In 1992, Dorian Yates won the first Mr. Olympia title in England. However, that success did not come overnight. He consistently worked on his physique and got that monstrous body.

Yates, who opened his gym “Temple Gym” in 1987, mostly relied on his self-taught training knowledge and has now been seen to expose the reality of modern gyms.

In an episode of @DoctorMihail, Dorian Yates was seen reflecting on the situation at modern gyms, saying, “I don’t think they’re gyms, they're not gyms. I mean they’re fitness facilities…. they’re sterile I can go into one of these gyms where you I don’t know they have these gyms in England where you pay 20 15 2 pounds a month yeah it’s nothing and they have uh 30 treadmills they have tons of cardio they have everything yeah but the people in there don’t look like, they even go to the gym”.

At this point, Yates highlighted the gyms' commercialization. He did not try to criticize the machines or the affordability. He only said that there is a gap between resources and outcomes in modern gyms.

He also gave his reason behind why today's bodybuilders or gym-goers do not look like they are even working out. Yates said, “It’s a sterile environment, uh, they don’t encourage you. Hey sh don’t make a noise don’t sweat on the floor like it’s a it’s like, a clinic”.

The 6-time Mr. Olympia winner also highlighted his narrative about what a gym culture should be. He said, “A gym should be a place where you go and you you know you can lift and if you lift weights and you push yourself you’re going to scream, you’re going to shout. It's going to be noisy that’s the way it is and uh it’s all about hard work….The route to results….people now they they don't like, hard work….they want to have the result, but they don't want to take the journey and it's the  journey which makes you not the result”.

According to him, “it's the journey which strengthens you. When you push yourself to the limits, and you find out about yourself, and you become stronger because you overcome ,and you build strength. I don't see that in a lot of kids these days”.

So, this is what “The Shadow” thinks about today's gym culture. Yates also revealed how to stay motivated and improve your own performance.

Performance on your own

On the same interview, Yates said, “I never really had a mentor or a coach, and the thing that I loved about bodybuilding was performing on your own. This is an individual thing basically. Everything's down to me. Yeah, I have to go to the gym and do the training at this point, there is no such thing as a coach in bodybuilding”.

Yates pointed to the intellectual curiosity that all fitness-focused people need, which helped him on his journey. Yates admitted that during his time, he conducted personal research. When there was no internet, he got his nutrition knowledge from books and magazines.

He said, “I went to the bookstore and I bought books on nutrition and uh you know calorie breakdown macro breakdown like really yeah nobody knew even what that was I just went and I bought the books and I learned for myself uh and also from the magazines and articles that are the bbls is written so I planned my training I planned my diet I and everything”.

So, are you agree with Yates? And, are you motivated enough?

Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Oajaswini Prabhu