Dorian Yates does yoga now.

It’s a fact that probably means little to you. But if the name does ring a bell, the sound’s as clear and loud as the one that comes from a church’s belfry just after a wedding.

The 5-foot-9-inch Yates won Mr. Olympia, the best known of all the professional bodybuilding titles, six consecutive times from 1992 to 1997. While winning those titles, he displayed nary an ounce of fat, 260 pounds packed full of muscle, and, as Jason Serafino writes in an article for Bar Bend, the official media partner of USA Weightlifting, a “billboard-sized back and mountainous pecs.”

To build those mountainous pecs, he typically performed sets of 6 to 10 repetitions of the inclined bench press using more than 400 pounds.

But that was then and this is now ... if now is two weeks ago. At that time, Yates did a taped interview with Escape Fitness and explains that at the age of 61 his lifestyle, goals, and needs aren’t the same as they were when he ruled the pro ranks, so his training is “entirely different now.”

Along with high-intensity training on a stationary bicycle, Yates does the aforementioned, less-intense yoga. At the start, though, he was really bad at it.

So bad, he admits, “I couldn’t stand on one leg without falling over all the time.”

He keeps doing yoga, however, because he finds it to be “kind of like life. If you try too hard, you just make it harder.”

And now, about three years later, he claims he’s more mobile, more agile, and that his body feels “great.” That he could do pretty much anything athletically “apart from lifting heavy weights.”

Serafino claims Yates’ body looks great, too. After seeing a picture he posted on Instagram during a beach vacation, the scribe describes Yates’ abs as “tight and mean” and his build “athletic.”

So is all this Dorian-Yates-now-does-yoga talk supposed to get you to buy a suitable mat, the proper pants, and seek out a yoga instructor?

No sir. You’re the only one who knows if incorporating yoga into your exercise regimen is right for you.

It simply leads to a valuable lesson Yates has learned from doing yoga.

To be more flexible.

But we’re not talking about a physical flexibility that allows you to better do the downward facing dog, the lower-lizard pose, or even touch your toes.

A spillover effect of practicing yoga, Yates tells Escape Fitness, is that he now handles stress much better than he used to. It’s because he’s improved what those in the mental health field often call mental flexibility, and he’s achieved that by doing what his yoga instructor advises inside the studio outside of it as well.

“Just relax and breath ... Don’t try to get to the end.”

So this article will end, not with a list of yoga stretches to improve your physical flexibility, but with suggestions to increase your mental flexibility. But what exactly is mental flexibility?

In an article for Psychology Today, Meg Selig, calls it “the ability to size up and adapt to an unexpected or difficult situation and take action while keeping your goals and values in mind.” Besides reducing stress, Selig believes mental flexibility boosts brain power, generates energy and creativity, and allows you to find the middle ground in difficult go-rounds with people.

Along with suggesting 10 ways to improve it, Selig acknowledges that some of hers may not suit your personality, so it’s best for you to pick and choose. After looking at her list, I realized I had already done and had been doing four of them for a while.

One in particular has led to far less stress while I do my column writing, and I can’t see why it wouldn’t apply to whatever job you do. “Stop working when your brain gets tied up in knots.”

When the words just won’t flow, I now get up and go. I no longer sit for hours, produce little, and pride myself on being mentally tough.

I cook, clean, or workout, and sometimes - surprise, surprise - I quickly stop, grab pencil and paper, and feverishly write down an idea. More likely, though, is when I reread the part of the article that killed the flow a day ago the next morning, I have an ah-ha moment.

It leads me to alter the article a bit and allows me to move on.

Either scenario is an example of what may very well be the greatest benefit to mental flexibility. Your brain continues to work on your problem as you work on something else, which allows you “to develop a creative solution.”

The three other steps Selig suggests you take to create mental flexibility that work well for me whether I’m working or working out are to see obstacles as opportunities, engage in positive self-talk, and temporarily do the opposite of what was planned as a way to gain perspective.