"I never went to 1 rep max, ever!" Says Dorian Yates

Dorian Yates, who rose to fame in the 1990s, has long since retired from competing, but his legendary tenure on the bodybuilding scene has stood the test of time as he is still one of the sport's greatest legends. During his career, Yates won the Mr. Olympia title six times in a row (1992-1997) and competed against the best bodybuilders, including eight-time Mr. Olympia winner Lee Haney.

He was on the professional scene for fourteen years and his last competition was the 1997 Mr. Olympia. Dorian entered this show despite struggling with acute chronic injuries, including torn biceps and triceps.

In a recent interview, he talked about why he ran out of exercises with weights for 1 max rep.

I've never gone for 1 rep max, ever! For bodybuilding purposes - which was my only goal - I didn't feel that aiming for 1 rep max was appropriate or beneficial.

The risk/reward ratio was not worth it in my opinion. Instead, I worked my way up to higher weight numbers over the years.

These were my working weight numbers that I was able to achieve over many years of training. I know that for some exercises I could certainly go to a higher weight, but it would mean that my form would take a hit and the load would not be on the target muscle. This would again defeat the purpose of bodybuilding and the goal of trying to build muscle mass.

So while I was definitely lifting heavy weights, my form was solid and laser focused on the target muscle. I've said it many times before, leave your ego at the door! Work the muscle, not your ego.

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Source: fitnessvolt.com