2000 Ms. Olympia Pump Room
Company: GMV Productions
More information on Pump Room (Order/Info)

Executive Producer: Wayne Gallasch
Produced by: GMV Productions

Pump Room shows the other side of the Olympia's many of us never see, that being all the backstage preparation. We begin with registration and weigh-ins. All the fitness competitors and female bodybuilders are shown anxiously waiting to sign-in for the big event. The camera pans through the conference room, showing the viewers most the competitors.

After all the women receive their cards, we go to the weigh-ins. Cameras are snapping like crazy as all of the female bodybuilders weigh-in. You'll find snap shots of Valentina Chepiga, Denise Hoshor, and Jennifer McVicar during their weigh-ins in the photos page. Some of you may be asking why does Ms. Olympia have weigh-ins and the others do not? Answer: There are two weight categories for the Olympia's now. The light weight category < 135 lbs. and the heavy weight category > 135 lbs. You'll find a little interview about this issue on the video from Iris Kyle. Basically, Iris says all the women should be under one category like the men.

We now move onto the backstage part of Pump Room. All the women are focusing on pumping up for their stage posing. The backstage pumping segment of this film takes up the bulk of the running time. I'm going to start talking about the beefs I had here people. First, Timea Majorova was shown why too long doing her stretches. Ok, I loved her warm up and so forth, however, most of the footage was redundant. Second, someone tells Timea Majorova to stop looking at the camera. I could honestly care less if she's winking or paying attention to the camera. Maybe if they didn't film Timea for so long she wouldn't feel the need to wave at the camera. Finally, with the relatively dark backstage, at times, I could not make out poses done by some of the women. Overall, I wish they didn't concentrate on certain competitors so much.. Timea and Valentina to name a few.

Do you think I should be fair to say all women should get some equal rep? I mean, most people want to see the popular ones, but I think Jen McVicar should have had a little more presence. Andrulla Blanchette impressed me the most out of all the women. She looked beautiful for the Olympia's, her new hairstyle and looks caught me off guard. Andrulla had the "girl next door" kind of appearance going for her in this video. Valentina seemed very shy throughout the entire competition, and I mean this sincerely. Perhaps the language barrier and being under the limelight were factors. Both Andrulla and Valentina truly are deserving champions.

Final Thoughts....
GMV Productions did a great job creating the atmosphere behind the Ms. Olympia. The viewer gets to see all the women pump up for their front stage pose downs. I really enjoyed watching this video, simply because it allowed the viewer to see the backstage happenings rather than the front stage. We get a mix of fitness and female bodybuilders in Pump Room, however, 90% + is concentrated on Ms. Olympia Competitors. Finally, you'll find that this video has a running time of 91 minutes.

I salute Wayne Gallasch and the entire GMV production team for a job well done.