The Controversial Rise of Dorian Yates (Documentary)

next contestant he has a heart of a lion and you know I doubt if anybody train harder than this guy when you do a set he do one for Mama the babies everybody this guy the first class and a monster at 260 lb Mr Dorian y i remember Flex wheeler once said I never saw Dorian as beatable when Dorian walked on the stage we never saw that what the hell is this it's not possible to be training harder or more IST or more dedicated than me cuz I couldn't give a single ounce more I Ted

through that snow up past my knees to the gym and I thought to myself you know what those in California right now they're driving their Porsche Ferrari out in the sun going to the beach I'm here trudging through the snow and they're going to pay for that many people play the game some go on to win it but very few completely change it the six-time Mr Olympia Oran Yates Unleashed a ruthless domination from 1992 to 1997 and ushered in what we know now as the mass monster era that still influences the sport to this very

day the moment he Steed on to the 1992 Olympia stage bodybuilding was transformed once and for all nicknamed The Shadow Dorian maintained a low profile in England each year before emerging on stage in the United States looking bigger and leaner than ever with the combination of size and and conditioning that were never seen before he left competitors fighting for second place for 6 years but his domination wasn't without controversy it seemed like no one could take him down even when competing with a torn bicep and a severed tricep going from a small gang in the

streets of England being jailed and almost becoming homeless becoming the man who single-handedly changed the trajectory of bodybuilding Forever This is the story of the original mass monster I've got a question which not been answered as far as I know uh which is about your name so your name is Dorian Andrew mine KZ yes what was your relationship like with your mom and what was your relationship like with your dad well I was probably closer to my mom because my mom was there on a daily basis my dad was in and out he wasn't really

at home that much he was to kind of just do his own thing so maybe I was I don't know maybe I was trying to get my dad's attention but after my father passed away I'm sure that was a driving factor to succeed so I lost my father when I was quite young then we moved to Birmingham just with my mom and she married a new guy and and he also died quite quickly so it's pretty tragic time I'm a boy who's just hit puberty I'm 13 and my male role model now is gone so

I didn't realize at the time but looking back now I was upset I was angry and nobody was taking care of me and that's at least the way I felt that's when I learned to really contain and hide my emotions because because I remember I didn't want to go to my father's funeral I don't want anyone to see me crying so I told my mom I don't want to come to the funeral and people used to ask when I won the Myst Olympia why are you not jumping up and down and screaming and crying and

like wow so happy this lifetime goal you've achieved it I think inside I was doing that but outside I was not doing that because I learned to to hide this emotions if you look very carefully I think when I won the first one I'm actually biting my lip which is kind of to suppress there which are coming out which I I learned this so was like default mode to go into I think my dad dying young my mom not really being able to cope with me or with my anger and confusion and everything like that

that was definitely a driving force and I had to grow up and look after myself pretty quick I was 16 and I was out on the street living at you know friends houses or something and get my own little place and I got to look after myself there's nobody else that I can fall back on being a teenager with my mates we got into a bit of trouble and at 18 years old I was sent to a detention center for a few months and I'd already done a little bit of Weights before when I was

at school and I'd done karate and i' done all the push-ups and squats in my room I had a ball worker and all that so I was always already interested in that and physical and when I was in this detention center part of the process is hard physical exercise which a lot of the kids didn't like but I loved it you know and it was it was something for me to outlet being in this place to kind of Escape for a while there were 300 guys in there and I quickly real I got the best

physique in here like naturally and I'm pretty much the strongest guy in here so this is something I can do I just knew if I put my energy into something positive I would get something positive back maybe I'll win some contest oh maybe I can open my own gym one day or something that was how it started there was a couple Lads that were probably bigger and heavier than me but I was as strong as them and I already had what you could term as a physique looking body I had good abdominals I had a

good shape so the foundation of a good physique was there and even the prison officers noticed that you know when you get out of here go and do powerlifting cuz you could be a good powerlifter but I already knew that I wasn't interested in and I was interested in bodybuilding because I've already seen the magazines from Joe weeder and I was familiar with some of the bodybuilders so I was like that's the route I want to go because I lost my dad and I didn't have male role model the guys in the magazines or at

least what was projected in the magazines from the guys they became all those my my surrogate fathers when I came from the detention center and I didn't have anywhere to stay the city housed me so they gave me a council flat on a very notorious Council of State in bman at the time and they offered me this place cuz not many people accept it and go with there that's where I was living for probably 5 years when I was started training but fortunately I was successful very quickly after a year and a half training I

went to compete on an office contest absolutely like I didn't know at the time I just thought this is where I need to be but now I look back it's like there's no comparison I WN the contest so easily and I had like judges and officials there was one guy Ron Davis who was um he used to judge at the Mr Olympia and he was the head of the Federation in England he was there and he was Darian ni where are you from I'm like from Birmingham what are you doing in the novice class well

