Idai Makaya recently interviewed Dorian Yates, one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, to discus the concept of High Intensity Training (or HIT). This interview was written for Idai's Martial Arts Conditioning Column in Martial Arts Illustrated Magazine - Britain's Number One martial arts publication.

Dorian Yates and Idai Makaya at Temple Gym in Birmingham

In the article Idai will look at how the general concept of HIT (as explained by Dorian Yates) may actually be transferrable to all physical conditioning - and not just to bodybuilding and strength training. The article will also outline Dorian Yates' experiences in mixed martial arts training. 

For those of you who don't know Dorian Yates - he is one of the most successful athletes of our time, having dominated the sport of professional bodybuilding throughout the 1990s - winning bodybuilding's highest honour (the Mr Olympia Championship) for six years in a row.  

What is even more remarkable about Dorian Yates is the fact that he used a training strategy which was completely different to how other professional bodybuilders trained. This training philosophy is called High Intensity Training and it is possibly the most efficient and effective way to train and develop the body - as Yates' results have shown.

Idai's aim is always to explore and investigate the most effective or efficient methods for achieving our goals in health, fitness and sports conditioning - aiming for minimalist solutions to training challenges. Hence, a meeting with the greatest ever exponent of the HIT methodology was an ideal opportunity for him to expand his insights into minimalist philosophies.

Dorian Yates has a wealth of knowledge about fitness conditioning, nutrition and physical performance. His views and training practices often deviate from what most people would expect from a professional bodybuilder. He only endorses products he uses (or believes in) and his nutritional practices prove what many discerning athletes have always known - the fact that there are better, less costly and more efficient ways to train our bodies to reach their physical potential and the fact that these methods do not necessarily involve stuffing ourselves with  large amounts of costly supplements or wasting our time doing activities that we don't absolutely have to do.

In this article Idai also looks closely at Dorian Yates' views on how martial artists can use the nutritional and technical processes derived from bodybuilding to improve their performances. He examines Dorian Yates' own journey into mixed martial arts training (after he retired from professional bodybuilding), analyses his views on the links between training intensity and physical development, gets insights into his experiences with injuries and reveals some of his beliefs about performance nutrition for martial arts. Dorian Yates keeps things simple - and so should you.