The ONLY 10 Exercises You Ever Need (DORIAN YATES)

TL;DR

Dorian Yates recommends just 10 exercises done twice a week to failure to completely transform the average person's physique.

Key Points

• 1.Legs: Leg extension (quad isolation) + squat or leg press (compound); the combo complements each other since body proportions determine whether squats hit quads or glutes/hamstrings more
• 2.Back: Nautilus pullover (lat focus, elbow-driven) + lat pulldown or seated cable row; the host prefers the seated row over pulldown because it also heavily loads rear delts and the entire posterior chain
• 3.Chest: Bench press (dumbbell preferred for joint freedom, incline recommended) + fly movement; host swaps dumbbell flyes for cable crossovers or pec deck to protect the anterior shoulder capsule
• 4.Shoulders: Dumbbell lateral raise to build middle delt width, since bench press already handles significant front delt overload
• 5.Calves & Arms: Standing calf raise (slow reps with 4-second holds top and bottom to remove Achilles tendon contribution) + concentration curl or heavy cheat curl + tricep pushdown or lying tricep extension for long head stretch
• 6.Key principle: For the average person, these 10 exercises twice a week with the last set taken to failure provides enough stimulus for muscle growth without overtraining — effort matters more than exercise selection