Dana Linn Bailey is a professional bodybuilder who took the YouTube fitness crowd by storm with her lifts and numerous accolades.
Her leg workouts are among the best on YouTube, and for a good reason, too: her routine is intense, super-effective, and designed to help build strong, muscular legs.
By popular demand from my clients and readers, I spent a week looking through her leg routine and nailing down her workout and diet principles.
Here’s what I found.
Dana Linn Leg Training Principles
Dana Linn Baily’s leg workout is a combination of heavy-weight, low-volume lifts with moderately heavy, high-rep work.
Additionally, she includes a mix of isolation and compound moves and combines regular sets with supersets.
Even though it's tough, I find Dana Linn Bailey's leg workout adaptable for all fitness levels.
I often modify exercises in intensity and volume for my clients, ensuring everyone from beginners to advanced athletes can benefit effectively
Leg Training Routine
Dana employs heavy weights and low reps to build strength and muscle mass, a method validated by research in the Sports Journal [1].
But she also combines low-weight, high-volume work.
Dana incorporates supersets between her leg exercises to induce muscle failure, aiming for maximum hypertrophy, a technique supported by findings in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research [2].
She believes in pushing herself to the limit and constantly challenging her body to grow and improve.
Finally, Dana adds unilateral work to correct any muscle imbalances she feels in her legs.
In addition to her leg workout, Bailey also incorporates other exercises into her routine, including cardio, weight training, and plyometrics.
She mixes up her routine regularly to keep her body from plateauing.
Here’s what her leg day looks like:
Warm-up with leg extensions (using very light weight): 1 set x 45 reps
- This consists of 15 reps for the top half of the movement, 15 reps for the bottom, and 15 reps with the full range of motion.
Safety Squat Bar: (using 90% of 5-rep max)
- Starts with 4 sets x 5 reps
- Additional 4 sets x 5 reps with 90% of the heaviest weight used in the previous 4 sets
Superset I: 4 sets of leg press with calf raises (both on a leg press machine)
- Leg press: 20 reps (last 8 reps should lead to failure)
- Calf raises: 10–12 reps
Weighted walking lunges: 1 set x AMRAP (as many reps as possible)
Superset II: 4 sets of trap bar deadlifts with squat jumps
- Trap bar deadlift: 8–12 reps
- Squat jump (weighted or bodyweight): 30 seconds or 15–20 reps
Superset III: 1 set of single-leg extensions and Bulgarian split squats
- Single leg extension: 10–12 reps (worked at different angles)
- Bulgarian split squats: 8–12 reps
“It saves me time when I superset because I like so many different exercises that it's hard for me to choose.”
- Dana Linn Bailey, IFBB Pro Fitness & Figure Competitor
Other celebrity leg workouts:
Diet Routine
Bailey’s diet principles are straightforward: eat clean and whole foods, and avoid processed foods and sugar.
She eats small, frequent meals, a strategy I often recommend to keep my clients metabolism active and energy levels steady.
Here’s what her diet plan looks like:
- Meal #1 (breakfast): 1 whole egg, 1 cup egg white, oatmeal with fruits, and almond milk.
- Meal #2 (snack): Greek yogurt with almonds.
- Meal #3 (lunch): Grilled chicken breast with white rice.
- Meal #4 (dinner): Tuna, broccoli, and sweet potatoes.
- Meal #5 (snack): Rice cakes, low-sugar cereal, almond butter, and her favorite whey protein.
Plus, she drinks plenty of water throughout the day to keep her body in top-notch shape.
Diet Principles
Does Dana Linn Bailey Take Any Supplements?
Like Dana, I also advocate for supplements to complement workouts and diets.
In my health coaching, I stress the importance of choosing high-quality, tested supplements from trusted sources, just as Bailey does, to ensure safety and effectiveness.
Based on her YouTube videos, here’s a list of what she takes:
- Fat burner
- Immunity booster
- Gut health supplement
- Hormone balance supplement
- Nootropics
- Pre-workout
- Whey protein isolate
Related post: Dana Linn Bailey's Bicep Workout
Dana Linn Bailey Stats
- Date of birth: May 30, 1980 (42 years old)
- Height: 5’5” (165 cm)
- Weight: 125–135 lbs. (56.7–61.2 kg)
- Breast: 31 inches (78.7 cm)
- Waist: 24 inches (61 cm)
- Hips: 33 inches (84 cm)
References:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7927075/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31895290/
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