I'm a novice this is my first contest so you should be in the heavyweight class no no no I'm not I'm not good enough for that yet he's not good enough he started laughing like he's not good enough wow kid you're the best heavyweight we've seen in this country I'm like no about this guy and this guy surely they're better than me no so we want you to come and compete in the world games like next week on the British team as a heavyweight and I didn't want to go cuz I knew I wasn't ready

to win that yet but they kind of persuaded me to go on the team so I went and I got seventh place there in 13 guys and these were like the best amateurs in the world and then I won the British Championship the following [Music] year I remember winning the British Championship in 1986 and there's 2,000 people there screaming and blowing air horns and cheering and getting my picture taken I'm going to be in the magazines but I came home and there's no TV crew waiting here for me there's no Fanfare I'm back to my

same block that I was living in I got no carpet on the floor I don't have a proper bed I just got a mattress I don't have any car because every penny that I earned from my work and it's just going for food uh training catching the bus back and forward whatever I don't have any money for a car so here I am back in my same apartment with my trophy still in the same situation so I said all right I'm British champion technically I can compete as Pro I'm going to Night Champions my first

pro show if I don't get in the top five I'm finished I'm finished with competitive bodybuilding when I went to my first pro show which was in Night of Champions in New York came out and did my posing and uh it was quiet and then slowly the whole audience started going Doran Doran Dorian they must have been like who's this guy who's this guy who's this guy I got second at that contest to Muhammad Ben Aiza and weeda must have seen something in me that was unique because I got invited out to Venice California to

do the Shoots for the weeder magazine at the Golds Gym and that's every bodybuilder dream at that point and then Vince McMahon from WWE he started a bodybuilding Federation the world bodybuilding Federation FES at muscles at the first wbf championship live June 15th at the Trump Taj in Atlantic City and Tom Platz who was my hero one of my heroes was like repping you know he was the guy that was putting this thing together and they contacted me and they offered me something like 170 Grand a year to go and be with that Federation that's

money at that time I had nothing I had nothing and then you know Mr Olympia is everybody bu dream so I have to give up on that dream to go with the Wrestling Federation so I made a tough decision and I said I'm going to turn down this money because I got faith in myself I will get that money and more if I stick to this path and I win Mr Olympia I got second in the first night of champions and then I came back the following year and I won that and I improved and

then people and myself was thinking I could maybe take this guy and I had to change my mental approach from wow it's the H Mr limp no no no hold on it's two arms two legs lifts weights and one thing I can guarantee he does not train as hard as me fantastic I'm on top of the world now how on top we looking for eight well we have to take it a year at a time but the 1991 Olympia Lee Haney had racked up seven Sandow trophies and it was just assumed he would easily secure

an a before retiring might be my first Mr Olympia contest and people might think well he's going to be overed by the occasion and intimidated there's no way you know I'm prepared psychologically I believe in myself and you know come to show everybody what I've done but once the prejudging started 29-year-old Dorian Yates made it clear that he wouldn't just hand the win over to the veteran who were surprised this afternoon in prejudging well uh the rumor has it that Dorian Yates from England is pound-for-pound the only one that could really take it from Lee

and we'll see if he can do that so we'll take you inside the dolphin with the 1991 Mr Olympia championships right after this Dorian was making his Mr Olympia debut that year and walked on stage with hints of overthe toop size that would later go on to define the mass monster era and Haney quickly found himself with some real competition breathing down his neck I used to be the last one to take off my uh track suit back St so I'll be playing little Mind Games cuz I know everyone's waiting to see you know so

let them wait so you're not really thinking about what you're going to do on stage your energy is being taken by me Lee honey did it to me I remember he he he said in a podcast that he used to do this he said I did it to D him but I don't know if it affected him or not but it did it did a little bit I was here he was over there and you know I was just Happ to look up and he just took his tracksuit off and got his back out you

