“It Was a Battle Each Time”: Bodybuilding Beast Who Pioneered Mass Monster Era, Reveals the Hidden Meaning Behind His Nickname “The Shadow”

As the successor of eight-time Mr. Olympia Lee Haney, Dorian Yates had some big shoes to fill. However, the formidable record of his predecessor didn’t phase the six-time Mr. Olympia. While he didn’t equal Haney or Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s records, his championship reign cast a long shadow on the bodybuilding world. The 300 lbs mass monster physique that the Englishman pioneered still dominates professional bodybuilding culture to this day. 

However, the origin of his icon nickname, ‘The Shadow,’ had an “element of darkness” to it. In his most recent Instagram post, the 61-year-old former Mr. Olympia discussed his training philosophy and how it gave meaning to his nickname.

Psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s unlikely contribution to Dorian Yates’s nickname

While explaining the origin and meaning behind the onstage nickname, The Shadow, Yates, acknowledged the influence of Mike Mentzer. While Mentzer quit bodybuilding after the 1980 Mr. Olympia controversy, he monitored Yates, proving that High-Intensity Training (HIT) can create a multiple-time Mr. Olympia-winning physique. However, Yates was also developing and evolving his philosophy.

“I was reminded recently by my old training partner @paulbaxendale about the element of darkness in our training,” the 61-year-old wrote in the caption. He would push his body and mind to extreme places during training. Yates explained the aggressiveness and intensity of his training reminded him of Carl Jung’s “Shadow-self” theory.

“The late Peter McGough came up with that moniker for me and it not only fitted me down to a T but maybe had a deeper connection,” revealed the six-time champion. Jung said the “darkest, aggressive, most powerful and often repressed part,” often represented their shadow-self. Yates’s “aggression, passing, desire, hunger and commitment” to win the Olympia was his shadow-self. “It was a battle each time,” he trained in at Temple Gym.

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Yates said this mindset, combined with the HIT, allowed him to work like no other bodybuilder of his era. Yates valued nothing more than discipline and consistency, something he has talked about in the past.

Dorian Yates outworked his competition

While the six-time Mr. Olympia was genetically gifted, it wasn’t the only reason for his success. In fact, he admitted that some elite bodybuilders of his era had better genetics than him. However, no one could train like he did in the gym. In an interview with Patrick Bet David of Valutaiment, Dorian Yates revealed why bodybuilders like Flex Wheeler failed to beat him.

During the interview, Bet-David said that the four-time Arnold Classic winner once admitted to Yates being unbeatable. Yates responded that while Wheeler had more “natural talent,” he “had a little bit more mental tenacity.” It was a trait non of his challengers, including Flex Wheeler, Nasser El Sonbaty, Ronnie Coleman, or others, could overcome at the time.

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What did you feel about the meaning behind the bodybuilding legend’s nickname? Let us know in the comments.