Dorian Yates: Six-Time Mr. Olympia Champion

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Everything suffices to say that a six-time Mr. Olympia champion like Dorian Yates specializes in developing a workout plan for putting on bulk.

The 59-year-old former athlete, who won championships from 1992 to 1997, recently went on YouTube for a minute segment to clarify several illusions about the sport, particularly how people should exercise to gain muscle.

Dorian Yates Career

Yates was born in England on April 19, 1962. He started working out in 1983. He won Mr. Birmingham in 1984 and won the British Championships two years later.

In 1991, Yates competed in his first Mr. Olympia, finishing second in the sport’s most prestigious tournament. Between 1992 and 1997, he won six Mr. Olympia titles before retiring because of injuries following his sixth triumph. His successor was Ronnie Coleman. Dorian’s career spanned from 1984 to 1997.

Dorian’s training method was unlike any other bodybuilder favoring short, high-intensity, high-volume workouts. Although his workout program was based on Mike Mentzer’s work, Yates made it his own by making many significant alterations to fit his requirements.

Dorian did not include the squat in his workout due to a past hip injury. He believes you need a workout partner to push you but to help you do three to four negative reps once you fail at the positives. Dorian trains others these days and encourages them to perform two to three sets to failure. He is a disciple of volume and progressive overload, which explains why he was one of the first mass monsters.

Like Ronnie Coleman, he had an impeccable workout ethic. He has often been heard saying he could not be outworked in the gym. Dorian tells trainees these days, “you think you are working until you work with me.” All of the most dominant bodybuilders of their era believed they outworked everyone else. Flex Wheeler said in an interview that Dorian and Ronnie had insane workouts.

Dorian Yates Workout

Yates maintains a four-day workweek and recommends doing moderate cardio for 20-25 minutes on non-training days 2-3 times a week.

He emphasizes avoiding performing cardio right after a workout since it inhibits muscular growth. As a result, Yates only exercised for an hour a day, four days a week. Most of the other bodybuilders put far more time in the gym. He was the first to spend less time in the gym to maximize his results.

Yates experimented with and devised various training techniques but found that “one hour four times a week” was the most beneficial. Yates exercised each muscle group once a week. Most people workout each muscle group twice or three times a week. Unlike most other bodybuilders, Yates did not have a coach or teacher.

Dorian Yates Diet

Dorian Yates eats a well-balanced diet that includes both proteins and carbs. He feels his diet has improved significantly since the bulking meals during his competitive days, particularly in 1987-88. A bodybuilder’s diet includes high calories and nutrients. Dorian ate a high protein and calorie surplus diet. He believed the quality of your diet was just as important as the quantity of your diet. Not all proteins are equal. Some foods like steak, liver, oysters, and asparagus or more nutrient dense and should be eaten as often as when palatable.

No need to force eat. There is a lot of variety and quality alternatives that you can use for any nutrient you need to include in your diet. The goal, therefore, is to choose a food, not for the sake of the food but for the nutrients in the food. Therefore build your diet based upon the nutrients you need and not the food you want to eat. For example, if you need zinc and don’t like oysters, eat asparagus or tofu, which are loaded with zinc. You are what you eat. If you want to look like a rabbit, eat like a rabbit, but if you want to look like a lion, tiger, or bear, then eat like one.

Besides a healthy diet, Dorian uses hormone therapy and marijuana. He openly talked about how some bodybuilders used marijuana or CBD as part of their pre-workout diet during his career. Hormone Therapy replaces low male hormones such as testosterone. It is also monitored by a medical provider, which requires quarterly blood work. This has allowed Dorian to age gracefully and not suffer the same fate as many other bodybuilders of his era.

What can we learn from Dorian Yates?

Unlike the California bodybuilders, Dorian Yates didn’t have time for magazine shoots, beach training sessions, or partying. For the last 12 years, he hasn’t taken a single day off. Dorian did nothing except eat, work out, study, and sleep. For nearly a decade, he maintained a razor-sharp concentration and extraordinary commitment.

Dorian prepared his meals, calculated his nutritional intake, changed his supplements, reviewed training outcomes, and rested. Yates has long maintained that going to the gym does not equal growth. To drive the body to respond to the stimuli, you must impose maximal stress on your muscles throughout your exercises. In addition, nutrition and rest have a significant role in growth. Thus, recovery is just as vital as training when producing world-class outcomes.

Dorian Yates reminds you to do what works. While the experts might provide you with a foundation, don’t be afraid to customize it according to your needs. Always start a workout with exercises and volume that make you feel comfortable. Then use progressive overload and a periodization plan to increase your results.

Finally, listen to your body. It will tell you what to do next. When soreness, fatigue, and diminishing returns set in, rest more. If the weight is too light, increase it until it isn’t. Use fitness calculators to see what your body is saying about your diet and your body metrics.

The last word on Dorian Yates

Yates still is a divisive figure in the bodybuilding community. He was adamant about not training like the rest of the bodybuilders. For example, he refused to dress in the manner in which most people dressed. His success was based on his powerful personality and monastic discipline.

Yates ushered in the era of the mass monsters. Only Arnold Schwarzenegger progressed the sport of bodybuilding more. Like Yates, do you know how to listen to your body? What does your body tell you about your diet and workout program? Please share in the comment section below.