know and his back was super thick I was like oh the Englishman came out to the biggest cheer in the contest since his night of champions win he's packed on another 5 lbs the 240 lb final product being noticeably improved by more dealt with and thickness more upper back thickness larger arms and chest with a taper improved by a more streamlined waist in considerably thicker lats the audience cheered its way through each compulsory pose and the anticipation for him and Haney to mix it manto man grew with each pose they were so far ahead of

anybody else that the judges only kept the two of them on stage for the title fight so Lee Haan is Mr Olympia when I'm when I'm starting out right I saw him guess po was in England inspiration big guy so I'm a fan basicly but now I'm going to go compete against him so I realized I can't be a fan anymore man I got to get a little bit ruthless here maybe I can beat this guy maybe I'm better than him why not sure he doesn't train as hard as you so there was a guy

in New York telling me a story which I found out later is total so he's like you got to watch out for Haney on stage He's a Bully say what do you mean you know he try to intimidate you he'll Bang into you a little bit he might tread on your toe or something you know he just want to like Bully you and own the stage man like what he's not doing that to me man I'm getting all psyched up and everything I'm psyched I'm on a stage and there's a call out it's just me

and Haney which is unusual two guys right so it's obvious this is a showdown right for first and second so I start walk out and Lee's give me the you know friendly smile I'll give him a stone face then I've walked out and you know you come and you go in this kind of relax semi- relax pose so I went into the semi- relax pose and on purpose I properly banged my elbow into him yeah so I banged into him and I did it a couple of times to let to let him know you know

and then in the pose down Lee Haney does this pose where he brings out his arms like this and I was behind and I know he kind of got me out of the corner of his eye and he clipped me with his with his knuckle I think he was like okay have some back even though Dorian won the muscularity round Haney topped him imposing in Symmetry and went on to win his record-breaking a Mr Olympia title Mr Olympia we Le Haney proving his supporters right Dorian placed second in a closely fought battle with Haney an

act that upon Haney's retirement from bodybuilding singled the englishman's arrival as the man to beat in 1992 to come out of Norway as you did and to get second in your first Olympia was very unheard of at that point yeah yeah you know like people like uh Ronnie Coleman J Cutler so many other big body holders took years to climb the ladder whereas you just rocketed top two immediately and then the guy who you pushed for the title was like right that's enough of that then and next year bodybuilding was about to witness a transformation

no one could have foreseen in 1991 Dorian had met the man who changed his approach to training someone introduced me to Mike when I went out to Venice Mike was one of my heroes when I started physique I liked his physique was like powerful strong rugged but it was more about the intellect the most gracious and the greatest of all Dorian Yates apparently he was motivated to start training as a result of having seen my photographs having read my articles bought and read my books he was brighter than the average bodybuilder came to understand the

theory of high intensity training recognized its validity used it and went on to win British championships Night of Champions I had the theory of hit training from Arthur Jones from Mike mener so the theory appealed to me because it was logical and that's the way my brain works it works in logic and Mathematics and straight lines in fact Dorian was so analytical that he had all of his workouts written down since 1983 I've got every single workout that I ever did from 1983 to 1997 written down and there's notes underneath how much weight did I

use what exercise how many reps did I do and then every month I would do a check I would set goals for the next month and before the 1992 Olympia he began to adopt hit principles and trained with Mike mener at Gold's Gym a clear fan of hit Dorian took Mike's advice regarding both training intensity and the number of sets needed for growth initially this meant one set to Absolute failure which in time he raised to several warm-up sets and then one to two sets to Absolute failure which was a complete change from the stimulate

don't annihilate at ethos that his Olympia predecessor Lee Haney promoted dorian's training was so hardcore that some Pro bodybuilders like Chris Cormier could barely get through a session with him [Music] [Applause] dorian's insane training intensity was showcased in his iconic blood and guts video released later in 1996 hi I'm d Ates four times Mr Olympia and this is blood and guts the video I'm going to take you in my gym and show you how I train to be the world's number one I hope you're ready cuz it's going to be rough no one had ever

put out an authentic bodybuilding workout like that they're all in little stringers on the beach that's exactly why I did it I had a friend who was a photographer Kevin Horton I said Kevin let's just hire a video filming camera but I want you to come in and I'm going to train as normal I don't want you to talk to me I don't want you to mess about with lights or anything I just want you to catch capture workout and the intensity and the weight and the feeling and nobody cares about Shades and angles and

