Dorian Yates is a legendary 6 times Mr. Olympia champion. He revolutionized bodybuilding by setting new standards in body mass and conditioning. He was the first Mr. Olympia at 250 lbs (265 lbs at his best), presenting an absolutely shredded physique with extremely low body fat and outstandingly high muscle density.
The Story
Dorian Andrew Mientjez Yates was born in England, on April 19th, 1962. He was raised in Hurley, in rural Staffordshire. When he was a teenager, his family moved to Birmingham, an industrial city and the second largest in Britain.
During the troubled times of social unrest at the beginning of the 80’s, Dorian got himself into trouble while hanging out with his mates and was sentenced to six months at Whatton Youth Detention Centre. Powerlifting to keep himself entertained, Dorian quickly packed on muscle and started to realize that he had the potential to succeed as an athlete.
It was there at Whatton that Dorian first earned a reputation for his physique. He was considered the strongest of Whatton’s 300 inmates. This gave him new respect for himself and he decided that he would not ever be back.
Yates started working out in 1983, at age 21. After some muscle victories in England, he visited New York for the 1990 Night of Champions and, in his pro debut, he took second to the late Mohamed Benaziza. The next year, he returned to the US to win the contest and set his sights on bodybuilding’s highest honor – The Sandow trophy.
In 1991, Yates was the runner-up at the Olympia to Lee Haney, who duly won his eighth record-setting Sandow and then retired. From 1992 through 1997, Yates dominated the sport, presenting his trademark “granite hardness” and monumental muscle mass.
In 1994, he overcame a torn biceps to win the crown. In 1997, his most valiant victory came when he tore a triceps three weeks prior to the contest, but still battled on to triumph. Following his injury before the 1997 Mr. Olympia, Yates was forced to retire from competitive bodybuilding. He holds a pro record of 15 wins and two second-place finishes.
Dorian Yates: “You have to listen to your body”
Dorian dominated the sport in the 1990s, during a time of scarce information about training, nutrition, and supplementation. He always says that he chose bodybuilding because it’s an individual challenge, a path you need to walk by yourself. Each body is unique, so each athlete needs to test the training methods and nutritional inputs to find out which of them works best.
Dorian’s approach to achieving world-class results was very methodical. His self-discipline and work ethic were unparalleled. Every workout he did, every meal he ate, every nutritional input he added, and every thought he had about training, he logged down in his training diary.
Throughout his career, Yates analyzed this feedback and constantly improved his overall performance. This entire process allowed him to become the best in the world and earned him nicknames such as “The Game Changer” or “The 1st Mass Monster”.
The Shadow
The incremental approach Yates implemented and his very rare appearances in public concurred to keep his competitors always guessing about what he will bring to the stage next.
Because of this secluded lifestyle and elusive public appearances – even when he was the reigning Mr. Olympia – Dorian Yates was dubbed The Shadow by Peter McGough, one of the greatest bodybuilding journalists of all time. Dorian’s fans added that his nickname was also inspired by his training philosophy: with his brief, but very high-intensity workouts,The Shadow shone a new light of awareness onto training methods that weren’t very popular.
Dorian Yates: “If I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do this TO THE MAX”
Unlike the bodybuilders in California, Dorian Yates didn’t have time for magazine shoots, training sessions on the beach or parties. He didn’t take a single day off for 12 years. All he did was eat, train, study, and sleep. He kept a razor sharp focus and incredible dedication for over a decade, training in his Dungeon in Birmingham for no more than 4 times a week, preparing his meals, calculating his nutritional intake, adjusting his supplementation, analyzing training results, and resting.
Yates lived like a bodybuilder-monk – rarely smiling, rarely having fun. That’s how he got to develop a mind-muscle connection. Unbelievable results require unbelievable work ethic, so he decided to commit his whole self to training and winning.
Blood and Guts system
Yates always stated that when you’re going to the gym, you’re not growing. During your workouts, you need to put maximum stress on your muscle in order to force the body to adapt to the stimuli. Growth has a lot to do with nutrition and rest, which makes recovery as important as training for achieving world-class results.
Inspired by Arthur Jones’ Nautilus system and Mike Mentzer’s training program, Dorian Yates developed the principles of the High Intensity Training and applied them to best suit his bodybuilding development. His workouts were brief and he performed fewer sets than other bodybuilders of the time – 1 or 2 sets per exercise.
This refined, ultimate performance training system was called Blood & Guts. It was this name that Dorian Yates chose for his incredible Blood & Guts film, an 80-minute collection of grueling, extreme intensity workouts performed in the Dungeon in 1996.
The Shadow’s Legacy
Dorian Yates is probably the bodybuilder that most aspiring trainees can best identify with because of his blue-collar roots, relentless determination, and quiet confidence.
Dorian is renowned the world over for the seriousness and intensity of his training sessions, his knowledge of nutrition and supplementation, and his unyielding tenacity.
Dorian has two children, Lewis and Tahnee, from his first marriage to Debbie. Dorian now lives in Marbella, Spain with his wife Gal Yates, IFBB PRO World Champion, and their dog, Moby.
The Bodybuilding Career of Dorian Yates
- 1986 EFBB British HW – 1st place
- 1988 British Championships – 1st place
- 1990 IFBB Night Of The Champions, New York – 2nd place
- 1991 IFBB Night Of The Champions, New York – 1st place
- 1991 IFBB Mr. Olympia, Orlando, Florida – 2nd place
- 1991 IFBB English Grand Prix, Nottingham – 1st place
- 1992 IFBB Mr. Olympia, Helsinki, Finland – 1st place
- 1992 IFBB English Grand Prix, Nottingham – 1st place
- 1993 IFBB Mr. Olympia, Atlanta, Georgia – 1st place
- 1994 IFBB Mr. Olympia, Atlanta, Georgia – 1st place
- 1994 IFBB Spanish Grand Prix, Madrid – 1st place
- 1994 IFBB German Grand Prix, Duisburg – 1st place
- 1994 IFBB English Grand Prix, Nottingham – 1st place
- 1995 IFBB Mr. Olympia, Atlanta, Georgia – 1st place
- 1996 IFBB Mr. Olympia, Chicago, Illinois – 1st place
- 1996 IFBB Spanish Grand Prix, Madrid – 1st place
- 1996 IFBB German Grand Prix, Darmstadt – 1st place
- 1996 IFBB English Grand Prix, Nottingham – 1st place
- 1997 IFBB Mr. Olympia, Long Beach, California – 1st place
Dorian’s social media handles
Facebook Athlete Page https://www.facebook.com/DorianYatesDY
Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/thedorianyates
Dorian Yates bodybuilding supplements
DY Nutrition is an international company based in UK built by a team of scientists and nutrition professionals based on the unequalled experience of the legendary Mr. Olympia, Dorian Yates