Dorian Yates a professional bodybuilder & 6 times Mr. Olympia isn’t afraid to tell it like it is, particularly when it comes to his own steroid usage. In this throwback video of London Real episode, check out Dorian’s candid thoughts on steroids in his own words.
“Every drug has negatives, but I can only speak from personal experience. I took steroids on and off from when I was competing in Amateur competitions in the British championship level up into the professional level from 1985 until 1997 when I retired. That’s 12 years of consistent use. Of course, athletes don’t use the recommended dose; they use way more than the regular dose. I can say in all that time I did get some side effects like water retention, some acne, yes your aggression levels are higher but it depends on what you do with that aggression. I took it out in the gym, I utilized it for my training. If you are out somewhere and you are fighting in a club or something it’s not a good thing. It varies from one person to another. We all know that alcohol can lower people’s inhibitions and make them more aggressive. One guy can have a few pints and turn into an aggressive asshole, somebody else can be totally chilled so it depends on the individual.”
Q: The mainstream media would have us believe that after cycling steroids for 12 years you should have a horn growing out of your head.
Dorian: “I have to say, any pharmaceutical drugs that you can take for 12 years way over the recommended dosage, that’s [steroids] got to be a very mild drug. I mean, this is a hormone.
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You’d have to really, really abuse it and take the piss before you have any negative side-effects. If you take a whole bottle of aspirin, it will burn through your stomach lining, and you’ll die. These are things you can get over the counter, and that puts it in perspective I think. I tell people to look if you’re thinking about it [taking steroids] get as much factual information as you can. I started in the ’80s; there was an underground steroid book, and that’s about all that was out. There was no internet; there are just gym-rumors, and back in the ’80s we were very cautious because we heard it can damage your liver and all that stuff.”
Dorian Yates: “I was very lucky to have a doctor that supervised all my blood tests throughout the years, and there was never anything in those blood tests to show any concern. But if you’ve seen a film called Supersize Me about a guy that ate McDonalds 3 times a day for three weeks before his blood tests were off the charts and his doctor was begging him to stop. So three weeks of eating McDonalds was much worse than me taking steroids for 12 years.”
On the next page, Watch Dorian Yates at 1996 German Gran Prix…
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