Dorian Yates

Dorian Yates
— Bodybuilder —
Personal info
Nickname The Shadow
Born 19 April 1962
Walmley, Sutton Coldfield, England
Height 5 ft 9.5 in (1.77 m)
Weight 110–132kg (235–290lb)
Professional career
Pro-debut Night of Champions, 1990
Best win IFBB Mr. Olympia 1992–1997, six consecutive times,
Predecessor Lee Haney
Successor Ronnie Coleman
Active Retired 1997

Dorian Andrew Mientjez Yates (born 19 April 1962) is an English professional bodybuilder. He won the Mr. Olympia title six consecutive times from 1992[1] and holds the fourth-highest number of Mr. Olympia awards of all time, ranking behind Ronnie Coleman (8), Lee Haney (8), and Arnold Schwarzenegger (7) respectively. He is widely considered one of the top athletes in modern bodybuilding history.[2][3][4]

Career

Yates' professional record consists of 15 major contest wins and two second-place finishes.

His career ended in large part due to chronic acute injuries, including a torn biceps and triceps, the latter just three weeks prior to his final contest, the 1997 Mr. Olympia contest, which he won in spite of the injury.

Yates espoused a style of training known as HIT "High Intensity Training," which states that maximum muscle stimulation can be reached through short, high-intensity workout sessions rather than long duration workouts.[5] The training style was originally popularized by Mike Mentzer.[6]

Yates earned the nickname of "The Shadow" for his tendency unexpectedly to appear at major bodybuilding contests and win, despite having remained out of the public eye for long periods beforehand. He was reported to have turned down several large supplement endorsement contracts and avoided interviews and other television publicity in order to maintain privacy.

Post competition career

In 1987, Yates purchased Temple Gym, located on Temple Street in Birmingham.[7] In 2006, he franchised four additional Temple Gym locations, three of which are in the UK.

He formed the California-based company Heavy Duty Incorporated in 1994 with Mike Mentzer and Ray Mentzer.[8] The company marketed athletic apparel and bodybuilding-related books.

In 1998, Yates partnered with Kerry Kayes to form the bodybuilding supplement company CNP Professional, which marketed a Dorian Yates Approved[9] product line in the United States. He left the company in 2006 to form his own company, Dorian Yates Ultimate Formulas, which offers a line of protein and weight-gain supplements. He started a second company in 2010, EU Peptides, which sells peptide hormones and other pro-hormone supplements. In 2011, Yates founded a third company, DY Nutrition, which specializes in pre-workout formulas and has released several training DVDs.[10] He left EU Peptides in 2012. In recent years, Yates has conducted several seminar tours internationally to discuss nutrition and his experiences in bodybuilding. He offers training videos and written commentary on his official website.

Yates has advocated alternative treatments for cancer, including the use of cannabis oil. He has also made statements in interviews concerning the negative health effects of sodium fluoride additives in tap water and the discovery of cancer viruses and sterilants in some vaccines.

He has taken several controversial political positions, such as calling for a new investigation of the 9/11 attacks.

In a 2013 interview, Yates endorsed the use of some psychedelic entheogens for religious and spiritual purposes, including ayahuasca.[11]

He continues to reside near his hometown in England.

Books and videos

In 1993 Yates published an autobiography titled Blood and Guts (ISBN 978-0-9636163-0-2).[12]

In 1996 he released a workout video (VHS) of the same title, which features his weekly weight training routines.

In 1998 Yates co-authored A Warrior's Story (ISBN 978-0-9534764-0-4),[13] in which he chronicles his path to success in bodybuilding.

In 2012, he released a mass gain video trainer in collaboration with bodybuilding.com called Blood and Guts, based on the HIT theory.[14]

Stats

Bodybuilding titles

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Dorian Yates contest history". bodybuildingpro.com. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  2. ↑ "FLEX Who was the Greatest Bodybuilder of All Time?". Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  3. ↑ "IFBB Pro Greatest Bodybuilder of the Past 65 Years". Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  4. ↑ "Top 15 Bodybuilders of All Time". Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  5. ↑ Dorian Yates Speaks, retrieved 2 July 2013
  6. ↑ High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way
  7. ↑ IFBB Hall of Fame Dorian Yates, retrieved 2 July 2013
  8. ↑ Little, John (2005). Wisdom of Mike Mentzer. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0071452931. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  9. ↑ About CNP, retrieved 2 July 2013
  10. ↑ DY Nutrition, retrieved 2 July 2013
  11. ↑ Dorian Yates - Into The Shadow, retrieved 2 July 2013
  12. ↑ "Blood and Guts [Paperback]". Amazon.com. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
  13. ↑ "Dorian Yates - A Warriors Story". Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  14. ↑ Blood and Guts, retrieved 2 July 2013

External links

Preceded by
Lee Haney		 Mr. Olympia
1992–1997 		Succeeded by
Ronnie Coleman