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![]() By: David Robson After his long awaited recent return to professional bodybuilding, 1988 NPC National's champion Vince Taylor is once again poised for greatness. Having left the sport after an inauspicious, and controversial 13th at the 2001 Mr Olympia, and a 2002 Masters Olympia loss to Don Youngblood, five times Masters champion Vince, 49, figured he was through with bodybuilding for good. However, leaving the sport on a sour note has niggled at Vince for four years and he is now back to take care of unfinished business, and to attract to bodybuilding a larger fan base with his classic physique and posing ability. At the 2006 Australian Pro, Vince marked his comeback with an exceptionally well conditioned physique, replete with improved back density as well as the familiar flared calves and some of the fullest biceps the sport has seen. With his return, Vince plans to give the fans a dose of the classic "old school" physique, the kind regularly seen onstage in the early to mid 90's, when, according to Vince, the top ten at the Olympia were all worthy of the title champion. Having won the Nationals in 1988, Vince embarked on a journey to become one of bodybuilding's greats. He achieved this aim with top six finishes in four Olympia's, and five Master's Olympia wins. Along the way he became famous for his overall onstage presentation and flawless posing ability: who could forget Vince's Terminator routine, which rocked the house the world over. This time around, Vince, at almost 50, is aiming to bring an improved package to whichever stage he graces. If Australia is anything to go by, Vince, the comeback kid, Taylor is well and truly back.
At my last Olympia appearance in 2001, I thought I had achieved close to the best conditioning I had ever accomplished. Being outside of the main event with the younger guys for five years, while I was doing the Masters (Olympia) was a forced move, not an accepted one.
It was a case of doing one or the other. I chose the Masters. When that went sour, everything I was achieving outside was also not recognized. When I got the nod to do the 2001 Mr. Olympia I could have swore I had made the top ten. Everyone who saw me, particularly the people backstage, including the photographers, was truly amazed by what they saw. At 46 years old my conditioning was fantastic they told me. Pretty much everybody had me in the top six. To come off that stage at 13th just wasn't right. Furthermore, I was known for my posing and I put together a hell of a routine. Even after the event, when I had a chance to get the video: hell, my posing routine was actually cut short. It was on for less than 20 seconds. That was another wake up call that I was truly not wanted anymore in this game, and that the powers that be were going to make sure any opportunities were going to be limited. On that note, I said to my self at the time I would just leave this thing alone. However, and this leads me to my second reason for coming back, it was very comfortable working with the supplement company Pinnacle bodyonics, signing autographs and the like. It was fantastic. Then I threw in the posing shorts and didn't want to do it anymore. Then last year I was informed by Pinnacle that we weren't going to be working together anymore. That was a wake up call. I have been looking at that and making adjustments prior to that as early as January, letting them know that I'm thinking of competing again. I thought maybe my inactivity was a problem for them. They can put me in any expo in the booth doing what I'm supposed to be doing and I have got 1500 to 2000 people coming by to get autographs. That is a guarantee. Obviously that wasn't enough. Ironically they picked up Craig and Kelly Titus. And we know how the rest of that story goes.
There is no money in bodybuilding, unless you are top two. Top two are Ronnie and Jay Cutler. So there is no reward for going out there and competing, but I thought I would go and get my physique back, try to do some guest appearances and try to make some money. In saying all that I knew they had to see me. So it was time to get a body together and get out there and try to make something happen and pay bills at the same time.
Most of these guys are trying to win money and win titles. I call what is happening now, "Vince Taylor, The Second Episode." I have been there and done that, but the second episode is about having fun. When I'm going out to train this physique, I am training to keep in the game and have fun doing it. Here is the thing: I just started training eight months ago after a three, almost four year layoff.
In those last eight months, as the contest started coming closer, the ideal about me getting back onstage and doing what I call my Vince Taylor farewell trip came clear. I want to get in great shape and go around the world and say here's the Terminator one more time, here I am going out the right way. I contacted Jim Manion to do the Arnold Classic as I felt I needed a pulpit like that. I am a two time winner there, in the open class and the Masters. They love me there - I have attended every year for the last ten years. I figured that would be a great place to start, and let the world know that here he is back onstage. I spoke to Jim Manion and it was "yes that would be a good move." I bought up the fact that Wayne Demilia is also creating this new federation (Pro Division Incorporated) and my question to Jim asked where the IFBB was going because I'm thinking about making the jump to this other federation. Of course there was, "Vince, you need to stay where you are, IFBB is number one and if you want to do the Arnold you need an invite, and you are a two time winner."