lights they want to see and I want people to watch that training video and get pumped up and want to go to the gym now with a dialed in intense training protocol and with Haney out of the picture Dorian was ready to start his Olympia domination this year's Mr Olympia competition will be the hottest competition of all time and that's saying something because last year we had a magnificent lineup this year it's even better I feel very pleased with the the preparation I've improved um you know a lot from last year on every aspect it's

not only my physique but presentation and everything like that so you know at the moment I'm feeling really confident and I can't wait to get up there and show everybody what I've done in the last 12 months Dorian stepped on stage in the Helsinki is Hall in Finland weighing roughly 260 lb with an unprecedented combination of massive size and conditioning so impressive that people could see his muscle fibers a level of leanness now known as grainy when Dorian walked on the stage we never saw that what the hell is this you never saw that kind

of mass that kind of size Dorian changed the game he ushered in the mass monsters cuz I no one ever thought leany was a mass monster he had the nice shape but Dorian ushered in something that brought out the bigness and the size uh and it was a game changer for sure coming hot on their heels for the 1992 title were Lee Labrada a former second place in 1990 Shawn Ray who got third and fifth in the previous two years Lou fno Who was making a comeback after 17 years at 6'5 290 lb and the

new kid on the Block Kevin levrone who had just won Knight of Champions After The Showdown the top three to stand on the podium were Lee Labrada in third place who had a respectable overall pres but couldn't match the top guys dorian's Challenger Kevin Lani in second place who despite having good Aesthetics welldeveloped Els biceps and chest was no match for dorian's muscularity especially in the back lower back and lower body the shadow easily came in at number one to confirm the success he had the year before and to finally become Mr Olympia himself this

is my dream a dream that's come true you know I I so much to the sport of fil and I hope as Mr Olympia I can give back to the sport after the crowning he started training again that very next week for the next Mr Olympia always keeping one step ahead of everybody else and what Dorian had in store for next year was going to redefine the game once again if 1992 proved a career turning point for Dorian 1993 would be his breakthrough year a period where so widely would he distance himself from the competition

that this year's Olympia would be a battle for second place and his newly unveiled physique would send shock waves throughout the bodybuilding world I could have come into the contest biger them than I did but I was obsessed about having the size of a a big heavyweight combined with the conditioning of a smaller lighter bodybuilder and I think that's what I brought 92 when I won the first semester Olympia I could see that I was really pretty much in contest shape about six weeks out from the 992 Olympia but I kept dieting down and down

and down because I wanted to be super ripped and I was conscious at that point Lee Haney was not competing so I would be able to beat the other guys Shawn Ray Vince Taylor and so on on size even if I lost a bit of size so I I sacrificed size in 92 to bring in super condition and what I realized looking back is hey I just sacrificed a lot of muscle coming in so if I don't do that next year I can come in much bigger the Pinnacle or what a lot of people felt

like the Pinnacle of bodybuilding even was was that 1993 era where you put out those black and white photographs this was uh Kevin Horton again can you come down and take some pictures cuz I got some from last year that you took in the gym I want to stand in the same spot in the gym the same lights and everything so it was just for my reference really he said mate I've developed them photos I said yeah how do they look he said I'm going to bring them down to you you're not going to believe

this he said I'm going to send them to the magazine to flex magazine that wasn't the original plan it was just just for me that's why I still got my socks on if you look weeder put them in the magazine and by the way weer didn't like the pictures he didn't get it he's like ah it's not the correct lighting and the Shadows I Joe nobody gives a about that watch and they became like most iconic pictures of myself Peter mcov was the editor of flex magazine he was British and all the guys that used

to train in Venice California they used to go to the weeder offices so Peter said when they come in he said um have you seen the pictures of Dorian no no no no we've gotten what did it what does it look like he said I casually just drop them on the table and watch the face just drop like demoralized from that point everyone was looking to get second place and that was first for them so they they already mentally were beaten before the contest not that it mattered cuz physically they were going to get [Music]

beaten in the Atlanta Civic Center in Georgia a multitude of athletes were preparing to beat the title holder Shawn Ray Le Labrada Kevin levani and the new Challenger Flex wheeler who won the Iron Man Invitational and the Arnold Classic in his first two pro appearances flex's Symmetry and shape were a contrast to dorian's density and size and their clashing physiques made the 1993 Olympia a mustsee by that time people hadn't really accepted dorian's place on the scene yet because he was still a new guy when he'd first won the title they thought he might just

