Dorian Yates, a legendary English bodybuilder who ruled the scene in the 90s, is a six-time Men’s Open division Mr. Olympia champion. He’s renowned for his incredibly wide, thick, and classically shaped back. With six Olympia wins under his belt, he holds the third-highest record in the history of the sport.

Dorian Yates is one of a kind who loves to share his throwback pictures and videos with his followers shared a captivating post on his Instagram account, taking us back to memory lane. He reminisces about one of his early photoshoots for a British magazine. The picture was taken at a gym in 1988. The 6x time Mr. Olympia’s been a guiding angel for many aspiring bodybuilders.

Dorina Yates began from scratch and became a legend

The English bodybuilder’s path to success in bodybuilding was far from ordinary. As people quote ‘No pain, No gain’, the same happened with Yates. He had a challenging upbringing and faced legal troubles during the early 1980s, resulting in a six-month sentence at a youth detention center. He started taking bodybuilding seriously in 1983 and made his professional debut at the IFBB 1990 Night of Champions. Unfortunately, he had to retire relatively early from bodybuilding in 1997 due to a series of injuries. Remarkably, he managed to win the 1997 Mr. Olympia title despite competing with two torn biceps and a torn tricep.

He won six consecutive titles with no external help. It was only he who trained himself with the help of bodybuilding magazines and books. He even never had a nutritionist. The 61 yo bodybuilder first entered the British Championship in 1986, winning the heavyweight class but narrowly missing the overall title. At present, Yates is the owner of four Temple Gyms in the UK.

He also markets athletic apparel and books in the US under the brand “Heavy Duty” and has his own line of supplements. In 2015, he created a documentary called “All I Know is Pain,” which is based on his life and his journey in professional bodybuilding.

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Learned from books and magazines and won Sandow trophies

Dorian ended his caption by saying, “I always thought to myself when I started competing that I’d love to become British Champion. Now here I was, earning my IFBB Pro Card and looking ahead to competing against the best in the world.” It always takes just one step to become the greatest of all. However, in another post, he shared a story about how he trained himself without a coach and built a massive body.

Yates articulated, “During my career, I never had a coach or nutritionist… I learnt everything myself, mainly from books. I have probably read every single bodybuilding book/magazine that was published between 1983 to 1997, as well as books on nutrition and sports psychology!” Bodybuilding requires immense dedication and commitment, and not having a coach makes it more difficult. However, Yates proved that it’s possible to accomplish the goal by giving it your all.

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