“It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.”
In short: Dorian Yates is a bodybuilding legend who returned to the London Real studio to talk with Brian Rose about the spiritual side of training and how mindset shapes his approach to life. In this Success Secrets clip, he describes silence in the gym, living like a monk for 12 years and building progress one brick at a time.
Dorian explains that when he was pushing and lifting, everything went silent. He enjoyed the challenge but admits he was not a fun person to be around, since even on a shopping trip with his wife he would be thinking about his next workout.
He talks about the hunger of dieting, the sacrifices of a 12-year competing career, and the idea that every perfect session adds a brick to your wall.
Key takeaways
- Training has a spiritual side. Dorian says that in the middle of a hard lift he heard only silence.
- It is all-consuming. He says bodybuilding is not just the gym but stays with you all the time.
- Twelve years like a monk. He lived a strict routine while competing, including being in bed at 11.30 every night.
- Discipline built belief. He felt indestructible because he believed nobody else was training as he was.
- Bricks on the wall. Each session with perfect training and eating was a brick, and over time he pulled ahead of rivals who slipped.
Silence, hunger and discipline
Dorian says there is a spiritual side to training and its disciplines. In the middle of a heavy set he could only hear silence. He describes training as hard but fun, apart from the constant hunger when dieting, when every survival instinct tells you to eat.
Living like a monk
For the 12 years he was competing, Dorian says he lived like a monk. He admits he could have got away with less, such as not going to bed at 11.30 every night, but he would have felt he was slacking. That perfect routine, he says, made him feel indestructible.
The bricks on the wall
Dorian describes thinking of each good gym session as laying a brick on his wall. Rivals in California might break their diet or have a bad day and miss a brick, while he kept laying his. Progress, he says, is about the long run: not one day or one workout, but a marathon rather than a sprint.
Who is Dorian Yates?
Dorian Yates is a bodybuilding legend who has appeared on London Real with Brian Rose more than once. In this Success Secrets clip he talks about the spiritual side of training and his mindset.
Frequently asked questions
He says that when pushing and lifting hard he hears only silence, and that mindset and discipline are part of training.
He means the strict routine he kept for the 12 years he competed, including training, eating and sleep, such as bed at 11.30 every night.
Dorian says every time he did perfect training and eating it was another brick on his wall, so he gradually pulled ahead of rivals who slipped.
It is a Success Secrets clip from his London Real interview with Brian Rose.
