Dorian Yates used only 1500 milligrams of steroids weekly at Mr. Olympia peak
"For the Mr. Olympia, I calculated— and don't think this— I'm not a guy that's just started training. I'm a guy that's near his absolute potential, a Mr. Olympia professional competitor. It totaled up to around 1,500 milligrams a week. Yeah, that's a pro contest though. That's a Mr. Olympia, like a few hundred milligrams of test, Primobolan, trembolone, and some Anavar. And I consider that to be very high at the time, but I see people taking that on a regular basis."
About this episode
Six-time Mr. Olympia champion Dorian Yates sits down with host Thomas DeLauer to deliver a scathing critique of modern bodybuilding culture and expose practices threatening the sport's integrity and athlete lives. Yates reveals his peak competition steroid protocol totaled only 1,500 mg weekly, a dosage he considered extreme but which recreational gym-goers now routinely exceed without competitive justification. He warns that daily bodybuilding deaths have become normalized, with competitors dying in their twenties and thirties from heart disease exacerbated by excessive drug use and what he suggests are post-vaccine vascular complications. Most alarmingly, Yates exposes the use of PMMA permanent oil injections from Brazil that competitors are using to artificially inflate muscle size, calling for immediate regulatory action to preserve bodybuilding as a legitimate sport rather than cosmetic enhancement. He criticizes the death of training intensity in modern gym culture, arguing that science-based training recommendations emphasizing volume over intensity give people comfort in not pushing themselves. Yates shares his own training philosophy, revealing he built 22-inch calves with only two sets weekly and trained primarily in the 6-8 rep range to develop the extreme muscle density that made his physique appear fundamentally different in person. He discusses the calculated professional risks he took during his career, including his decision to retire after a tricep injury in 1997 when he could no longer train at his standard. Yates also exposes predatory coaching practices, describing cases where unqualified coaches hospitalized young competitors with dangerous protocols like eight-liter daily water intake. Now focused on health and longevity at 64, Yates emphasizes he feels decades younger than his age and channels his knowledge into his supplement company DY Nutrition, which he's bringing to the United States market.
Key takeaways
- Dorian Yates reveals modern bodybuilders are using PMMA permanent oil injections to artificially enhance muscle size, calling for immediate bans to preserve competitive integrity
- Bodybuilding deaths have become a daily social media occurrence with competitors dying in their twenties and thirties, primarily from heart disease related to extreme drug protocols
- Yates used only 1,500 mg of steroids weekly at his Mr. Olympia peak while modern recreational users routinely exceed that amount without competitive justification
- Two of Yates' certified trainers were hospitalized by competition coaches using extreme protocols including eight liters of daily water intake causing kidney damage
- Yates built 22-inch calves training only two sets once weekly, directly contradicting modern volume-based training science and proving intensity matters more than volume
- Modern gym culture has lost training intensity with science-based recommendations giving people comfort in not pushing themselves to genuine failure
- Yates retired from competition in 1997 after tricep injury when he could no longer maintain his training standards rather than compete at diminished capacity