DY Nutrition is known most famously for its high-quality ingredients, allowing gym-goers to improve their health and performance with the best pre and post-workout sports nutrition.
But did you know its founder Dorian Yates was one of his era's most successful and influential bodybuilders? During the nineties, Dorian Yates reigned supreme, gaining the prestigious Mr Olympia title six times, making him the fifth most successful Mr Olympia ever.
So who is Dorian Yates? Read on to discover more about the man behind the brand and why investing in Dorian Yates Nutrition is the perfect choice for helping you to achieve your goals in the gym.
Who is Dorian Yates?
Dorian Yates was born on 19th April 1962 in Solihull in the West Midlands. He grew up on a small rural farm in Warwickshire before moving to Sutton Coldfield with his mother and sister after his father died when he was just 13.
When he was 18, Yates spent a six-month stint in a detention centre after he and his friends broke a shop window during the Birmingham riots in 1981. Although Yates was a long way away from his Mr Olympia journey at this point, he first started lifting weights during his time in the detention centre.
Yates had much success during his professional bodybuilding career, with a career record of 15 major contest wins and two second-place finishes. Here, he earned his nickname of 'The Shadow', often turning up unannounced to many professional competitions and winning, even though he kept himself out of the public eye between competitions.
Dorian Yates Mr Olympia
In 1987, Yates bought Temple Gym on Temple Street in Birmingham. Here, he prepared for his competitions, spending time locked away from the public eye and working on his gains.
Dorian Yates was one of the first bodybuilders to champion HIT training instead of long-duration weight-lifting sessions. HIT, or High-Intensity Training, allows muscles to achieve maximum stimulation through shorter, more intense workouts. Originally popularised by American bodybuilder Mike Mentzer, this training style was viewed as controversial by many bodybuilders of the era.
Yates was a true gym student and studied the science behind training. He took Mike Mentzer's Heavy Duty programme, then experimented and modified it, emphasising low reps and doing six to eight reps per body part (increasing this amount for his legs and abs).
Through this training programme, he pushed his sets further, adding two to three forced reps and incorporating drop sets, partials and rest pauses. This training saw him win the British Championships in 1988, weighing in at 226 pounds, 46 pounds heavier than when he started his training in 1983. This was just the beginning of his epic pro career.
Yates had honed his workouts to perfection by the time he won his first of six consecutive Mr Olympias, which typically involved one all-out working set per exercise. In the build-up to this set, he would pyramid warm-up sets, doing as many as three sets which steadily increased in weight.
In contrast to other bodybuilders that would do a large quantity of lifting for competitions, Yates' warm-up pyramid sets were at a moderate intensity. They were simply a build-up to the final, most important, beyond-failure set, which he believed was the only set that mattered to his workout.
Dorian Yates helped inspire many '90s bodybuilders to give HIT a chance, prioritising a lower-training frequency with a focus on higher-intensity sets that pushed to failure and beyond. Before Yates, low-frequency weight training was unheard of, yet it continues to influence how bodybuilders train and recover today.
Winning Mr Olympia 1993
Dorian Yates cites his 1993 Mr Olympia win as one of his most prolific. Continuing with his meticulously developed HIT training, it was the first time in the competition's history that an athlete would compete at 260 lbs with enviable conditioning that even saw the body fat be so thin on the pads of his feet that walking on the competition floor made them sore.
Yates honed his physique for this competition by implementing the same training techniques he had prioritised for the 1992 competition but developing and tweaking them further to achieve better results. He photographed himself in the build-up to Mr Olympia, analysing the differences in his body shape between photographs so he could document his development, building on the foundations of previous years' training to craft his Mr Olympia-winning physique.
After each Mr Olympia contest and the press and photography that followed it, Yates returned to Temple Gym in Birmingham and locked himself away to prepare his physique for the following year's competition to defend his title.
His sheer dedication saw Yates win six consecutive Mr Olympias until his career-ending chronic, acute injuries, including torn biceps and triceps. Such was his commitment that Yates still won his final Mr Olympia contest, even though he'd torn his triceps three weeks prior to the competition.
Dorian Yates Nutrition
A wealth of experience in the bodybuilding game helped to form the basis for Dorian Yates Nutrition.
The journey started in 1998 when Yates partnered with former British Bodybuilding champion Kerry Kayes to form CNP Professional, one of the oldest and most trusted bodybuilding supplement companies.
Although CNP brought much success and remains one of the leading supplement brands today, Yates left the company in 2006 to form his own company, Dorian Yates Ultimate Formulas. This company specialised in protein and weight-gain supplements, an area in which Dorian Yates had a wealth of knowledge.
Going on to form a second company, EU Peptides, in 2010, which specialised in hormone supplements; it wasn't until leaving these companies that Yates formed DY Nutrition, gaining much experience from his previous endeavours.
What is Dorian Yates Nutrition?
Dorian Yates Nutrition is one of the best supplement companies on the market. Using only the best, most high-quality ingredients, the brand specialises in helping those who want to improve their health and performance to achieve their goals.
Dorian's industry experience and contest-winning transformation gave him a passion for helping others achieve their goals, using only the highest quality products.
The DY Nutrition range includes essential bodybuilding and training supplements you can rely on, including mass gainers, creatine, protein, BCAAs and fat burners, which all focus on improving athletic performance, strength, conditioning and form. Here are some of the brand's bestsellers and the reasons why you should invest in them to enhance your workout;
Dorian Yates Pre-workout
DY Nutrition's pre-workout helps to boost energy, focus and strength, aiding athletes to embody his philosophy, work-ethic and mental strength. The brand's Blood And Guts Pre-Workout includes key ingredients such as caffeine to increase focus and Vitamin B3 to increase energy and decrease fatigue.
DY Nutrition NOX Pump Ultimate is a more extreme pre-workout offering high levels of unmatched performance during training. Using a combination of beta-alanine, caffeine and juniper extract, expect a strong focus and increased energy and strength during your workouts.
DY Nutrition Creatine
Creatine has proven successful in the bodybuilding industry and is an essential choice for improving muscle strength and power while increasing recovery rate. Expect a boost in cardio energy and improved muscle cell hydration when using DY Nutrition Creatine Monohydrate and fast-absorbing DY Nutrition The Creatine.
DY Nutrition Shadowhey Protein
DY Nutrition protein is the perfect pick post-workout, which is great for building muscle and strength. Including amino acids that assist muscle growth and repair, benefit from enhanced muscle recovery after even the toughest HIT Training.
Shop DY Nutrition at Discount Supplements
Dorian Yates' top performances resulted from hard work and dedication to his field, pushing the boundaries of bodybuilding and promoting a new wave of strength training that helped revolutionise bodybuilding today.
Now that you know the secrets to Dorian Yates' success, why not enhance your workouts with DY Nutrition? Shop the links above for tried, tested and trusted supplements that work - for increased success with every workout.