At that point I made it a point that I would train for the Arnold and accepted what Jim had to say. I felt I had something to train for. It didn't happen. I spent from October after last years Olympia to January this year just training and waiting to see the competitors list come out. And low and behold, I scanned the computer and boom there is the competitors list and my name wasn't even on it. That was disappointing. Then again, that is the inside IFBB, and I have been there and done that. I contacted Shawn Ray earlier in the year because I knew he was putting on a show, and I knew Shawn would get a lot of attention. I wanted him to say "hey, Vince is coming back at my show," to give me a little PR, and again I could let people know I was going to come back. So I agreed to do Shawn's show in May and by the same token I saw the Australian show on there - I had put this on my list at the beginning of the year as one of my preferred shows. It was the Arnold Classic, the Australian and the Shawn Ray Classic. Obviously the Arnold didn't work for me, but the biggest bump for me to get my name back out there was being the commentator for the international pay per view for the Arnold Classic. That was fantastic. That went into 25 countries worldwide, and I had an opportunity to tell my fan base then that I was back. So now I didn't have to go to Shawn's show to make the kind of announcement. Ultimately I would like to do well at the Olympia, or win Wayne Demilia's Night of Champions, but I'm not telling as to which one I will choose just yet.
I was truly rusty onstage, and was glad I was able to do that. But when I did get there, and the quality of competitors was there - and I respected everyone of them - it was just the fact that I had a chance to have first hand input on where I could finish in a line up.
With names like Lee Priest, Branch Warren and Ronnie Rockel in the show I think the quality was good. It was a really fun show, and I really wanted to go to Australia anyway (laughs). I had put it off for many years and thought I have to go this time. I loved the crowd, and the competitors themselves were fantastic. You had every tier of competitor: some guys were really good and others may have needed some work, but no disrespect to none of them. We are all trying to get better. I think I fit right in, left to right.
"I'm just getting started." I'm waiting to see September to see some gains, to actually get a chance to see what my body looks like after a good solid year of training. Give me that first before you critique me. That is what I'm expecting. Just that gym time, that training time.
My back has never looked like this. That is one of the biggest okays I have gotten. Secondly, I have a patented leg press machine. In the past, I could not train legs that hard as my knees would kill me. I never squatted, and never had the squatter bodybuilder legs. I have got the leg press legs - narrow around the knees rather than heavy mass. My machine, which I am trying to get out on the market right now, I have been using for three years. My knee problems are gone, my legs are stronger and now I have the opportunity to start hitting my legs to where I am actually starting to get some feel from them. I will be bringing my legs up. I noticed that any body part I can physically train will respond. I just never had a chance to tie into my leg development, and that is what I am working on now. I also have a standing press machine which is just awesome, you have to see these things.
My mind tells me if I apply blood flow stimulation to the muscle, that will work more than every 100 to 200 pounds I can push. I go by feel, filling muscles up with blood, training from different angles and resting the body - not pushing mass amounts of weight and all that stuff. My body just says, hey I can work like this. And this has been working fine so far.
I go home from the gym to relax and come back four or five hours later. This has been steady all of my career - I have never gotten out of that cycle. The only thing that changes is when a contest approaches and Sunday gets picked up as a workout day, and I go straight through for thirteen weeks.
My diet will never change... Coca Cola, red meat and ketchup.
I will always have my Coca Cola. Right now it gets blended with a little scotch most of the time, and I have my beer. My diet has always been relaxed. It has never been one of those strict diets.
I always try to maintain at least three meals a day, sometimes this is very hard. Sometimes it is one or two. This time around I have bumped it to five meals by adding two shakes to my diet. But overall I'm not a big food consumer, never have been, never would be. So nothing has really changed there.
My worst decision was probably to stay with the Masters and let the type of training I had prior to the Masters go down two notches. I was on a double A training schedule for the young lions. When I got to the Masters I instantly told myself I do not have to bring my A game to beat these guys. I downsized my gains for five years. I was on a B game schedule: I dieted sometimes to compete, I worked out half way, and still wound up winning. But at the end of the day, I lost that bodybuilding time, the physicality, but I gained in momentum because I was getting what I wanted, winning those Sandow's - the Mr. Olympia Masters titles - but ultimately they came out empty because they were not worth anything. Here in America they looked at them as the geriatric, old man contests. It was never respected. It got to a point where my whole thrill about the Masters was getting my trophy presentation onstage. And h*ll, three out of the five years I won they forgot to give me my trophy, they sent it to me by mail. That's ridiculous. There is your motivation. Why bother training? What you are achieving is nothing. But if you take it outside of the United States, it is a big achievement. That's what I was able to wake up to.
