Vince Taylor is a retired professional bodybuilder from the USA. In his 34-year-long storied bodybuilding career, Taylor won 22 IFBB Pro competitions, the record only surpassed by the legendary Ronnie Coleman. This article explores Vince Taylor’s biography, workout routine, diet, competition history, and statistics.
About Vince Taylor (The Quiet Storm)
Born: August 25, 1956
Birthplace: Havre De Grace, Maryland, USA
Residence: Pembroke Pines, Florida, USA
Nickname: The Quiet Storm
Height: 5′ 8″ (175 cm)
Competition Weight: 230 lbs (104 kg)
Off-Season Weight: 250 lbs (114 kg)
Arms: 21″ (53 cm)
Calfs: 20.5″ (52 cm)
Waist: 33″ (84 cm)
Vince Taylor Biography
Both as an amateur and professional, Vince Taylor has been in the health industry, creating and promoting fitness and bodybuilding for more than 20 years. Married and the father of 3 boys, Vince is currently living in South Florida.
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Vince spent a great part of his adult life in Europe, working for the US military as a weapons specialist in Berlin, Germany (1976 -1989. It was at that time, that at the age of 27, he discovered his passion for bodybuilding.
Vince has enjoyed a great competitive bodybuilding career, which has spanned over two decades. He earned his ‘pro card’ with his 1988 National Championship victory, at the age of 32.
A few months later in 1989, he would go on to enter and win his first professional bodybuilding championship, the New York “Night of Champions”. That victory qualified him for his very first Mr. Olympia contest, which he entered a few months later, making it his second professional bodybuilding contest.
His 3rd place finish at the 1989 Mr. Olympia catapulted him to the top of the Bodybuilding world. Vince would repeat that 3rd place finish in 1991, where he revolutionized posing with his terminator posing routine. Some of his highest achievements include his record-setting 5 consecutive Master Mr. Olympia victories.
Vince Taylor is a certified professional trainer and a Director/Examiner for the Professional Trainers Association.
Competition History
1983 Mr. Berlin, Heavyweight – 1st place
1987 NPC National Championships, Light Heavyweight – 4th place
1987 Mr. America – 1st place
1988 NPC National Championships, Light Heavyweight – 1st place and overall winner
1989 Mr. Olympia – 3rd place
1989 Night of Champions – 1st place
1989 Grand Prix Holland – 4th place
1989 Grand Prix Finland – 2nd place
1989 Grand Prix England – 2nd place
1991 Pittsburgh Pro Invitational – 1st place
1991 Mr. Olympia – 3rd place
1991 Ironman Pro Invitational – 5th place
1991 Grand Prix Switzerland – 1st place
1991 Grand Prix Spain – 1st place
1991 Grand Prix Italy – 1st place
1991 Grand Prix Finland – 1st place
1991 Grand Prix England – 2nd place
1991 Grand Prix Denmark – 1st place
1991 Arnold Classic – 3rd place
1992 Pittsburgh Pro Invitational – 1st place
1992 Mr. Olympia – 6th place
1992 Ironman Pro Invitational – 1st place
1992 Arnold Classic – 1st place
1993 San Jose Pro Invitational – 1st place
1993 Ironman Pro Invitational – 3rd place
1993 Grand Prix Germany – 2nd place
1993 Grand Prix France – 2nd place
1993 Arnold Classic – 3rd place
1994 Ironman Pro Invitational – 1st place
1994 Grand Prix Germany – 2nd place
1994 Grand Prix France – 2nd place
1994 Arnold Classic – 2nd place
1995 Mr. Olympia – 5th place
1995 Night of Champions – 2nd place
1995 Niagra Falls Pro Invitational – 1st place
1995 Houston Pro Invitational – 2nd place
1995 Grand Prix Ukraine – 1st place
1995 Grand Prix Spain – 2nd place
1995 Grand Prix Russia – 2nd place
1995 Grand Prix Germany – 2nd place
1995 Grand Prix Germany – 6th place
1995 Grand Prix France – 1st place
1995 Grand Prix England – 1st place
1996 San Jose Pro Invitational – 3rd place
1996 Masters Olympia – winner
1996 Grand Prix Switzerland – 5th place
1996 Grand Prix Spain – 7th place
1996 Grand Prix Spain – 6th place
1996 Grand Prix Russia – 3rd place
1996 Grand Prix Germany – 6th place
1996 Grand Prix England – 6th place
1996 Grand Prix Czech Republic – 4th place
1996 Arnold Classic – 4th place
1997 Masters Olympia. 40+ – 1st place and overall winner
1997 Grand Prix Spain – 8th place
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1997 Grand Prix Russia – 6th place
1997 Grand Prix Hungary – 9th place
1997 Grand Prix Germany – 9th place
1997 Grand Prix Finland – 6th place
1997 Grand Prix England – 7th place
1997 Grand Prix Czech Republic – 7th place
1997 Arnold Classic – 5th place
1998 Arnold Classic Masters – 1st place
1998 Arnold Classic – 3rd place
1999 Arnold Classic – 6th place
1999 Masters Olympia – 1st place
2000 Masters Olympia – 1st place
2001 Masters Olympia – 1st place
2002 Masters Olympia – 2nd place
2006 Australia Pro – 3rd place
2006 Mr. Olympia – 11th place
2007 Australia Pro – 3rd place
2007 Arnold Classic – 10th place
Vince Taylor Workout
Like most bodybuilders in the 1980s and 1990s, Vince Taylor worked extremely hard during the peak years. He usually trained twice every day. While the morning session lasted for an hour, the veteran bodybuilder spent nearly two hours in the gym for the evening training session.
