Dorian Yates understands the qualities needed to stand out on the sport’s greatest stage. In a recent Instagram post shared on August 22, 2024, he explained why muscle size is key to winning the Mr. Olympia and backed up his statement by looking at past champions who earned Sandow trophies against smaller competitors.
Dorian Yates is the most successful bodybuilding champion to come out of the United Kingdom. Shortly after Lee Haney’s reign in the Men’s Open class, Yates took over, kickstarting a new era of dominance with unparalleled size and granite conditioning. To this day, his massive and detailed back has stood the test of time. Before calling it a career, Yates won six Mr. Olympia titles, having out-muscled icons such as Flex Wheeler, Shawn Ray, and Kevin Levrone.
While those top-tier Pros boasted remarkable aesthetics and shape, it wasn’t enough to stop the overwhelming size and hardness of ‘The Shadow.’ And despite entering retirement, Yates hasn’t forgotten how lethal muscle size was on the big stage. Regardless of era, he argues that size has remained king, even when Arnold Schwarzenegger was besting Frank Zane on the Olympia stage back in the 1970s.
Dorian Yates Looks Back on Past Eras of Bodybuilding, Says ‘Muscle Size’ Key to Winning the Mr. Olympia
Although many fans want to replicate Frank Zane‘s prime physique, Yates underlines that even with aesthetics and a prettier look than Arnold Schwarzenegger, he wasn’t able to defeat him on the Mr. Olympia stage in 1970 and 1971.
“If you look at the Mr. Olympias for instance, in the era of Frank Zane and Frank Zane is a bodybuilder probably most people look at and say ‘Fuckin hell, that’s it, that’s great.’
They probably looked at me and said it’s too extreme but in the era of Frank Zane, who was Mr. Olympia? It was Arnold. Arnold was Mr. Olympia. You could argue that Frank Zane’s body was more aesthetic and nicer and prettier than Arnold’s but Arnold beat him, why? He was just bigger.
In addition, Yates illustrated his point about size being the deciding factor on the Mr. Olympia stage by examining Lee Haney‘s success in the 1980s against the shapely and more aesthetic Lee Labrada.
“Lee Haney was eight times Mr. Olympia, you could argue maybe Lee Labrada or somebody like that was better proportioned and put together, but he was much smaller. So it’s muscle size is a big factor, it’s not the only factor, but it’s a big factor,” shares Yates.
Size remains a major factor in the sport, especially within the Men’s Open category. Even when bodybuilders sport more impressive conditioning, the judges have awarded competitors for their muscle volume and stature, which is how former two-time Mr. Olympia Mamdouh ‘Big Ramy’ Elssbiay managed to win a pair of Sandow trophies in 2020 and 2021.
We are approaching the 60th anniversary of the Mr. Olympia contest and muscle size will certainly influence who leaves Sin City on top. Dorian Yates maintains that muscle size is not the end-all-be-all on the Olympia stage, but it continues to play a massive role in who walks away victorious.
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