Bailey and Cutler’s back and biceps workout revolves around high volume and reverse pyramid training.
Recently, the GI team was with Jay Cutler and Dana Lynn Bailey in Mexico City for the Fit Weekend 2023, where Generation Iron was the presenter for the 2023 Fit Awards. This is part of a new sports documentary focusing on TheFitWekeend, a fast-growing competition and fitness expo in Mexico. It also focuses on Felix Rojo, the brains behind TheFitWeekend, who spearheads a fitness revolution in the country. Today, we’ll walk through Jay Cutler’s and Dana Linn Bailey’s back and biceps workout.
Dana Linn Bailey is a phenomenal professional bodybuilder and fitness model with a huge social media following. She came into the limelight as the winner of the first Women’s Physique category in 2011 and then went on to win the first Olympia Women’s Physique category in 2013, too. Alongside her husband, Rob Bailey, she owns a gym chain and offers online fitness training.
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| Full Name: Dana Linn Bailey | ||
| Weight | Height | Date of Birth |
| 125-135 lbs | 5’5” | 05/30/1983 |
| Division | Era | Nationality |
| Women’s Physique | 2010s | American |
Four-time Mr. Olympia winner and bodybuilding legend Jay Cutler needs no long introduction. He continually impresses bodybuilding athletes and enthusiasts with how good his physique looks now, even after retiring in 2013. The 50-year-old still sports a conditioned body with big muscles and consistently shares workouts like this delt-building training on his YouTube channel.
| Full Name: Jay Cutler | ||
| Weight | Height | Date of Birth |
| 265 – 275 lbs | 5’9” | 08/03/1973 |
| Division | Era | Nationality |
| Men’s Open | 1990s – 2010s | American |
Dana Linn Bailey and Jay Cutler had an impromptu pose session when they met up this August for a back workout. They both look stage-worthy, and Bailey shared a video of it on her YouTube before they did a back and biceps workout together. Below, we look at the exercises in this Dana Linn Bailey and Jay Cutler back workout video and how to use them to improve your physique as a bodybuilder.
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Dana Linn Bailey’s and Jay Cutler’s Back & Biceps Workout
Most exercises that train your back will also hit your biceps. For the exercises here, Dana Linn Bailey uses a mix of dumbbells and the cable machine to target her back and bicep muscles. She says,
“I love a cable machine. I don’t actually do a whole lot of like back machines, and we have some great ones. I’ll throw them in every so often, but the great thing with this, every gym has a cable crossover and dumbbells, so this workout is literally just dumbbells and cable crossover.”
Below are the exercises they go through.
| Exercises | Sets | Reps |
| Superset – Reverse Incline Low Row & Incline Dumbbell Reverse Fly | 4 | 12, 10, 8, 8/10-12 |
| Single Arm Lat Pulldown | 8 | 12, 12, 10, 10, 8, 8, 6, 6 |
| Cable Pullover | 4 | 12, 10, 8, 8 |
| Cable Mid Row | 4 | 8-10 |
| Superset — Wide Lat Pulldown & Cable High Row | 4 | 12, 10, 8, 8 |
| Single Arm Seated Cable Row | 3 | 12, 10, 8 |
| The Finisher — Bicep Curl & Hammer Curl | 1 | 7 |
Superset — Reverse Incline Low Row & Incline Dumbbell Reverse Fly
The reverse incline low row is a great exercise that targets your lats and biceps. It’s a simple variation of the regular dumbbell row and builds your back muscles while protecting your shoulders. Dana Linn Bailey does four sets of this routine and then combines it with the next one for a superset. This study shows that supersets can reduce training time and enhance efficiency (1). She also shares that pulling the dumbbells back towards your pocket and squeezing your shoulder blades keeps your lats fully engaged.
The incline dumbbell reverse fly targets your posterior delts and the postural muscles of your back. Dana Linn Bailey does them immediately after the reverse incline low row with no rest as part of the superset. This exercise works smaller muscles, so as a result, you have to go light weight with this routine but use high reps. Bailey Says,
“Right after that set, we’ll go right into a reverse fly. Obviously, you probably can’t do the same amount of the weight because it’s a much smaller muscle, and you’re just doing a reverse fly 10 to 12 reps for that one a little bit on the higher rep scheme.”
Single Arm Lat Pulldowns
The single arm lat pulldown is an exercise focusing on your lats. It forces each side of your back to work individually and increases the range of motion, leading to higher muscle hypertrophy. For this routine, Dana Linn Bailey uses a neutral grip to avoid tiring out her lats, as she intends to use them during the wide-grip lat pulldowns later.
Cable Pullover
The cable pullover is an effective way to build a broader back that is more muscular. This exercise targets your lats, triceps, traps, delts, and abs. Bailey does four sets of this routine standing and explains that while similar to a straight arm pulldown, this is different because of the bend in your elbows.
Cable Mid Row
The cable mid row builds your lats, lower traps, rhomboids, and spinal erectors. Dana Linn Bailey adjusts the cable to align with her forehead to do this routine. She also supinates her grip when she gets to the concentric part of the motion.
Superset — Wide Lat Pulldown & Cable High Row
The wide grip lat pulldown is a great exercise for your lat muscles (2). It builds your vertical pulling muscles, which is great for your training stimulus. Dana Linn Bailey does a superset of this exercise with the next one using the same station.
A cable high row increases the involvement of your upper back, teres major, and rhomboids. It also builds your rear delts, core, and biceps. To do this movement, Bailey switches her grip and places her foot against the cable machine for stability. She then pulls the cable from the high angle to her chest while squeezing her shoulder blades.
Single Arm Seated Cable Row
The single arm seated cable row targets your lats, biceps, rhomboids, traps, and rear delts. Dana Linn Bailey starts with an overhand grip and adds a bit of rotation to get her elbows back towards her lats. This helps to train her lats in the concentric position.
The Finisher — Bicep Curls & Hammer Curls 21’s
Bicep curls are a great way to isolate and train your biceps (3). Dana Linn Bailey does this routine as part of bicep 21s, a finisher to this workout. She does a first set of seven reps with normal bicep curls before switching to another seven alternating curls.
Hammer curls also target your biceps and muscles in your forearms. They’re Dana Linn Bailey’s last movement for this back and biceps workout. She also does seven reps of normal hammer curls, switches to alternating, and advises keeping the weight the same if you can.
You can watch Jay Cutler’s and Dana Linn Bailey’s back workout below:
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References
- Weakley, J. J. S., Till, K., Read, D. B., Roe, G. A. B., Darrall-Jones, J., Phibbs, P. J., & Jones, B. (2017). The effects of traditional, superset, and tri-set resistance training structures on perceived intensity and physiological responses. European journal of applied physiology, 117(9), 1877–1889. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-017-3680-3
- Andersen, V., Fimland, M. S., Wiik, E., Skoglund, A., & Saeterbakken, A. H. (2014). Effects of grip width on muscle strength and activation in the lat pull-down. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 28(4), 1135–1142. https://doi.org/10.1097/JSC.0000000000000232
- Marcolin, G., Panizzolo, F. A., Petrone, N., Moro, T., Grigoletto, D., Piccolo, D., & Paoli, A. (2018). Differences in electromyographic activity of biceps brachii and brachioradialis while performing three variants of curl. PeerJ, 6, e5165. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5165
