23/07/2025
Dorian Yates: "Back in the day, in the '90s, Gold's Gym was owned by a small group of people. It had a very family-like atmosphere—everybody knew everybody. If you were Mr. Olympia or a top pro, you trained there for free. They were very happy to have you and made you feel welcome.
But it had been some time since I'd been there, and the gym had apparently been sold—I'm guessing to a corporation. Now they’ve got people working there who might not be that familiar with bodybuilding.
So I got there to work out, and I said, 'Hey, I’d like to train, please.' The girl at the front desk replied, 'That'll be $40,' or whatever it was. I didn’t want to jump in with, 'Hey, you know who I am?' or anything like that.
So I said, 'Well, I don’t normally pay to train here. Do you know why that is? Because I’m a pro. Pros usually don’t pay to train.'
She said, 'Okay, but how do I know you’re a pro? Do you have some proof?'
At that point, I said, 'Well, if you want to swing around and look on the wall right behind you—see that big picture of Dorian Yates? That’s me.'
She goes, 'Oh... okay, let me speak to the manager.'"
