Dorian Yates was the standard bearer in bodybuilding for the majority of the 1990s. He is the only British Mr Olympia winner, having held the title from 1992 to 1997. 25 years after his retirement from the game, Yates is still considered a legend.
Yates joined fellow ’90s bodybuilders Milos Sarcio, Dennis James and Chris Cormier on a recent episode of “The Menace Podcast,” and the group began discussing Yates’ training principles that have led to his success. Cause Yates expressed that his blood and guts training, which were short and intense sessions, required him to improve and quality training sessions during the off-season as well as competition preparation.
“Four days a week was the maximum,” Yates told James. “I’ve never trained for more than an hour.”
James followed up with another question for “The Shadow.” Would he change anything now that he knows about the injuries that eventually led to his retirement in 1998?
“Ultimately, no, because I’m where I am and I’m happy, and whatever happened before brought me to this point.”
In recent years, Yates has been using his philosophies to train other bodybuilders as well as average gym goers and even beginners who have never trained before. Yates reports that his principles have been successful across the board.
“Training is person-specific. So, if you’ve never done a push-up in your life, even bench pressing five pound dumbbells is going to be pretty intense,” he said. “I’ve changed people’s health in just one month.”
Yates points out that it’s not just about training. How it is done is also important. Yates recalled how he told Cormier about the adjustments that made a world of difference for him when they trained together.
“It’s the little details about how you lift the weight, and how you control the weight. Which path is it taking? How do you control the negativity on the way down, and those little details. Little thing after thing. All those little things add up to something big.”
The discussion went deeper and even included a debate between Sarcio and Yates about the science of training. Watch the episode yourself to subscribe Muscle and Fitness YouTube Channel. You can catch future episodes every Sunday at 3 PM ET.
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