Everybody loves Mike Mentzer — at least, decades after he stopped competing in bodybuilding. Mentzer is famously regarded as one of the sport’s most prolific golden-era athletes, despite never winning the Mr. Olympia competition. To six-time Mr. “O” Dorian Yates, Mentzer was more brains than brawn:
- “Mike was the most influential for me,” Yates wrote on Nov. 15, Mentzer’s birthday. “Going against the grain, asking the ‘why’, challenging the normal way of thinking and training.”
Yates, in his own way, paddled upstream. His unique approach to bodybuilding made him the most dominant bodybuilder in the world for most of the ‘90s. As the sport’s first real mass monster, Yates credits much of his success to Mentzer.
Dorian Yates on Mike Mentzer
Yates continues to endorse his patented “blood & guts” training style to this day. Much of his philosophy on bodybuilding workouts, Yates says, comes from his years under Mentzer.
- “It was Mike who believed I would benefit from cutting back to just one working set,” Yates wrote on social media. “That was the bodybuilding I was into, pushing to both physical and mental limits.”
The high-intensity training pipeline stretches backward past Yates, even past Mentzer, to legendary bodybuilding entrepreneur Arthur Jones. Jones invented the Nautilus weight machines and influenced Mentzer toward his one-and-done approach to lifting weights.
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Years later, Yates would iterate on their low-volume approach to building muscle while training alongside a retired Mentzer. “I got to train with [Mentzer] 5-6 times over two years,” Yates said of his burgeoning years in the sport in ‘91. Just one year later, he bagged his first Sandow trophy.
Mentzer died in 2001, but his resonant personality thrums within the bodybuilding community to this day. Mentzer remains a fan-favorite athlete among recreational bodybuilders and Mr. Olympia winners alike.
Here’s Yates’ tribute to Mentzer in full:
“[Mentzer] was writing for the Weider magazine when I first came across his articles and became inspired by his logic.
Guys like Mike, Tom Platz, Casey Viator, and Arthur Jones were my role models, although I never met them in person back then (except seeing Tom on stage in the 80s), but through the image of words they became my role models, especially as I didn’t have my father growing up.
But Mike was the most influential for me. The stuff I read from him resonated and although I wasn’t into philosophy back then, I would love to have conversations with him now as I’ve matured mentally, physically and philosophically.
With Mike, it goes beyond his physique – although his physique was incredible. Plus he had that strongman moustache which was unrivaled!
That was the bodybuilding I was into, pushing to both physical and mental limits. Not the Greek god posing, but the hardcore power-building almost!
And of course, he was a free thinker like myself so again that side of him resonated with me as I was a rebel! Going against the grain, asking the ‘why’, challenging the normal way of thinking and training.
I got to meet him in the flesh in ‘91 where we had a conversation. And over the next 2 years I got to train with him in Golds Gym. We trained 5-6 times in total and it was Mike who believed I would benefit from cutting back to just 1 working set. He wasn’t my coach just to be clear, we didn’t talk nutrition or PEDs as I thought I was confident enough in that so we only talked training mainly.
In all my meetings with him he came across as a very intelligent and kind man, yes he had some problems and he wasn’t perfect, but we’re all human and we have ups and downs.
Like I said he had a big influence on me even though it was originally just through words and pictures, he probably didn’t know just how much he was influencing people worldwide but hopefully I can pass that on. I think that’s the main thing, regardless of trophies and material possessions, it’s about what impact you had on people and to hopefully do something positive.
And I’m certain he had a very positive effect on people, let’s celebrate that.”
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Featured Image: @thedorianyates / Instagram