be a one hit wonder but 1993 was the year Dorian declared that he was here to stay he presented a physique that no one had ever expected his improved muscle mass combined with the conditioning that he was known for already in 1992 made him look like a giant from another planet there were quite a few big guys walking around this year but none of them combined mass and shredding the way Dorian did the judges placed Dorian Yates Flex wheeler and Sean Ray in the top three and they were compared side by side even though Shawn

presented a respectable physique the only real Contender to Dorian was Flex Flex had great symmetry in conditioning some judges described his physique as being almost cartoonish because of his incredible muscle roundness proportion and separation but despite his great Aesthetics he was simply no match for dorian's muscularity which was in a league of its own in first place this th year in a row Dorian y despite his incredible showing that night this wasn't to everyone's liking Dorian was criticized for his bubble gut and excessive muscularity with his most famous critic being Arnold Schwarzenegger during the 1990s

Arnold criticized bodybuilding which he believed privileged muscle mass over things like Symmetry and appearance for this reason Arnold criticized orian at several turns for embodying this mass monster look Arnold and those who championed the Golden Age of bodybuilding called for stricter drug testing protocols which they believed would curb the excesses deemed to be ruining the sport unless we we change the judging procedure and unless we do something about where they stop just using guys with the thickest neck and the biggest muscle but not look as pleasing because look at the old days when Steve Reeves

won and you saw him on the beach you say to yourself I would love to have this guy's body wow look at how beautiful this man looks but that's not what you can say about those guys the day they'd win those competitions like for instance so many of those guys have their stomach sticking out it used to be that you should have a b-shaped body fans of the 1990s bodybuilders on the other hand claimed that Dorian was pushing the boundaries of what was possible but regardless of these debates Dorian had set the standards of bodybuilding

for years to come and everyone else had to either adapt or perish because dorian's Olympia domination was only getting started if in 1993 the mass that Dorian came in with was a surprise to all by 1994 everyone knew what they had to fight against and they did all their best to surpass him the 1994 Mr Olympia was a clash between monsterism and classicism but it didn't go off as planned after finishing second last year with a more pleasing but less monstrous physique number one Contender Flex wheeler had his sight set on an Olympia rematch this

year but this hope would be short-lived as he was absent from the contest after a horrendous car crash where he nearly suffered paralysis defending champ Dorian Yates also suffered his first muscle tears in preparation I had a bicep tear in 1994 6 weeks before the contest I believe anyone else would have dropped out and I did think about it for a couple days like I was totally devastated I'd won 92 I'd won in ' 93 and in 93 just raised the bar so high that you know people couldn't believe it and now bang I've got

an injury that this is definitely possibly a career ending injury so I was just for a day I was devastated and like I'm going to have to drop out there's no way I can do this and then the positivist start to take over and say well how do you know that how do you know you can't do it until you try and to make matters even worse he had a stomach bug on the day of the contest and was holding water I felt sick and Bloated when I woke up he said just a small stomach

bug or even a cold can make a noticeable difference in a physique that is super lean as the inflammation causes water retention it was the opening Flex wheeler could have seized to snatch the Sandow trophy but luckily for Dorian fate had already intervened that's why many thought that Shawn Ray who was at his career best could have overtaken the champ when he was less than his best no longer am I doing it just for myself I realized there's a lot of people pulling for me supporting me I'm trying not to let them down but at

the same time keep my head up and remember where I came from and keep my eye on where I'm going and that is straight to the top of Mr Olympia on one hand you had the mass thickness and density of Dorian on the other you had the shape symmetry and Aesthetics of Shawn eventually the top three would be Kevin levrone Shawn Ray and Dorian Yates Kevin was a little too murky clearly sweating out excess water as prejudging progressed his back was also still a weakness and if if he was as crisp as he would go

on to be the next year he could have challenged Dorian for first place at 29 this year Shawn was in his prime and all his prime qualities were on display superb conditioning proportionate development elegant posing deep quad separation and the contest's best abs which made some contend that he should have been declared the Victor that night in second place competitor number seven Shawn Ray a lot of people don't really know this but um this year I had a lot of problems with injuries and so on and there's a couple of times I really thought it

wasn't going to be possible to for me to be here and be competing in the mystery Olympia um but I persevered I I pushed through and it makes this Victory all the more sweeter and um I'll be back next year I'll definitely be back next year and better than ever Dorian won his third title that night but not without controversy a lot of people point to 1994 as the year bodybuilding took a turn for the worse when a belly bloated disproportionate mass monster deated a smaller but tight waisted superbly proportioned classicist I forget the fact

