Bodybuilding typically revolves around intense resistance training and focusing on building muscle mass and strength. To achieve these goals, bodybuilders often perform exercises that result in impressive muscular development. This is exactly why 6x Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates had difficulties initially in adjusting to the norms of yoga.?
Yates began practicing yoga in the early 2000s after suffering an injury during a bodybuilding competition. He was looking for a medium to recuperate from his injuries and enhance his flexibility and found yoga to be fruitful. Yates has become an outspoken proponent of the practice. But it was not all a bed of roses for Yates. In a recent YouTube video, he revealed the struggles he had while adapting to yoga.?
Dorian Yates opens up about the difficulties he faced?
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In a recent interview with Escape Fitness, Yates was asked about his journey into the practice of yoga. While answering the question, Yates began by emphasizing that years of weight training make a bodybuilder’s body stiff and cause a lack of mobility. Contrarily, Yates encountered a few issues when it came to practicing yoga. “I started with a better base but my mobility was pretty bad like as far as being able to rotate and things like that because you never do that at all..um and my balance was terrible,” said Dorian.?
Continuing further, ‘The Shadow’ said,?“I remember trying to do the tree pose where you’re standing on one foot and doing things and I kept falling over and I was like fuck! And the yoga teacher is like Dorian f**k is not a yoga word..stop trying so hard.”
Yates pointed out that one thing that is similar between yoga and real life is that you need to stay calm in order to succeed.?“In yoga, if you try too hard you just make it harder so you’ve got to learn to relax and I learned that’s kind of like life,” pointed out Yates.
Yates explained how his intense efforts in yoga were yielding no progress. He has imbibed the habit of trying hard with all his determination since childhood. Throughout his life, he exerted great effort to distinguish himself from the rest of the crowd. Recently, Yates exemplified this by disclosing that he completed a half marathon solely through sheer determination.
Yates ran a half marathon to raise money as a kid!
In a YouTube video, Yates explained the incident by telling that he has always been involved in physical activities and sports.?”One time we had this running thing at school, like running around a track…it was a sponsored thing to raise money for the school minibus or something,”?revealed Yates. He continued by explaining that he had no experience in running, but he boasted to his friend about how good he was.?
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Moreover, Yates explained that even though he was extremely tired, he continued to run as he had already made some pretty big statements! ?Some point before we got to 20 laps, he just dropped out, and I just kept going and got to 45 laps,??added Yates.?“I basically ran a half marathon around the track at 11 years old with no training, just through sheer determination.”
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Both these incidents prove that Yates has been a person who has always worked super hard. It was his pure dedication toward his goal that helped him win on the biggest stage of bodybuilding. Ever since his retirement from the sport, his focus has shifted and has been much more focused on yoga and other ways to ensure his proper health.?