Watch: IFBB Pro Dana Linn Bailey shares stunning push-day workout
Dana Linn Bailey is a former professional bodybuilder, fitness model, and entrepreneur. She won the first-ever women's physique contest at the 2011 Jr. USA. Following that, Dana claimed the inaugural Women's Physique title at the 2013 Olympia.
She finished as the runner-up at the 2014 Olympia. According to Fitness Volt, Bailey competed in powerlifting as well when she lifted a total of 877 lbs (396.6 kg) at the 2018 Arnold Sports Festival.
Since retiring from professional bodybuilding, Dana Linn Bailey has become a fitness influencer. She has 532K subscribers on YouTube and 2 million followers on Instagram.
Bailey posts workout and training collaboration videos along with bodybuilding tips as well on her YouTube Channel. On February 21, 2023, the 2011 Jr. USA Champion posted a push-day workout video on her YouTube channel.
Let's take a look at the training session video posted by the former women's physique Olympia champion.
The former pro bodybuilder started her workout session with push-ups to warm up her muscles. Bailey advised doing 50 reps of push-ups to start with. Speaking about the push-ups, she said:
"You don't have to do it in a row. You can split it up into five sets of 10. I'm going to do as many as I possibly can. Let's see if I can get 15 in a row."
Dana Linn Bailey did more than 20 push-ups. After completing them, she started her first compound movement of the day. The workouts done by her are attached below.
- Bench Press
- Low-to-High Flyes
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises
- Dumbbell Skull Crushers
- Triceps Rope Pushdowns
Dana Linn Bailey's bench press
She started her workout session with a bench press. It is effective for pectoral muscle activation and activates the shoulder and triceps, according to Fitness Volt. Dana Linn Bailey said that she tries to do one big compound movement in every workout.
The 2013 women's physique Olympia champion did warm-up sets to get to a working set of six reps. Bailey said that she will be adding five to 10 lbs more weight in each consecutive set. After four working sets, she moved on to the low-to-high flyes.
Low-to-high flyes
Bailey began doing different versions of cable chest flyes. She began her workout in an inclined position and completed 10 to 12 reps. The former bodybuilder then moved on to a seated position and did a few more reps but to a failure. She did four sets of this workout with slow movements.
Dumbbell shoulder press
After completing the low-to-high flyes, she then moved on to the dumbbell shoulder press. Dana Linn Bailey started with warm-up sets. She then completed three working sets. The former bodybuilder then did a drop set by reducing the weight by approximately 40 percent.
Dumbbell lateral raises
The 2013 women's physique Olympia champion did six to eight reps of one-and-a-half lateral raises in each set. She explained how to perform this version of the lateral raises in the video. Bailey said:
"Once you've pretty much fatigued that way, you'll still be able to get some more (full reps). It's actually a lot easier to do full range than adding that little partial because it's just more time under tension."
She then did a few reps of regular dumbbell raises. Bailey completed the set with a few pulsing reps at the top with a resistance band. The former bodybuilder then explained the method of completing pulsing reps with the resistance bands.
"So what this does, all that blood. you’re not letting it go down. Because every time you come down, blood leaves the shoulders and then you build it back up. So, we’re going to (keep) as much blood in the muscle as possible."
Bailey did this workout with rest pauses in between. One set of lateral raises consists of six to eight reps of one-and-a-half reps, four to six full reps and 20 to 30 pulsing reps with rest-pause method, according to Fitness Volt.
Dumbbell skull crushers
Dana Linn Bailey then moved on to the dumbbell skull crushes. EZ bar is her preferred equipment for dumbbell skull crushes. She modifies the movement a little bit to acquire extra contractions in the triceps when Bailey uses dumbbells.
"When you bring the dumbbells up (during skull crushers), number one, you never want to stack your wrists over your elbow over your shoulders. Coz you now have lost all of the contraction from your triceps. So you always want them to be kind of angled back so that you’re pulling on your triceps at all times."
Dana Linn Bailey claimed that she prefers to twist the wrists while she lifts the dumbbells so that her thumbs face each other at the top of the movement. This helps her get a little extra contraction in the triceps. She combined this workout with a close-grip dumbbell press.
The former bodybuilder did four sets of this workout while constantly increasing heavy weights and maintaining a range of 12, 10, and 8 reps. She began every set with the dumbbell skull crushers, did a specific number of reps and switched over to close grip dumbbell press without any change in weight or taking a break.
Triceps rope pushdowns
The triceps rope pushdowns was the last exercise in Dana Linn Bailey's push-day workout. The former bodybuilder said she prefers to use rope attachment than a straight bar or an EZ bar. Bailey did a few sets of this workout and concluded her workout session.
Despite retiring from professional bodybuilding, Dana Linn Bailey continues to provide her followers with workout methods and ideas.