Typically, Vince Taylor trained six days every week and took strict rest on Sundays to let his body heal and recover. He followed a push-pull-leg training split and repeated the split twice every week. For the uninitiated, the push day incorporates the exercises of upper body pushing muscles like the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Meanwhile, the pull day has back and biceps-focused movements.
Unlike targeting each muscle individually in separately dedicated days, the push-pull-leg split is more effective in building functional strength and includes several effective compound exercises.
Training Philosophy
Vince Taylor never believed in lifting as heavy weights as possible. Instead, his focus always lay on working the muscles from different angles with adequate weight to stimulate them to grow. He consciously used weights that allowed him to feel the muscle contraction by building the mind-muscle connection.
“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.”
Taylor firmly believes that bodybuilding training is deeply personalized and no one system can work for everyone. It took the retired bodybuilder a long time to understand that and he tried to adapt his training to the theories and training philosophies he studied.
“If you don’t adapt to those, you have to admit that it’s instant failure. I was able to overcome that by saying, ‘Use the basics. Go to what works’. For me, basic training works. I’ve tried the different supersets and the different other tactics.”
Although Vince Taylor admits that different training methods like supersets, drop sets, etc. are effective, he prefers basic training devoid of flashy equipment and complex structures.
Cardiovascular training
Vince Taylor believes that bodybuilding and physical fitness should have the same meaning. While strength training is the most important part of his workout routine due to his profession, Taylor maintained a healthy cardiovascular training routine as well.
“When you’re in the gym, you’re training the muscles. Therefore when you’re outside you want to train the cardiovascularity part. That’s your heart and your lungs.”
Running was Vince Taylor’s favorite form of aerobic/cardiovascular training. He routinely engaged in outdoor runs on the roads and trails.
Innovation in gym equipment
Vince Taylor is one of the rare talents who applied their mind to revolutionizing exercise machines. The 67-year-old has designed several pieces of equipment over the years. During the early phase of his bodybuilding journey, Vince Taylor used barbells, dumbbells, basic machines, and other equipment to train.
He believed that super-advanced machinery was useful only when someone reached a super-advanced level of training. Once he reached that level himself, Taylor did some remarkable work by introducing new technology and reinventing his physique.
Vince Taylor brought his back up tremendously towards the later stages of his career and credited the Lat pulldown machine he designed for the development. He has also designed a patented leg press machine that has solved many of his problems related to leg training. Taylor believed that every body part that he could train would grow. But it was difficult for him to train his legs. He once explained:
“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 presser legs – narrow around the knees rather than heavy mass.”
Vince Taylor claims that his knee problems vanished after using the machine he designed and his legs felt a lot stronger. Apart from these, Taylor also built a Standing press machine.
Typical training week and preferred exercises
Vince Taylor followed the push-pull-leg training routine and mentioned below are the exercises he used for targeting every muscle.
Chest
Vince Taylor hails barbell bench press and dumbbell bench press as two of the most important exercises for building size and mass in the chest.
“When you’re training for size and mass, always use a two-handed movement such as barbell press to add maximum resistance to a muscle group.”