that I thought I should have beat Dorian y I think that Dorian in '94 was just a little too sloppy listen he was big there's no question you can't take that away the color was running all off of his body the bicep Terror was very noticeable but when he put his hands down the obliques were hanging over the shorts so for that matter you got to go with the one with the fewest floss forget it that I'm not trying to say I'm perfect but I had fewer flaws on the day and this is where the

sport of bodybuilding could have turned the corner uh and gone a totally different direction which would have favored me but I pretty much knew by the time I got to the finals that the people that were judging that show were not going to change their opinion but they could have done the right thing and I thought they didn't that year but that wouldn't stop Dorian from continuing his Reign and coming in better shape than ever before the next year since the 1960s the West Coast specifically California has been a hot bed of bodybuilding activity for

economically minded bodybuilders it was also the headquarters of Joe and Ben weeder the men responsible for creating the Mr Olympia and if Joe weer liked you it meant magazine covers supplement deals and paid appearances so California offered the Elite Training Partners the chance to train at the sports Mecca and money the despite working for weer Dorian was against the idea of staying in America that's kind of why one of the reasons that I stayed where I was in England although was you know some pressure for me to move to California I was working for the

weeder company they would like me to be out there so they have more access to me and you know do more photos and then you know like you say you're in LA full of hot chicks full of parties nice weather you got sha Ray and these guys always out in California driving a Corvette by the beach and it's nice yeah it's great and but not from there we're not doing that I was scared to relax man cuz if I relaxed a little bit and enjoyed it maybe I'll Just Lose It Go again so I want

to stay isolated stay in UK stay in Birmingham where my gym was and just keep my head down that whole routine which is like a training camp which people might do for two or 3 months before a contest I took that approach year round nobody heard anything about you you were quiet on your own Island doing your thing you were just coming and winning I want anyone to hear anything about me I didn't want anyone to know too much about me it's part of my personality I like my privacy and it works psychologically as well

the guys say that to me crazy ass over there in England and we don't know what you're doing and we know that you're just pushing all the time so we got to we got to keep pushing we got this Shadow looming over us uh the gym I train at is is my own gym own the gym in England and it's basically a very small basement gym very um hardcore um mostly free weights uh there's no we don't have any cardiovascular equipment uh or anything like that the paint's coming off the walls and there's no showers

or toilets don't work um but there's a great atmosphere there it's a hardworking atmosphere I catch people all the time at the top of the stairs looking down because you couldn't actually see anything down there it was just like you're going into a black hole you could hear Rock M and people screaming weights banging and a lot of people are intimidated just to step downstairs I it was to my advantage that I was in UK I was in this little hole in the ground in in Birmingham and nobody saw me all year round so this

guy they can't see somehow you know it's building like fear up in your mind cuz you can't see him you're doing anything about it I called him the shadow so you gave him B name yeah I I I gave him the name you never you never saw him unless he was competing and he never hung out with anybody so that's why he's in the shadows you know just just waiting to pounce dorian's absence from the lights gave him a much needed advantage and by 1995 everyone wanted to see how he evolved from his bicep injury

and evolve he did and uh this year I'm not necessarily come in any bigger but I feel I've come in a lot better I've come in more with better shape and better definition better symetry all the other guys are playing my old game I'm playing a new game you know I doubt if anybody trained harder than this guy when you do a set you do one for Mama the babies everybody and as I've heard better than ever before Mr Dorian y this year he stepped on the big stage with a conditioning that might have surpassed

that one of 93 Shawn Ray had been so close to number one and wanted to take the crown this year regardless of how many people support me how many people think that I am already there I need that trophy to solidify my uh my mission and Kevin lone having already come in second in '92 and third in '94 was eager to claim the throne for himself the prejudging brought the battle down to the final four Dorian Yates and Shawn Ray once again and a much improved Nasser El Sadi and Kevin levrone fourth place a check

of $25,000 competitor number eight Shawn Ray in third place Naser elen NASA replaced Ray in the top three after a few comparisons between him and Ray while Kevin and Dorian battled for number one the front double bicep was hotly contested between them as the Yates had half a bicep smaller and lone always had his aame when it came to Arms the front lats spread was hands down one by Dorian nobody got close to his massive lats the side chest pose was again a really close one but dorian's Rock Solid conditioning and detailing gave him the

