Quotes from Dorian Yates

The single biggest mistake that most beginners make is putting 100% of their effort into the positive (concentric) part of the rep, while paying no attention to the negative (eccentric) segment

It's not good to lose your dad at any time but at 13 years of age you are just going through puberty and growing up and that was a very crucial time and was a hard time to lose my dad and it had a big effect on me.

I've no wish to run into a contest and make a fool of myself, leaving my career in a cul-de-sac. I want to be a success in the sport of bodybuilding.

I was only 30 years old, and the second Mr. Olympia was probably the most outright win in the history of the sport. It literally took the judges two minutes to see the winner, and then they concentrated on who is coming second.

A lot of people think growth hormone is going to increase the size of your internal organs which bloats the waistline. So I went and had a battery of tests where they actually measure all of your internal organs and mine were all normal.

I didn't have my dad there and I had another mate who didn't have his father, and you kind of form your own little family and that's what gangs are, that's why you have so many gangs now because there are so many kids without fathers that they seek their own male bonding.

Back when I was competing in the Olympia I think you saw a lot of guys who were in really good shape.

My sole goal when getting ready for a contest was not building a lot of size, although when I was coming up pure muscle size was still very important. I was always really concerned about coming in very sharp conditioning wise.

I was Mr. Olympia and everywhere I went I had to project this image. After some time you start wondering what part of that is really you and which bit you're doing because it's your job.

I put myself in a trance before I even entered the gym. I'd lock myself in the office and go over the poundages from my last workout and visualize what I'm going to wear, how powerful I'm going to feel.

Every single workout counted when I trained, I didn't miss any meals and made sure I got my sleep.

I was not going to be distracted by anything - a fight with my wife, a bump in the car, whatever it may be. I refused to let anything interfere with my workouts.

I grew up in a small holding in Staffordshire near Tamworth, and we had a few ponies and chickens, ducks and dogs and my mum used to do horse-riding lessons, but we moved to Birmingham when I was 13.

I came from quite a free background living on this small holding farm, getting on my bike and running round the field and going on little adventures and always felt like a very independent person.

I remember when I was a kid rugby players were some big guys that drunk a lot of beer but now they have proper training programs and diets and all that. And the pioneers of all that is bodybuilding.

It is fortunate that I am quite a secure person and my training flew in the face of what everybody else was doing as they were all just copying what the American bodybuilders did, as reported in the magazines. But it didn't take long before people were listening to me: it happens when you are Mr. Olympia.

So I had to change my mental outlook from, 'wow, this is Lee Haney, the icon we are all trying to aspire to,' to, 'this is the guy I am trying to beat.' I thought, 'I can't be in awe of this guy because, if that is your attitude then you're not going to have much chance of winning.'

So initially getting up on stage I was really nervous, I was like, 'wow, I'm going to be standing there and all these people are going to be looking at me?' But funnily enough it wasn't too traumatic. It felt quite natural because I felt I looked good and I knew how to do the poses.

There are two drawbacks to steroids, one is the potential problems with your health and the second one is it is very easy for people to dismiss everything you have put into it by saying, 'yeah but he takes steroids.'

What I like is the journey, the year-round struggle to improve.

The failure rate for gym owners and personal trainers is very high because it is very difficult for them to work on their business when they are busy working in their business.

I am more interested in health, quality of life, longevity and how training and nutrition affects that as you get older.

Exercise and fitness will always be part of my life but it does not have to be lifting huge weights; I like yoga, cycling, walking swimming, anything.

Your schedule really gets thrown off when you are traveling. And a schedule is very important when you're training.