The following exercises were mandatory in Taylor’s chest training routine:
Shoulders
Taylor relied heavily on shoulder press for building the deltoids. Once again, he preferred two-handed movements like barbell shoulder press to gain mass and reserved the dumbbells to tone the muscles.
“Dumbbells should be utilized only to suffice in shaping and controlling the training as you control the muscles throughout that particular training form.”
Vince Taylor preferred these exercises for training the shoulders:
Triceps
For triceps, Vince Taylor refrained from training with extremely heavy weights and advocated the use of correct tempo and technique to get the most out of triceps training. He emphasized focusing on both the eccentric and concentric phases of each triceps movement and believed:
“Always remember to use the positive direction force against the weight under concentration and also utilize the negative resistance portion of the movement that will strengthen and also lengthen the muscle that you’re training.”
Here are some of Taylor’s go-to exercises for triceps:
- Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions
- Seated Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions
- Standing Cable Triceps Extensions
- Overhead Cable Triceps Extensions
Back
Vince Taylor’s back training routine was based on a simple principle of building the mind-muscle connection. He utilized effective horizontal and vertical pulling movements like seated rows and lat pulldowns to add width and thickness to the back. To get the most out of back training, Vince Taylor often advised:
“Concentration is the most important thing here to remember. The mind and the body must work together as one. When you achieve that, your training will take one giant step forward.”
Here are some of Vince Taylor’s go-to exercises for back training:
- T-Bar Rows
- Seated Rows
- Lat Pulldowns
- Behind-the-Neck Lat Pulldowns
- Behind-the-back Barbell Shrugs
Biceps
When it comes to bodybuilding, the biceps are probably the most prominent muscle group that comes to an average person’s mind. Whenever someone asks you to show the muscles, the initial instinct is to raise the arms and flex those biceps, isn’t it? Well, Vince Taylor realized the importance of biceps training from an aesthetic point of view and trained them with utmost sincerity.
Taylor advises using moderate to medium heavy weights to train the biceps. He believes that anything above that would be overtraining. The 67-year-old suggests doing a maximum of five sets of 10 to 12 reps for each biceps exercise. He kept the biceps training incredibly simple and primarily used the following movements:
- Cable Curls
- Dumbbell Curls
Legs
Vince Taylor always had an impressive lower body but his calves stood out as one of the most prominent parts of his physique. The American bodybuilder focused on calves as much as the major muscles like quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. To keep the calves under constant tension while working other muscles, Taylor utilized exercises like leg presses and toe extensions.
Here are some of Vince Taylor’s preferred lower body exercises:
- Toe Extensions
- Calf Press
- Leg Press
- Front Squats
- Leg Extensions
- Lying Leg Curls
Vince Taylor Diet
Bodybuilding is the function of training, diet, and rest. If one of these things falls out of place, it severely affects the rest and negates the progress. The bodybuilding lifestyle involves a lot of sacrifices in terms of diet and social life. However, Vince Taylor stands out as an exception as he was never too rigid about eating even during the peak of his bodybuilding career.
At 5’8” tall, Taylor weighed 220 to 230 lbs during the off-season and peaked at approximately 208 to 210 lbs for competition. The 67-year-old never quite focused on dieting to get certain measurements. Instead, he prioritized aesthetics and proportions based on visual observation.
“With dieting, I must always say, people need to go back to the basics. Once you start getting scientific about everything, it’s a problem.”
Taylor’s diet focused on getting sufficient amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. He built the base with regular foods like chicken and fish. He was able to gain size and weight with beef, especially during the off-season. When Taylor had to juggle with weight during competitions, he interjected red meat, chicken, and fish based on specific requirements.
“Being able to separate that this food group will make me bigger, this one will keep my weight more stable and this one will make my weight drop off, I was able to use that as a plan and it worked for me. I’m not that strict as far as diet is concerned.”
Unlike most bodybuilders, Vince Taylor’s meal frequency was quite low as he ate only three meals per day and followed this routine throughout his career.
Here are some of Vince Taylor’s go-to food sources:
- Beef
- Chicken
- Fish
- Bacon
- Eggs
- Rice
- Wholegrain Bread
- Green Vegetables
To Conclude…
Vince Taylor’s bodybuilding journey shows that there is always a way to achieve growth as long as you focus on which training methods and dietary practices suit you the best. While it is necessary to study different schools of thought and training methods, it is more important to question if those methods suit you, instead of following them for their perceived benefits.
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