Whats the story with Vince Gironda?

[BodyBuildingLive.com]

Bluto,Vince advocated 32 sets per bodypart for every bodypart when training 8 x 8 style......

I actually run the main Gironda site -- www.VinceGironda.com -- and this is a misconception that comes up time and time again. It's understandable, though.

It's probably the result of what was written in Gironda's book with Robert Kennedy, "The Wild Physique." In there it describes Makkaway's pre-Olympia training routine and the multiple exercises per bodypart of 8x8. This was excessive, and not for everyone. Gironda was about minimizing the workouts, actually, and would more than likely have a guy do 8x8 with one exercise, and that's it.

If you read most of Gironda's material, he advocated far less volume, but more than the pure HIT devotees.

DS

[jwb]

shit i read that makkaway was doing the same muscle for 24 sets THREE times a day then giving it 3 days off the last few months before a show.

[BodyBuildingLive.com]

shit i read that makkaway was doing the same muscle for 24 sets THREE times a day then giving it 3 days off the last few months before a show.

It's possible he was. Gironda had people training multiple times per day for a period. BUT, this was a specialized routine for someone like Makkaway, not for the rest.

DS

[jwb]

It's possible he was. Gironda had people training multiple times per day for a period. BUT, this was a specialized routine for someone like Makkaway, not for the rest.

DS

dbol is a hell of a drug!

[Vince B]

Let's face it, Gironda was smarter than most and did things that he learned through experience. He pioneered the cutup look as being important and made exercise selection and execution important. His gym is proof that basic, effective equipment can build great physiques. He was always asked for information wherever he went.

He made some statements that are not literally true. For example, that bodybuilding is mostly nutrition. What he really meant was without proper nutrition you won't grow rapidly or you might put on too much fat.

I doubt that many here would have survived a discussion with him. That was the kind of guy he was. He knew what he was talking about. I had to laugh at how so many photos in his gym included him. Ah, that place was a monument to Gironda. Then again, I never saw Joe Gold walk past mirrors without looking at himself. Gym owners are not your average blokes!   

[Cleanest Natural]

nice to kind of include yourself in that category

[pumpster]

nice to kind of include yourself in that category

Vince is not what we would call modest. LOL

[Old-Skool]

Gironda did beleive in overload principle, followed by huge rest for bringing up lagging bodyparts. I know Makkawy did train back three times a day, and sometimes multiple days in a row at points. A Gironda favorite was putting the legs of either end of a flat bench on wooden blocks...then we would lie chest down on the bench with our legs bent and feet crossed in the air.....then we would do dumbell rows accentuating the contracton at the top where the dumbells would almost hit the bench. Remember we are talking the early 1980's and equipment was not as specialized as today. We often improvised with boxes, stairs, pieces of wood etc. trying to change the angle of an exercise to hit the muscle where you wanted to. Makkawy had a bad lower back from years of olympic lifting in Egypt as a youth, and therefore could not squat or bent over row in the traditional way. He often cursed to me about not being able to squat (behind Vinces back of course) as he felt it would help his lagging glute/hamstring. We did endless sissy squats (with pelvic thrust motion a the top of the movement) and hacks.