Why Dorian Yates did deadlifts last on back day

The six-time Mr Olympia had already explained his deadlift method in 1998 – long before the latest social media furore

By Gary Chappell

Dorian Yates has long been credited with some of the most effective training methods in bodybuilding – including his decision to perform deadlifts at the end of back day.

In fact, social media has been beside itself of late after a clip showed current-day Yates describing how he used deadlifts in that manner.

His training method of implementing deadlifts last on back day is actually nothing new, despite the recent furore. Generation Iron jumped on this too. Have they not read his book, A Warrior's Story, either? It is a goldmine of information.

There are many training philosophies. Bodybuilders such as Jordan Peters claims you need to “do your time” with routines such as full body before moving to an upper/lower. Lee Priest, however, says in his own style: “Just f***ing” train.

Others suggest you could “train like a pussy” and, if your nutrition is on point, you could still get good results. They name bodybuilders such as Paul Dillett, who reportedly was not someone who trained with maximum effort but looked incredible.

Yates began with a full body split. He used this for six months before progressing to an upper-lower [he makes no apology to Jordan Peters…]. It was a routine he kept until winning his IFBB Pro card at the then EFBB British Championships in 1986.

What he wrote in A Warrior’s Story

Writing in his book, A Warrior’s Story, Yates says: “When I began split-routine training, I weighed 180lbs. I kept on it for two years right through to my first novice contest in 1985, when I weighed 210lbs.

“In fact, I didn’t abandon this program until after I won the British heavyweight division in October 1986. I can give my first split routine no higher recommendation than, if I had to do it all over again, I would follow the same program.”

Initially, Yates implemented his upper/lower routine over four days a week. But he said: “After a week and a half of adhering to this schedule, I felt tired and stressed out. It was as if my nervous system was out of whack.

“I was obviously doing too much and my body was sending me a distress signal. The schedule was revised so that I trained every other day, but even that proved too ambitious for my body’s reserves. Eventually, I settled on training three days a week, which meant that, over a 14-day period, I worked each half of my body three times.”

What is interesting is when he talks about what cycle the body follows. Many people like to count how many times a week they train to find out how many times over a year they are hitting each muscle group.

But Yates argues: “The premise that a training program should be in sync with a seven-day cycle was almost sacred back in 1983. but I had no qualms about breaking that tradition. Human physiology ticks to a 24-hour clock, not a seven-day calendar and I was doing what was best for Dorian Yates.”

In fact, what was best for Dorian Yates between 1983 and 1985 was doing deadlifts last, after barbell rows and chins or pulldowns – having already training his chest. And this was before training delts and abs.

Why Yates did deadlifts last

In the book, he writes on deadlifts: "I conclude my back workout with deadlifts. The purpose of this exercise is to thicken the musculature of the whole lower-back region and to bring out full development of the lower lats right down to the point of insertion.

"For deadlifts, I warm up with 310 pounds for eight reps and then load the bar to 405 pounds for my main set. The lower back is a very strong but injury-prone area, so I follow textbook style for deadlifts. At the starting position, I keep my head up, my back flat and my knees bent. Then, driving through my hips, I pull the bar upward and concentrate of utilising only the power of my lats, as I progress to the standing upright position.

"After a slight pause, I then slowly return the weight to the floor. Eight reps usually take me to failure and that's it, no partials or anything else. Unlike the barbell rows, I'm not looking for any Purple Heart commendations with this exercise."

So far from Yates suddenly dropping a golden nugget of training information, as some would have you believe, this knowledge has actually been available for 26 years.

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