Dorian Yates explains why he's against exercising twice a day

Bodybuilding legend Dorian Yates made the most of his time in the gym during his career, and that hasn't changed even after retirement. In a recent Instagram post shared on December 5, 2024, Yates explained why he doesn't participate in twice-daily workouts and emphasized the importance of recovery for muscle growth. Dorian Yates led a fearsome reign in the men's Open division, conquering the Mr. Olympia podium six years in a row.

In that time, he has weaponized mass and granite fitness like no other competitor, which has led to him toppling his opponents on the podium, including Shawn Ray, Kevin Levrone and Flex Wheeler. Yates adopted the training principles he learned from the late Mike Mentzer and Arthur Jones, which focused on intensity and achieving failure instead of performing a fixed number of reps or sets. This allowed him to spend much less time in the gym than his peers. Now he's passing on the wisdom to fans and athletes who want to follow in his footsteps.

Training in the gym twice a day? Dorian Yates explains why less is more

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In his latest Instagram post, Dorian Yates explained why he never trained more than once a day and stressed the importance of recovery for growth. Here's Shadow's take on training in the gym twice a day...

In his competitive bodybuilding days, Dorian was always in the gym for a maximum of 1 hour... and that's on legs!

"Remember the process; stimulation, recovery, growth?"

Yates stressed that you should be able to accomplish everything in one workout, then you're reducing gains and stunting muscle growth.

"Going to the gym twice a day, after all you should be resting, it just means we're done. How long did it take us to do 20-25 minutes of delts? Well, if you want to do something else, do it in one workout, you know what I mean?"

"You don't need to be here for more than an hour anyway, so this is where the damage process starts that triggers growth""

Dorian Yates explained. It's far from the first time Dorian Yates has urged his followers to prioritise rest over a two-phase workout. He believes that if your goal is to bulk up, then muscles only grow after you've worked out and replenished your energy with a quality meal.