Before Dorian Yates won six Mr. Olympia titles, the man to beat was Lee Haney, champion for eight straight years. In this clip from his 2015 London Real interview, Yates tells Brian Rose how a working-class lifter from Birmingham came to believe he could topple a legend, and what that taught him about the power of the mind.
It’s seven minutes on mindset, from someone who built one of the most famous physiques in history in a basement gym.
▶ Watch the full episode: Dorian Yates – Return Of The Shadow
The blue-collar bodybuilder
Brian suggests Yates changed how people saw bodybuilders: less sunglasses and beaches, more hard work. Yates agrees. The California image, he says, was largely marketing. In the 1970s there was little prize money and few sponsorships, so most lifters couldn’t spend their days on the beach.
Around the world, the majority of people lifting weights were working-class guys like him, training in a cold gym in two sweatshirts in winter. When he shared his training honestly, in videos and photos, people recognised themselves. “This guy is one of us,” is how he describes their reaction, and he believes that’s why he became so popular.
Chasing a legend
Lee Haney first won Mr. Olympia in 1984, a year after Yates started training, so Haney had been champion for almost his entire career. He was the icon of the sport, famous for overpowering rivals with sheer size.
Yates came second at his first Night of Champions, then won it outright the following year, in 1991. That’s when he and others started to think he might take Haney on.
Changing the story in his head
To do it, Yates says he had to change his mental approach. Instead of thinking “this is Lee Haney, Mr. Olympia”, he told himself: he’s a man with two arms and two legs who lifts weights. And one thing he was sure of: Haney did not train as hard as he did, because it wasn’t possible. Yates couldn’t give a single ounce more to any part of what he was doing.
Knowing that, he says, made him feel powerful and confident. Other people might slack off or have an average day. He made every session count. He compares it to a line from Arnold Schwarzenegger: if his house were on fire on the way to the gym, he’d call the insurance company and keep going.
“Everything is mental”
Brian points out that everything he’s describing sounds like a mental game. Yates goes further: everything is mental. You build your story with your mind, he says. He wanted to be Mr. Olympia, and it started with a thought, then came the actions.
He gives an everyday example. Go out after a row with your partner and the day goes one way. Do exactly the same things after meditating and feeling peaceful, and, he says, you’ll have a completely different experience, because of the energy you give off. Nobody taught him this. Looking back, he says, it felt almost as if he knew he would win before he did.
What to take from it
Yates’s lesson is that confidence came from effort he could see and measure. He didn’t just believe he was the best. He made sure nobody could possibly be working harder, and let that knowledge carry him.
Who is Dorian Yates?
Dorian Yates is a British former professional bodybuilder from Birmingham who won Mr. Olympia six times in a row, from 1992 to 1997. Known as “The Shadow”, he was famous for brief, extremely intense training sessions, and has since written and spoken widely about training, health and spirituality.
In this full 2015 episode, he talks with Brian Rose about his career, life after competition and his spiritual journey. You can also watch another clip from his London Real story: Dorian Yates – Steroids, Testosterone & Ageing.
See everything Dorian Yates has done with London Real on his guest page: Dorian Yates on London Real.
More on London Real
Transcript
Transcript: Dorian Yates – Beating Lee Haney: The Mindset That Made Him Mr. Olympia
0:00 Brian Rose: You did that first, and you probably ushered in a new way of people looking at bodybuilders: more blue-collar guys working, as opposed to sunglasses and Arnold on the beach.
0:11 Dorian Yates: The whole thing was really an illusion that was being sold. It was being marketed: get your protein shake and be on the beach with these girls. But it didn’t really exist. Maybe Arnold and a couple of guys had time to sit on the beach and make movies. But in the 70s there was no contest prize money, no sponsorship deals, so how the hell were you going to sit on the beach? Perhaps it existed in California, but California’s not everywhere. The majority of guys lifting weights all around the world were working-class, blue-collar guys like me. They didn’t live in the sun, they didn’t wear sunglasses. They trained in some dank gymnasium, lifting heavy weights with two sweatshirts on in the winter with their mates.
1:01 Dorian Yates: So when I came along and I was genuine about what I was doing, with the video and the photos and everything, people thought: wow, this guy is one of us, we can relate to that. That’s why I think I was so popular. I offered an alternative to the guys out in California driving a Corvette by the beach. It’s nice, it’s great, but we’re not from there, we’re not doing that. So people felt a bond with me.
1:32 Brian Rose: At the time, Lee Haney was Mr. Olympia, which he held for eight years. Were you thinking at that time, I’ve got to start thinking about Lee?
1:40 Dorian Yates: Lee Haney was Mr. Olympia for the first time in 1984. I started training in 1983. So Lee had been Mr. Olympia pretty much the whole time I’d been training and climbing up. He was the icon of the sport. He had a good shape, but he was a lot bigger than all the other guys; that was his thing, he overpowered them. I got second in my first Night of Champions, and then I came back the following year and won it outright, and I’d improved, and people, and myself, started thinking I could maybe take this guy.
2:28 Dorian Yates: And I had to change my mental approach from “well, Lee Haney is Mr. Olympia” to: no, no, hold on. He’s two arms, two legs, lifts weights. And one thing I can guarantee is that he does not train as hard as me. He does not dedicate himself as much as me. How do I know that? Because it’s not possible. It’s not possible to be training harder or more consistently or more dedicated than me, because I couldn’t give a single ounce more to any aspect of what I was doing.
3:00 Dorian Yates: That makes you feel pretty powerful, pretty confident, because I know other people are slacking sometimes, or they didn’t have a great workout today; it was OK. Mine were great every time, because I put everything into it. Nothing else existed. Arnold made the point in a movie: if someone stole his car, or his house was on fire on the way to the gym, he’d call the insurance company and keep going to the gym. That’s my focus. I will not be distracted by anything.
3:35 Brian Rose: So what year did you cross that mental barrier?
3:40 Dorian Yates: That would have been ’91, when I won the Night of Champions, and then later in the year was the Mr. Olympia, where I was going to compete against Lee Haney, which I knew would be tough. Seven times Mr. Olympia, the greatest physique of all time, really. I can beat this guy? Yeah, why not? That’s what I was thinking by the time I got there. And that knowledge always gave me a lot of strength and power: nobody could have done what I’ve done.
4:23 Brian Rose: Everything you’re talking about sounds like a mental game. Your intensity in training, all the hard work, the planning, to where you know deep down in your soul there’s no man on the planet…
4:38 Dorian Yates: Everything’s mental. You create your reality with your thoughts. We live in a kind of virtual reality world, and you build your story with your mind. I built this story: I want to be Mr. Olympia. It starts with a thought, then come the actions. And I learned from that that I can apply it to many things. You can change your life.
5:10 Dorian Yates: If you go out today after a fight with your wife, you’re in a p*ssed-off mood, you go to the gym, you do your things, and you’ll have an experience. Now imagine that same day, but in the morning you sat down and meditated and got yourself into a peaceful place, with love in your heart, and you went to the same places and met the same people. You’d have a totally different experience, because the vibration you’re giving off brings a different experience. Try it one day. You’ll see people smiling at you for no reason. Oh, there is a reason, but they don’t really know what it is. Everything starts with your mind, your thoughts, and you can change your reality.
6:05 Brian Rose: No one taught you that.
6:07 Dorian Yates: No one taught me that. I know it more now. I did it then, but it was almost like a feeling that I had to do this. It was a life-or-death kind of passion that I put into it. Looking back, it’s almost like I knew it was going to happen. I had to make it happen, but I almost knew it would, like it had happened before.
