In Conversation with Dorian Yates part I

BDJ: Sergio Oliva has fairly bad arthritis throughout his entire body, necessitating the need for mostly machine training. He finds free weight training, and all the balancing that goes along with free weights, too aggravating to the joints.

DY: In an ideal world, and if I didn't have any injuries, I would use more free weights. I wouldn't want to train exclusively with machines, but that's not where I'm at right now. So, I just do what I can do and what I have to.

BDJ: I assume there's no chance of coming out of retirement, that you've had it with competition?

DY: I made the decision to retire, mainly because of the injury and because I've been competing for a long time. The only thing left to achieve was if I could better my physique. But with the injury and all the rehab I went through, I knew that wasn't going to be possible. And I definitely didn't want to go back and be anything less than my best.

BDJ: Exactly. Regarding dieting, it seems the final week before competition is most crucial. Bodybuilders become mentally stressed, believing they look much worse than they actually are.

DY: That's definitely true. You can look in the mirror one minute and think you look great. Then ten minutes later you're not so sure. Obviously things didn't change, but your mind can play tricks on you. A lot of people tend to do crazy stuff the final week because they're in that state of mind. They do everything consistently, looking better and better, then during the last week or last few days they do something to completely screw things up. Although you have to be flexible, you need a plan and must and stick to it.

BDJ: Have you bothered with carb depletion and loading or altering water intake?

DY: I've always worked with my carbs and it works very well for me. It doesn't work for some, and perhaps different physiques respond differently to macronutrient intake. I have refined it over the years to know exactly what was working, what wasn't working and why. There wasn't too much hit and miss, although sometimes when I look back I could have increased a little here or there to be in slightly better condition. I always kept records, tracking everything I did, right up to the last week before competition. I would then look over my records and compare the information to how I looked and then made adjustments.

BDJ: With nutrition in general, what were your protein, fat and carb ratios?

DY: My first concern was making certain I had adequate protein in regular intervals throughout the day. I averaged 1.5 grams per pound of body weight. Then it was just a matter of balancing the rest of the calories I needed between fat and carbohydrates. I'm not sure of the exact percentages, but it was probably around 30-40% protein, 50% carbs and 15-20% fat. It varied, but I saw the fats and carbohydrates as energy foods, and of course the necessity of essential fatty acids for the nervous system, etc.

BDJ: There seems to be a move toward very high protein and fat and very low carb.

DY: Again, that may vary with people's metabolisms and how they respond to insulin produced by carbohydrates. But, for me, my diet was fairly high in carbohydrates. When low in carbohydrates, I lost size, my physique flattened out, and I would lose energy very quickly.

BDJ: I also noticed all the above effects. I once went on a very high protein diet for several months and my body never did adjust to it. I had to eventually increase carb intake to around 40-50%.

DY: Even carb depleting for me meant almost 200 grams of carbs a day. That was low for me, and it was pretty rough after 2-3 days on that. But for others that would be considered moderate.

BDJ: I noticed that about your diet... that you did not take carb depletion to extreme. Rather you introduced a reduction to 'some' extent, which was sufficient to be a deficit.

DY: The general rule was to decrease my carbs by 50%. I averaged between 400-450 grams per day, some days being a bit higher or lower than others. When I decreased carbs to 200 grams for about three days, I would increase volume slightly to accelerate glycogen depletion. I was also careful in increasing protein and fats so the overall calorie level was the same. Not only do some people reduce carbs too much, not having much for energy, but they don't replace those lost calories and begin to burn muscle tissue. Prior to competition I would then up my carbs to about 1000 grams per day. During the off-season it was around 700-800 carbs a day, so the slight increase above normal made an additional difference.

BDJ: Your caloric intake must have averaged around 5000-6000 per day.

DY: It was around 5500-6000... yes. Of that, my protein was around 400-450 grams per day.

BDJ: You're currently working with Ernie Taylor. How is that going and how does he train?

DY: It's going well. His training is fairly brief, particularly compared to the other pros. I think that once I won the Olympia in 1993, and it was publicized about the kind of workouts I was doing, it produced an impact in the sport. I'm not saying that everyone began training the way I did, but the volume and frequency among the pros has reduced quite a bit from ten years ago to today. Nearly everybody was doing 3-days-on-1-day-off, 3-days-on-1-day-off, etc. They trained each body part twice a week. Now, most guys are training each body part once every 5-6 days with reduced volume.

BDJ: Except Lee Priest, who claims to be training up to 30 sets per muscle group.

DY: Yes... but he's got a great physique.

BDJ: He's also young. I had a lot of energy when I was his age, and did some pretty wild workouts. I look back on those days and don't know how I did it.

DY: Yes... I look back, and I used to train chest, back and shoulders in one workout and probably more volume than I do now. But it still produced results.

BDJ: What you would change about the sport of bodybuilding?

DY: Education. People don't really understand what goes into creating a great physique. If you watch a sport, like basketball, you can see and appreciate the ability of the athlete. With bodybuilding competition you only see the end product. If you're into it, you can appreciate the physique, but to the average person it looks like something strange and extreme. They don't know the dedication or hard work... or the knowledge of nutrition. They should combine television coverage with actual documentary on the person's training and what they do to get ready. When I was competing in the Olympia, I got some requests from television shows, and that is always what I wanted to do... to talk and discuss what is involved in the sport. And when people become educated on the process they appreciate it and look at it differently. But my experience with TV people is that they were not interested in that... in sitting and talking about it. They wanted me to come in the studio and pose, then ask some questions. I wouldn't go for that. I said "that if you had another athlete come in, a sprinter for example, you wouldn't have him run around the studio... or have a basketball player bounce the basketball. Rather, you would sit the person down and talk to him. And that's what I'm prepared to do." That did not interest them. But to have a bodybuilder come in wearing trunks and posing... that person becomes an object and a spectacle.

BDJ: Do you find you have actually obtained the notoriety from your country that you deserve?

DY: Definitely not in England. I'm more recognized in the States.

BDJ: Is that due to bodybuilding not being very popular in Great Britain?

DY: It's not really popular. It's got a good hardcore following and there are quite a few decent bodybuilders in England, as you probably know. But it's a very small community... an underground thing. It's not something that doesn't cross over to the general public... not like in the States. There, I find I'm more widely recognized over a much broader cross section of people... people who are not necessarily bodybuilders, but who go to gyms... who are into fitness, health and nutrition and appreciate bodybuilding much more. I get people from all walks of life in the States who recognize me.