The retired English pro bodybuilder is regarded as one of the top pro athletes in the history of the bodybuilding world. He changed the spectrum of training for athletes everywhere by introducing and emphasizing a training that is extremely high intensity and is known to have one of the best conditioning and a wide, thick back.

Dorian Yates started training in a small, rather mysterious gym in Birmingham, which was forcibly shut down due to several reasons. It was where he created the iconic physique and became one of the most inspiring figures in the fitness world. With his partner, Yates bought the gym after it shut down and with time became the only owner of the place. He still gives a lot of credit to his first-ever gym for everything that he has accomplished in this realm.

A trip down the memory Lane

The Mass Monster recently took to his Instagram and shared a picture of himself in the Temple Gym – the first-ever gym that he had owned and worked out in. In the caption, he wrote, “Here’s a shot from the changing room at Temple Gym! Down the stairs and into the darkness… this was the magical Temple Gym that I owned.” With just the bare minimum equipment and a small infrastructure, the gym was a place of worship for the man.

He further added, “The changing room itself was a simple room, with a shower (I don’t think anyone dared to use it😂), a toilet and a bench which I was sitting on here. Nothing fancy in the slightest but that’s what made Temple Gym. It was an atmosphere that was filled with passion, and the intensity that we all generated in that building was unmatched!” The Temple Gym helped Dorian Yates to shape up a physique that won him the title of Mr. Olympia six times in a row. He has a deep root of nostalgia tagged with the place, and when the gym closed down, the Shadow could not bear it, and in 1987, he became the owner of the gym.

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Once he owned the gym, Yates made sure that there was everything present in it which would be required to train to perfection. In his caption, he added, “I made sure that the gym had a tonnes of free weights and eventually, every machine I needed as I tested out a few gyms in the States and was impressed some of the equipment they had”. The Temple Gym was a huge success after the change in ownership and the place has only been evolving ever since.

Temple Gym under the ownership of Dorian Yates

After Yates became the owner of the gym, with an area of just 3000 yards, it became a huge success and helped in shaping the lives of several athletes. It still had just the bare minimum – an area for doing minimal cardio, some fixed showers, and small changing rooms. However, all the wonders were worked in the Dungeon of the gym, which was a small cellar.

Yates himself provided rigorous HIIT training to his members and also made sure that he worked on each of them to help them achieve their personal goals. He also opened up four different franchises of The Temple Gym in 2006. The success of the Temple Gym and its widespread name even today is a true testament to Yates’ passion for that sport!

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