edge the back double bicep made Dorian shine and he managed to hide his torn biceps surprisingly well with a thick wide back and a strong lower body he took this round too the side triceps round was again tight as levon's arm size went again against the conditioning detail and perfect pose of Dorian which took the round by narrow margin the ab and thigh pose put levrone's Slimmer waist against oran's stronger more developed muscular abdomen the judges preferring the latter second place competitor number 18 Kevin [Music] Leone and the winner for the fourth year in a

row receiving the largest check in bodybuilding history to date $110,000 all in all the shadow triumphed once again taking home his fourth Mr Olympia now everybody was starting to ask themselves if Dorian was even stoppable in 1996 Dorian didn't have the problem he had training the year before of the recuperating bicep injury so he was able to go Full Throttle in the gym he expected to be in the best condition with an extra 4 lbs of quality muscle added to his already imposing physique this is my eighth Mr lpia I've yet to win the title

I put my heart and soul into this one I've been second I've been third twice I've been fourth and I've been Fifth and uh I put like I said the heart and soul into this training dedicated myself refocused it and now I believe that if I'm ever going to win the Mr Olympia from these Mass monsters I'm going to win it solely on the fact that they want to go a different direction with the look of bodybuilding ladies and gentlemen the the reigning Mr Olympia Dorian Yates the 1996 Mr Olympia was in many ways a

replay of 1994 and as always size mass and conditioning were preferred over Symmetry and Aesthetics combined with a smaller size when it was all said and done nobody could compete with dorian's back which helped win three rounds front lat spread back lat spread and back double bicep the side chest and triceps also going to Dorian even Sean was more aesthetic with neatly separated muscles and a better ab and thigh pose it just wasn't enough to challenge the reigning champ to the second place winner sha Ray and in first place Dorian Y and with the sixth

in sight Dorian went straight back to work he reanalyzed his Olympia physique and noticed he was flat due to over dieting so his goal was to show up for the German Grand Prix as lean as ever and even sharper than 1995 hit a stacked lineup including guys like Nasser Elson batti Kevin lone Paul DEET Ronnie Coleman and Vince Taylor Dorian emerged as the winner of the six Sandow seemed like it was only a matter of time but things didn't go off as planned and next year was just about to prove a whole lot [Music] harder

a bodybuilding Magician of sorts door Oran is one bodybuilder who could rise to the challenge silence his detractors and Prevail even if his training circumstances were less than ideal and the contest itself was one of controversy such was the case in 1994 and the same scenario would happen again in 1997 in the most controversial Olympia in dorian's career held in Long Beach California the 1997 Mr olympio was hyped as the dying vestiges of Dorian yates's reign despite winning the previous year some of his competitors clearly felt that he could be overtaken I think the fans

are screaming for something different basically because the freakiness doesn't last long it starts to wear off the challenge has been made it was set down last year it was set down in 894 I think I come full circle focused trained hard and was very very disciplined so if the champion didn't do his homework I'm coming to take my title everyone was wondering whether Shawn Ray nasar elmat or Flex wheeler could beat Dorian on the grandest St age of them all before the Olympia Flex was being touted as the prime Contender to Dethrone the champ thanks

in part to a series of strong showings in other competitions but what no one knew is that Dorian was going into the contest with yet another injury only this time it was even more serious than the previous one and that's the second injury was career ending it was 3 weeks before the Mr Olympia uh tricep tendon tear on the left elbow here and literally now I couldn't train nothing no white training for 3 weeks and it was the same thing like you can't compete you're going to Dr to drop out I didn't tell anybody cuz

I didn't want to become public knowledge because then when I went on stage people would be really looking for it all I did for that contest last three weeks with cardio no weight training you know for a bodybuilder that's that's very strange I had a friend that was a physio we had um it's like a big balloon device that goes over your arm and it inflates and deflates so it's constantly pumping all the time to tried to get move that fluid out of the injury uh it was still a bit black and blue actually and

