Play with the mind before with the person. If there is any bodybuilder who lives by it, then it is Dorian Yates, six times Mr. Olympia from 1992 to 1997. 60-year-old Yates is considered one of the best bodybuilders with icons like Ronnie Coleman and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Upon acclaiming many titles in the history of bodybuilding, Yates has a treasure of tips and tricks in disguise for his experience. In a True Geordie Podcast, which he recently shared on his Instagram, Yates confessed that besides making full use of his body, he also played mind games to stand out in bodybuilding competitions.

How did Dorian Yates play mind games with his competitors?

Yates confessed in the podcast that he would follow specific strategies that would help him play mind games with his competitors. Firstly, he understood the judges looked for the proper poses and body propositions. If a competitor had both, then he must mix the qualities to win the title.

Dorian also valued getting into the heads of his competitors. During the competition, Yates would deliberately take off his tracksuit at the end. The idea behind this was not to show his physique to his competitors. Naturally, out of curiosity, competitors wish to see each other’s bodies before performing on the stage. On not revealing his body, competitors would keep thinking about it while performing. It would effectively hamper their performance. Eventually, Yates’s trick worked.

In fact, before the onset of any title, Dorian Yates would become invisible to the media. He would practice in the gym with other bodybuilders and always with his t-shirt on. Dorian did not reveal his body to anyone until three to four days before the competition.

He shared in the podcast how he would reveal his body to very selective people and why;

“I’d invite a couple of people down from the bodybuilding community, whose opinions I respected because they knew what they were looking at because they’d [judged] Mr. Olympia or they’ve seen the top guy,” 

Yates continued; “If I took my top off every day at the gym, I would just get [people saying] ‘Whoa, you’re amazing,’ ‘You’ll beat everybody’ […] I didn’t need to hear that from people that didn’t really know what they were looking at.”

Read More: Six-Time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates Once Claimed Ronnie Coleman’s No-Nonsense Approach “Can Become Self-Destructive at Some Point”

As a result, Yates’s trick of disappearing before and after the competition got him the nickname ‘The Shadow’

When did Yates retire from bodybuilding?

The bodybuilding prodigy retired after his sixth Mr. Olympia title in 1997. Yates experienced a severe tricep tear, leading him to conclude his bodybuilding career.

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Although Yates had to retire due to an injury, he was more than happy to do so. For him, bodybuilding was becoming more of a job than a passion. At present, he feels content maintaining a rather small physique and a healthy lifestyle.