Iain Valliere is one of the biggest bodybuilders in the world. He has won many bodybuilding contests including the 2021 Texas Pro and the 2021 Tampa Pro and think he has what it takes to be a future Mr. Olympia champion.
Iain trains each muscle group on its own separate day but he sometimes performs some extra triceps work at the end of his chest workouts. If you want to learn how Iain Valliere organizes his chest / tricep workouts then this article is for you!
Introduction
- Part 1: Iain Valliere’s Training Split
- Part 2: Iain Valliere’s Chest / Tricep Workouts
In this comprehensive guide I will teach you how Iain Valliere trains his chest and triceps for size and strength.
Iain Valliere trains 6 days per week using a traditional bodybuilding bro split. He trains each muscle group on its own separate training day but he sometimes performs some extra work during the week for weaker body parts. Check it out:
Iain Valliere’s Training Split
- Day 1: Chest / Triceps
- Day 2: Back / Biceps
- Day 3: Quads
- Day 4: Shoulders
- Day 5: Arms
- Day 6: Hamstrings / Back
- Day 7: Off
Talk about a brutal training split! Iain trains each muscle group one day per week using a 6-day bodybuilding bro split. IFBB pro Fouad Abiad says it should be called a “pro split” because this is how most professional bodybuilders train.
Iain’s triceps are one of his lagging muscle groups so he often performs some extra triceps work at the end of his chest workouts. This allows him to train his triceps twice per week and get in some extra training frequency for this muscle group.
So how does Iain Valliere train his chest and triceps? Iain picks 4-6 exercises for his chest and 1-3 exercises for his triceps. He performs 2 working sets to failure per exercise and he loves to use different high-intensity techniques like forced reps, drop sets and partial reps on his working sets.
Iain says that these high-intensity techniques are very helpful for building muscle mass and strength when you are already at an advanced level.
Here is a normal looking chest / triceps workout for Iain Valliere. Check it out:
Workout #1
- Exercise #1: 30 degree incline smith machine press, 2 sets of 3-5 reps**
- Exercise #2: Incline machine press, 2 sets of 8-15 reps**
- Exercise #3: Supine machine fly, 2 sets of 8-15 reps****
- Exercise #4: Machine chest press, 2 sets of 8-15 reps**
- Exercise #5: Machine fly, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #6: V-bar dips, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #7: Cable overhead extension, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #8: Rope cable pushdowns, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
**On both sets train to failure, then perform several forced reps with the help of your training partner.
****On your second set train to failure, then perform several partial reps, then perform a double drop set with the same strategy on each attempt.
Here is the training video:
Talk about an intense workout! Iain performs 6 exercises for his chest and 2 exercises for his triceps. On each exercise Iain performs several warm up sets followed by 2 working sets to failure.
Let’s start with his chest routine. Iain loves to throw around heavy slag iron for his chest workouts. He often lifts 400+ pounds for reps on the incline bench press or uses the 200 pound dumbbells for incline dumbbell presses.
For this workout Iain starts with the incline smith machine press. He performs a couple heavy sets of 3-5 reps and then performs several forced reps with the help of his training partner. After that he performs a variety of compound and isolation exercises for his chest.
After training his chest Iain performs a couple of exercises for his triceps: cable overhead extensions and cable pushdowns. Iain likes these exercises because they are very easy on his elbows and are very easy to perform at the end of his workout.
Many other bodybuilding coaches like John Meadows like to use cable exercises for triceps at the end of their chest workouts.
Here is another one of Iain’s chest / tricep workouts. Check it out:
Workout #2
- Exercise #1: 30 degree incline smith machine press, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #2: Hammer strength incline press, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #3: Incline machine fly, 2 sets of 8-15 reps**
- Exercise #4: Flat DB press, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #5: Seated cable fly, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #6: V-bar dips with chains, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #7: Rope cable pushdowns, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #8: One-arm overhead cable extension (high-pulley), 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #9: Cable pushdowns (pronated grip), 2 sets of 8-15 reps
**On the last set perform a double drop set
Here is the training video:
https://youtu.be/DSrd58vEoMw?t=163
Talk about a high-volume chest / triceps routine! This working is very similar to the previous one. Iain performs 6 exercises for his chest and 3 exercises for his triceps.
Once again Iain starts with the incline smith machine press. He performs 2 working sets to failure: one heavy set in the 8-10 rep range and one back-off set in the 12-15 rep range.
Iain uses this strategy on almost all of his exercises to build size and strength at the same time. After the first exercise Iain performs several different compound and isolation exercises for his chest.
For his triceps routine Iain sticks to different cable exercises like tricep pushdowns and overhead tricep extensions. Again Iain is trying to get in some extra work for his triceps without beating up his elbows and without cutting into his recovery ability.
Here is one more of Iain Valliere’s chest / tricep workouts. Check it out:
Workout #3
- Exercise #1: 30 degree incline smith machine press, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #2: Machine flat press, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #3: Machine incline press, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #4: Machine fly, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #5: Machine incline fly, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #6: Rope cable pushdowns, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #7: Lying kettlebell extensions, 2 sets of 8-15 reps
- Exercise #8: One-arm cable pushdowns (reverse grip), 2 sets of 8-15 reps
Here is the training video:
https://youtu.be/zO_zuBzpZaw?t=183
Once again Iain sticks to his usual chest and tricep training principles. For his chest Iain performs the 30 degree incline smith machine press and several other compound and isolation exercises.
As usual he performs one heavy set in the 8-10 rep range and one lighter set in the 12-15 rep range. For triceps Iain performs two types of cable pushdowns and lying kettlebell extensions.
Lying kettlebell extensions are an exercise popularized by the bodybuilding coach John Meadows. He likes this exercise because your range of motion is much bigger with kettlebells than dumbbells.
The kettlebells also lower the center of gravity of the exercise which gives the exercise a completely different feel.
I highly recommend you try this triceps exercise if you have kettlebells in your gym!
Conclusion
Iain Valliere likes to train his chest and triceps together once per week. Iain says this is primarily a chest workout – he is just throwing in some extra triceps work at the end to help bring up his arms.
In my opinion the most interesting thing about Iain’s chest / tricep workouts is the way he performs his sets.
Iain only performs 2 working sets to failure per exercise: one heavy set in the 8-10 rep range and one back-off set in the 12-15 rep range. He also likes to perform high-intensity techniques on these sets when he has enough energy.
This is a very interesting training strategy. I think most bodybuilders would make faster progress if they adopted this simple strategy for their working sets.
If you are an advanced bodybuilder and respond well to high-volume workouts then you have to give Iain Valliere’s chest / tricep workouts a shot. It could be just what you need to take your training to the next level.
If you enjoyed this content then make sure you check out my article “The Iain Valliere Training Program!”
“The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100%.”
Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of luck on your strength training journey!
