Bodybuilding champion, Dorian Yates was known for his downright-focused and disciplined persona since the 1980s, thus, his nickname, The Shadow. Bagging a grand six Mr. Olympia titles throughout his athletic career, he is now an idol for the community. Moreover, his unique approach to acing the competitions is highly sought after by aspirants. 

A recent YouTube short shared by Muscle Mind Media featured the legend shedding light on his champion mentality in the gym. To prevent himself from getting overconfident, he applied a great strategy that ultimately proved beneficial. Even the bodybuilding community was awestruck by the athlete’s tactics. 

Dorian Yates explains why he concealed his physique in the gym and ignored compliments

As per the post that surfaced on the platform late last month, the 61-year-old bodybuilder revealed why he never exposed his physique in the gym, not even to his training partners. As evidence, he even urged the host to ask his fellows in the gym about his method. 

Yates said, “when I was training for pro contests, even my own training partners, didn’t see me without my top off in the gym.” The reason, he didn’t want the compliments and hails from fellow gymgoers. “You’re amazing, you’re better than everybody!” the English pro claimed that such remarks were not useful to him. 

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Hence, he kept himself “covered up” for the most part of his day at the premises. “I didn’t want to get feedback from the guys in the gym,” the icon added because their impressions were not equal to the judges at Mr. Olympia. While acknowledging that he did look amazing to his fellows, they weren’t aware of the competition on the professional stage. Intrigued by his tactical strategy, fans took to the comments section to share their insights on the instance. 

Bodybuilding community is inspired by Dorian Yates’ winning ideology

A hit among the fans, the video amassed over 101k views and 3.6k likes. While the comments section was overwhelmed with hails for the 5’10 star athlete. One fan wrote, “Dorian is an absolute sigma male!” whereas another marked him as their “favorite lifter of all time.” 

“When it comes to professional bodybuilding I don’t think anybody had a stronger mental game than the Shadow,” a comment read connoting his extraordinary mindset. Another comment pointed out that today’s generation of athletes follow the opposite direction and “kick off” their shirts at every chance they get. 

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Yates had a peculiar demeanor when it came to bodybuilding. He would compete in shows, win them and then simply disappear from public attention until his next game. This was his strategy to keep himself focused and on the right path which got him his shadowy nickname in the sport. However, there was another reason that encouraged him to excel in the sport.