Six-time Mr. Olympia champion Dorian Yates has built one of bodybuilding’s most iconic physiques through decades of intense training. But at 63, the British legend is doing something that might surprise many: he’s deliberately losing muscle mass for his health.
“I was a few years ago still at like 250 pounds, you know, just on TRT and some training,” Yates revealed on the Huberman Lab podcast. After a routine checkup showed elevated blood pressure, something clicked for him. “I dedicated my whole life to earlier life to building muscle mass. Now, I’m actively trying to lose it for health reasons, but also I wanted to check my ego.”
Yates dropped from 250 to 230 pounds, a significant reduction for someone who once dominated the Mr. Olympia stage with unprecedented mass and conditioning.
His approach to training has evolved dramatically from his competitive days. Now he lifts weights just twice per week with moderate resistance, focusing on what he calls “functional training” rather than maximum muscle building.
“I don’t have any pain, joint pains,” he explained. “I do something every day, different things, not lifting weights. I do that maybe a couple of times a week, moderate weights, because I don’t want to push too much. I’ve got injuries. I got a torn bicep on this side, a torn tricep tendon, and some shoulder issues.”
The transformation reflects Yates’s practical, logical approach to life and training. While others were concerned about his appearance, he remained focused on what truly mattered. “Everyone else was more concerned than me about looking skinny now and everything. Yeah, I don’t care, you know. I’m just doing what I think is best for my health.”
His current routine includes Pilates, yoga, functional training, and outdoor cycling in the Spanish mountains where he now lives. The results have been remarkable. At a recent appointment for shoe orthotics, Yates discovered he had gained an inch in height, reaching just over six feet tall, not through bone growth but through improved posture from his training regimen.
“My posture is much better,” he said. “So I’m standing straighter, which gives me an extra inch of height. So I’ve actually got taller.” The years of heavy lifting had created forward shoulder rotation and spinal compression, common among bodybuilders. His current training has reversed these effects.
Yates also emphasized the dangers of carrying excess body weight, even when it’s muscle. “If you’re carrying a lot of weight when you get older, even if it’s muscle, I don’t think it’s ideal,” he noted. This perspective comes from someone who witnessed many former competitors struggle with health issues or pass away prematurely.
His dietary approach has shifted as well. Yates now practices intermittent fasting, eating twice daily between noon and 10 p.m., with higher protein and fat intake and reduced carbohydrates. He’s moved away from the traditional bodybuilder’s frequent meals of chicken breast and rice that he maintained for years after retirement simply out of habit.
The physical changes represent just one aspect of Yates’s evolution. Through practices like yoga and breathing techniques, he’s developed what he calls “whole body consciousness” rather than just the exterior muscle awareness that dominated his competitive years.
“I feel like I can speak to my whole body, like anywhere I want to go speak to my cells, contact my organs and check in with them and make sure everything’s all right,” he shared.
For someone who built his identity and career on being the biggest and best, choosing to get smaller represented a significant psychological shift. Yates remains an advocate for resistance training and building muscle for health, particularly for the general population.