I said guys "if you like me now, you will love me next year." Then I came back in 88 and won the overall. That was exciting, but I didn't understand it because I went back to Germany a week or so later. And then it was no words of recognition for Vince Taylor as the National champion.
That was my first wake up call. I got no publicity, I got nothing. That was an introduction to bodybuilding, but I have to say the era was great because the climb through the sport was even better. I became recognizable, my physique started speaking for itself. Competing with the great names. My first show was the 1989 Night of the Champions in New York City. Ironically, in 2006, in New York, Wayne Demilia's PDI contest will be called the Night of the Champions. I want to win that show. So there is my motivation. That whole era of the 80's and 90's was just incredible because of the people involved. I'm winning Grand Prix tours right and left. I'm getting respect all around the world. I came out with that Terminator posing routine in 1990. I toured the world with that for ten years. I was living it large, it was a major high.
In the 90's we had Shawn Ray, Flex Wheeler, Paul Dillet, Nasser El Sonbaty and Kevin Levrone. That group was so deep in competition. When I walked onstage, I looked with awe at those guys. The quality of the physiques was just great.
If you look at quality that deep verses the quality at the shows today, all you have now is Ronnie, Dexter and Jay Cutler. And any Grand Prix show after that has one guy with a name, but it won't be Ronnie, Jay or Dexter. It will be one of the guys who placed from fourth to eighth. They don't go deep into quality. I looked at the Australian Pro, and heard a fellow competitor explaining how these guys couldn't keep their conditioning. We have Branch Warren and Lee, they did so many shows they pooped out. They don't really understand do they? This is Vince Taylor, this is old school. In the 90's, I ran through seven Grand Prix shows. I had to compete and hold my condition for months and months. At the end of the main even and prior to. Not these guys. They do two shows after the main event and poop out and can't maintain condition? At this point, I had six more shows to go. I set the record for eight pro wins like that. It comes down to old school verses new school. These new school guys can't hang because there is too much emphasis on drugs, and too much on what I call high tech bodybuilding, and not enough on straight up hard core training.
Make some m money Friday night with the Masters, and win me a Sandow, then get with the young boys and as long as I get in the top six, that would still be respectable. And they took that away from me. So I chose the Masters, and immediately after I did this everything went down hill.
Whatever happened four days ago, or last month means nothing. I don't look back and don't think back. I go from today on. I look in the mirror and say, "you need more shoulders, chest or biceps."
That's what I got out of bodybuilding and that's what brings me back to the stage. I lost my education, for the last four years. I'm at home with nothing happening. I remember being out there and talking to fans. There is nothing more beautiful than being in another country and being hosted by other people.
I would go to Russia and all these different places and they would pick me up - I would be on the radio and on television. It is incredible, and then you come back home and there is nothing. I miss that. I miss the fact I can talk to people and encourage them to do certain things as far as training knowledge goes. Again it is just that reaction, knowing that you are appreciated. I appreciate people more than anything, and watching them appreciate what I do.
Be smart enough to know when to change. Bodybuilding teaches all these things because not only are you dealing with the physicality of your body, but you are dealing with yourself mentally. Everything impacts everything else you do. With bodybuilding being a major teacher, it is easier to just become more well rounded.
You learn how to deal more effectively with stressful situations. You know that at the end of stress, there is a period of exhaustion. When you are training really hard, training extensively, and you don't get the reward from that, you learn to deal with it. It mimics life.
I'm trying to get into bigger things. I had great success doing the color commentary on pay per view TV. People are saying to me now: "you should do commentary work." So I'm trying to find avenues now, so I can hang these posing shorts up for good, and enjoy life.
I was out there having fun. I mean, that was just so different. I recognize that now, and that will be my approach to these shows from now on. It is not about that hard grind anymore. I have been there and done that. You have to have fun.
Up until now the bodybuilding audience has been patient. They have been disappointed. Right now if you go to a bodybuilding show you have a poser and an entertainer, you don't have a competitor who can do both. The sport hasn't identified the reward for posing and entertaining. Some people say if you can't dance you won't make it is posing in bodybuilding.
In the 1990's, that era of old school, you had the classic physiques and the classic posing. That is what I'm going to bring back to the sport right now. I don't want people to say, "He is as big as Ronnie Coleman," or "he is a big massive monster." That is not my goal. My goal is to bring back that classy bodybuilding look, with the symmetrical lines. We have lost in bodybuilding two things.
Right now I am just going to do my homework and bring the typical Vince Taylor vintage presentation. They have to see my Terminator, that is number one, but it has got to come out in a different shape or form.
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