I tried to cover it with a tan but you can see very very slightly I went into that contest in a state that I'd never been before feeling weak and vulnerable not even being able to practice my posing cuz I was scared to like pose too hard I didn't know the extent of the injury till I went to the states I said basically you got like a 95% Detachment of the tendon so it's hanging on a little bit so you better be very careful so even posing I was nervous and I didn't carry that energy

that I normally had of like invincibility of power of energy Chris for me US compete against me and flex wheeler they said they could feel almost a like a force field around me the energy was so high but that's how I felt and going to 97 I didn't feel like that at all so not my usual confidence and uh level going into that at all it was very hard for me to focus just like in 1994 this injury was the golden opportunity Flex wheeler could have seized to Dethrone the champ but the same scenario would

play out again with a slight twist in the days leading up to the Olympia Flex shocked bodybuilding fans by announcing his withdrawal from that year's competition I was involved in in a um situation Thursday it didn't turn out good for me I was hospitalized um I made a decision amongst myself to mask everything 48 hours before the event he arrived at The Host Hotel with his left hand bandaged and claimed that 6 days prior he'd been involved in an unsuccessful carjacking at the hands of nunchuck and gun wielding assailants Flex a Taekwondo black belt himself

decided to fight his asants instead of surrendering suffering enough injuries to exclude him from the competition over time this story got Twisted to refer to his asants as ninjas following the incident rumors circulated that he'd fabricated the story to avoid competing against Dorian as some Skeptics theorized he didn't Peak at the correct time however Flex wheeler pulling out of the competition would only be the beginning of the controversy ready to take the reigning champ down that is most vulnerable was the professor Nasser elen so this year I will have probably uh 275 pounds and I

think it doesn't mean that I'm smaller I think I'm look even bigger I'm sharper and I'm straighted more than ever my back developed more I have more separation more quality also my arms got bigger and uh the same uh I can say about my thighs my legs I think uh just in overall I improved nevertheless that I'm competing with five ponds less than uh At Last year by 1997 Nasser had worked his way into genuine contention for the Mr Olympia title as exemplified by five Pro Show wins and six top three placements including third place

at both the 95 and 96 Mr Olympia before being disqualified from that placing in the 96 after drug testing but this year he was a legitimate threat to bodybuilding's biggest prize Nasser entered the competition with a much improved physique com in larger and leaner than before and still possessing his famous symmetrical midsection and when the two men stepped on stage it looked like a new Champion would be crowned he rivaled Dorian in terms of sheer size while keeping an aesthetic quality few could match the prejudging for 1997 had put in the top positions dorian's traditional

competitors Kevin lron Shawn Ray and Naser El somebody in third place to sha [Applause] Ray from the top four the final showdown came down to Naser and Dorian Nasser was at the top of his career looking great even outclassing an injured Dorian in some of the poses the big Advantage Dorian had was his famously large back which rarely failed to impress but the pain from his torn triceps severely hampered his posing routine somewhat mitigating any advantage that he had but when it came time for for the winner to be announced it must have felt like

deja vu throughout the arena in second place NASA Elon depending on your point of view this was either the story of Dorian surviving NASA's Onslaught to become a six-time Mr Olympia or of Nasser being robbed in yet another controversial Olympia decision either way it was the end of the englishman's Reign and bodybuilding career I had surgery after the contest to reattach the tendon and it was successful in that it reattached and but the surgeon told me the tendon was very badly torn and some of the muscle was torn as well so Not only was it

functionally weak it looked a little different as well maybe 97 was the time for me to do my last contest and the injury just kind of forced that point I do remember starting my prep for the Olympia in 97 and somehow I didn't have the enthusiasm that I had previously it was starting to become like a job and I was starting to think what am I going to do after this something inside me was telling me like you need to change direction but after the surgery and a couple months rehab and then I'll start training

it was pretty obvious to me that there was a big strength in Balance now between the left and right side which made it impossible to train that was it my decision was made and now this was traumatic because this was a decision out of my hands went into a really deep depression to be honest and it wasn't just the retirement forced retirement from bodybuild there was other factors in my life that were going on but they all seemed to happen at the same time I almost didn't know who I was without this all-encompassing go I

don't it's gone what am I going to do now what really what am I going to do and who am I after retirement Dorian seems to have found himself again after leaving the world of bodybuilding behind he embarked on a spiritual journey one that emphasizes yoga Pilates marijuana and hallucinogens and a lot of people ask you now Dorian do you even lift yeah no I don't even lift man it's true I don't even LIF he was and continues to be a controversial figure in in bodybuilding one who refused to train the way most people trained

refused to train where most people trained and refused to look the way most people looked and for better or worse he single-handedly moved bodybuilding from the aesthetic era into the era of the mass monster evolving the sport in a way no one before him ever could I do have a reputation for being real serious and never smiling especially on stage um but what people got to realize is when I'm on stage when I'm in the gym that's my job and to me you know it is serious I take that seriously and