Vince Taylor Workout - "Getting Pumped"
DVD Review by Matt Canning.

The DVD is an older one - filmed in 1990 and looking straight from that era. It starts off with Vince getting off a train, and rather than having the porter take his luggage, he carried the porter.

Vince explains that it took him seven years to build his body and that bodybuilding is an individualized sport and different for everybody. Vince was displaying some huge size in his arms through his t-shirt.

Day 1:

Vince begins his chest workout, performing flat barbell presses and flys. Vince went on to perform cable crossovers and used a high rep speed for his movements. Vince did dumbbell French presses and one-arm overhead triceps extensions with dumbbells and explained his rationale for including them. He also did cable triceps extensions, using the same high rep speed that he did during his other sets.

After his gym workout, Vince took a jog outside. It's interesting to consider that bodybuilders actually did this back in the day. Nowadays, far less cardio is performed in bodybuilding, and bodybuilders in general are far less athletic and balanced than those who competed in past eras.

Next Vince was interviewed. He was asked about his height and weight (5'8, 210 in contest condition, 225-230 offseason).

Vince talked about competitive bodybuilding as well as training, nutrition, and supplementation. Vince was also asked about steroids and their role in bodybuilding. Vince said that if the genetic potential of an individual is not there, all the steroids in the world will not make a difference.

Day 2:

Vince got into back training on this day. He performed t-bar rows, with a slower rep speed compared to what he was using on chest day. He performed cable rows and wide grip lat pulldowns, and wore weight training gloves during his exercises. He varied the lat pulldowns to behind the neck pulldowns after his front pulldowns were completed. He performed behind the back barbell shrugs for his traps. Lee Haney also performed this movement from behind the back with the reason being that the traps are located behind the back so it makes sense to perform exercises there.

Vince explained the principles he uses for biceps training, then got right into cable curls.

Next Vince appeared sitting on a park bench and described what bodybuilding meant to him - he felt it was an individual sport of body sculpting. Vince said that even though there is only room for one Mr. Olympia, that everyone who enters the sport can be a winner. Vince showed off his car after that, and it was a nice red sports car.

Vince was back in the interview room next, and said that bodybuilding was a hobby for him that changed his lifestyle. Vince talked about his contest history and by the time of the shooting had already placed third at the 1989 Mr. Olympia Contest only two years after turning pro.

Day 3:

Vince did a legs and calves workout on day three, performing calf presses and leg presses. He did barbell squats and leg extensions for his quads as well. Vince never appeared to go high intensity on his workouts and was always using light weight and high reps. Obviously this was a training technique which worked for him, since he built a world class physique with it. For hamstrings, Vince performed lying leg curls.

Next in the interview portion, Vince talked about different bodybuilding organizations including the IFBB, NABBA, and the AAU. Vince went on to talk about different bodybuilders including Lee Haney, John Brown, Rich Gaspari, and others.

Vince did some poses in his spandex suit, including some front and side poses as well as various arms poses. He was obviously in good shape, and was the type of bodybuilder who kept a lean offseason. He posed his back as well and was looking good. Vince is one of the very few bodybuilders who continued to improve with age, even into his 40s. Up until his last competition in 2002, he had made steady improvements.

Next up was some contest footage of Vince at the Mr. Olympia Contest. He posed to the song "Kissing You" by Keith Washington. It was a slow song which is the type of song Vince normally performed to, as it gave him a chance to give a fluid posing demonstration highlighting his strengths - posing was definitely one of his strengths. Next the posing music changed and Vince performed a robot posing demonstration with some interesting effects to get the crowd worked up. It was obvious from the routine that Vince was very confident in what he was doing and very serious about placing high at the show. Vince posed to the song "Mama said knock you out" by LL Cool Jay. At the end of his routine, Vince gave props to Lee Haney as the champion but obviously wanted to get as high up on that contest ranking ladder as possible and I would imagine he wanted to place second, and realistically felt he could have. He ended up placing third.

Overall, I liked the DVD for a lot of reasons. It was a very nostalgic feature, much like Lee Haney's workout video.

DVD distributed by GMV Productions, see their V-008DVD.