he figured that was the way to go for building massive quads.
Unfortunately Dorian suffered a hip injury while squatting, and he had to start using other exercises. Eventually Dorian dropped squats altogether.
Ironically, when he did this his legs blew up in size!
“I didn’t do any free weight squats as a professional bodybuilder. Not one single squat and I won 6 Mr. Olympias.
You have to figure out what works for you. I got better quad development with leg extensions, leg presses and hack squats.”
“If I do hack squats or leg presses I’m lifting everything with my quads. There’s no lower back, no glutes. So I can go to absolute failure on these exercises.”
Here is the exact leg routine that Dorian Yates used to become the 6x Mr. Olympia champion. Check it out:
Dorian Yates’ Leg Routine
Dorian’s Quadriceps Routine
- Exercise #1: Machine leg extension, 1 working set of 8-10 reps to failure**
- Exercise #2: 45 degree leg press, 1 working set of 10-12 reps to failure**
- Exercise #3: Machine hack squat, 1 working set of 8-10 reps to failure**
Dorian’s Hamstrings Routine
- Exercise #4: Lying leg curl, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
- Exercise #5: Romanian deadlift, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure
- Exercise #6: Kneeling leg curl, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
Dorian’s Calf Routine
- Exercise #7: Standing calf raise, 1 working set of 10-12 reps to failure**
- Exercise #8: Seated calf raise, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
**Perform 1-3 forced reps after reaching failure with the help of your training spotter.
Talk about an intense workout!
Dorian divides his Blood And Guts leg routine into three separate parts: his quad routine, his hamstrings routine, and his calves routine.
For quads Dorian liked to pre-exhaust his legs with leg extensions, and then perform heavier mass-building exercises like leg presses and hack squats.
Here is Dorian describing how you should feel after 1 all-out set of hack squats to failure:
“You should have a very difficult time standing up, breathing and knowing what your name is.”
“If you don’t then you’re not training hard enough!
If you don’t feel like you’re going to puke then you’re not training hard enough!”
After quads Dorian moved onto hamstrings and calves.
He performed the classic mass-building movements for hamstrings, such as leg curls and Romanian deadlifts, plus a couple of isolation exercises for his calves.
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The Dorian Yates Shoulders And Triceps Workout
Dorian Yates liked to train his shoulders and triceps on their own separate training day. He normally trained shoulders first (using a variety of compound and isolation exercises), followed by his triceps. Check it out:
Dorian Yates’ Shoulder / Triceps Routine
Dorian’s Shoulder Routine
- Exercise #1: Seated smith overhead press, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure
- Exercise #2: Seated DB lateral raise, 1 working set of 8-10 reps to failure**
- Exercise #3: Standing cable lateral raise, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
- Exercise #4: Standing DB shrugs, 1 working set of 12-15 reps to failure
Dorian’s Triceps Routine
- Exercise #5: Two-arm cable pushdown (overhand grip), 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
- Exercise #6: Ez-bar skull crusher (bar to forehead), 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure
- Exercise #7: One-arm cable pushdown (underhand grip), 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
**Perform 1-3 extra forced reps with the help of your training partner after reaching muscular failure.
This si a very simple but effective way to design a shoulders and triceps workout. For shoulders Dorian performed 1 heavy overhead pressing movement at the start of his workout.
This was usually a smith machine overhead press, or a seated dumbbell overheard press.
After that he performed some different isolation exercises for his side delts, like dumbbell lateral raises and cable lateral raises. Dorian always trained his rear delts on his back day, so we’ll talk about that a little bit later.
For triceps Dorian mostly stuck with different isolation exercises like cable pushdowns and lying triceps extensions.
Here is Dorian talking about how to pick the best exercises to train the triceps:
“I believe you need at least 2 triceps exercises: one with the arm by the side to target the lateral head and one with the arms overhead to target the long head.”
“You can use barbells, dumbbells or cables – it doesn’t really matter.”
This is some very simple, straight forward advice on how to get the most out of your triceps training!
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The Dorian Yates Back And Rear Delts Workout
Dorian Yates had one of the best upper backs the bodybuilding world had ever seen.
To pull this off, he had to perform extremely high volume upper back workouts with up to 8 different exercises for his lats, traps, rear delts, and spinal erectors!
Here is the exact Blood And Guts back routine that Dorian used to become a bodybuilding champion. Check it out:
Dorian Yates’ Back / Rear Delts Routine
Dorian’s Upper Back Routine
- Exercise #1: Pullover machine, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
- Exercise #2: Hammer strength pulldown (supinated grip), 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
- Exercise #3: Standing barbell row to knees, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure
- Exercise #4: Seated 1-arm machine row, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure**
Dorian’s Rear Delt Exercises
- Exercise #5: Bent-over rear delt machine, 1 working set of 10-12 reps to failure
- Exercise #6: Bent over rear-delt DB flys, 1 working set of 8-10 reps to failure
Dorian’s Lower Back Exercises
- Exercise #7: 90 degree back extension (BB on back), 1 working set of 8-10 reps to failure
- Exercise #8: Conventional deadlift, 1 working set of 6-8 reps to failure
**Perform 1-3 forced reps after reaching failure with the help of your training spotter.
Talk about an intense workout!
Dorian says the most important part of the entire workout was his first lat exercise: the nautilus pullover machine.
Dorian believes that this is the single best exercise you can perform in the gym for your lats. In his opinion, no other exercise even comes close!
“We can’t talk about back training without talking about the nautilus pullover machine. I always started my back routine with that exercise.
I like it because it isolates the lats with no involvement of the biceps. There is no other exercise that does that.”
“So the idea with the pullover machine is that you are isolating the lats and pre-exhausting them so they work harder during your other pulldown or rowing movements.”
After that, Dorian performed a wide variety of exercise for his upper back, rear delts, and lower back.
As usual Dorian performed 1 working set to failure per exercise. He also performed extra “forced reps” on machine exercises to increase the intensity of his sets!
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Conclusion | The Dorian Yates Diet And Workout Routine!
Dorian Yates is one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, and it’s easy to see why. He follows a smart nutrition plan with 7 balanced meals per day.
He focuses on getting 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, and plenty of healthy complex carbs.
When Dorian was bulking he ate up to 6,500 calories per day! This is an insane amount of food, but Dorian was willing to do whatever it took to become a bodybuilding champion.
If you are looking for a new bulking diet to support rapid muscle growth, then you have to give the Dorian Yates diet a shot.
It may be just what you need to take your physique to the next level!
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