By Dott.Luca Franzon
We start the new year with a journey into the past, going to rediscover and perhaps for someone to discover, one of the greatest characters that body building has ever known.
Vince Gironda was born November 9, 1917 in the Bronx, NY. His family moved to Los Angeles when his father stuntman got the job offered to him in the upcoming Ben Hur film. Vince, fascinated by his father's work, decides to follow in his footsteps but, after seeing a photograph of John Grimek, he understands that to be successful he must develop his muscular masses. At the age of 22, Vince Gironda thus began to align, under the guidance of Easton's brothers who later made him work as their instructor. In 1948 he opened his gym in Hollywood.
Vince was a trainer well known to both bodybuilders and television and cinema actors, including: Cher, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, James Garner, Brian Keith, Tommy Chong (Cheech & Chong) and Erik Estrada. Bodybuilders include Larry Scott, who won the first Mister Olympia in 1965, Jake Steinman, Lou Ferrigno ("the incredible Hulk"), Franc Zane and even Arnold Schwarzenegger. His success as a personal trainer was such that he earned the appealing "Iron Guru" .
Vince Gironda dies October 18, 1997, shortly before his eightieth birthday.
Among the innumerable techniques implemented by Vince, the 8 x 8 was one of, if not his, preferred training strategy, so much to describe it with the following words: "I have a clear preference for the system of sets and repetitions eight to eight. I often go back to this honest high intensity workout to get advanced bodybuilders the maximum muscle fiber growth in the shortest possible time. "
Vince said he chose three or four exercises per muscle group and performed eight sets of eight repetitions for each of them. Between the series the recovery times had to go between 15 and 30 seconds. The training had to include two or three muscles. Despite the considerable amount of work, given the very short recovery times and the execution times that had to be 2 seconds for the eccentric phase and two for the eccentric phase, the training session lasted from 45 to 60 minutes. Vince had already realized that a longer time frame would coincide with the growth of catabolic hormone secretion and the decrease in secretion of the anabolic ones. One of his ideas about it was that the sessions had to be timed and that efforts should be made to reduce the time needed to train.
Gironda argued that increasing workloads was not the only way to increase the intensity of it. Although he was in favor of the addition of records to the barbell, Vince claimed that strength training could not do without proper technique. However, he felt that the high volume of training performed in less time was more effective.
"To have bigger muscles, you have to increase the intensity of the work done in a given time interval. This means the minimum of recovery between the series. Go further."
That developed by Vince Gironda is certainly a high intensity method and a good technique to train the cardiorespiratory system (so much so that initially it can limit its development). All of this is equivalent to a high EPOC and at the same time promotes development of definition, muscular hypertrophy and good cardiovascular and respiratory conditioning.
Finally, due to the considerable stubbornness necessary to carry out such intense training, 8x8 is certainly also a good exercise to reinforce character and a spirit of sacrifice.
SOME RULES OF THE GURU ABOUT 8 X 8:
Always stay focused.
Do not place the handlebars and / or the barbell between a series and the following.
Stay seated in the car until you have completed all eight sets of eight repetitions.
No recovery between one muscle group and another. By the way, to follow the indications given about the cadence you will have to dismiss your eventual training partner and train yourself.
Reduce the load used to perform eight repetitions of about 40% to be able to perform all eight sets of eight repetitions respecting recovery times.
It is mandatory to use the same load for all eight series. If one notices that at the fourth or fifth series it is no longer possible to perform eight repetitions it means that the initial load was too high.
Use it for the whole body or just for deficient muscles.
Vince always had a weakness for the 20 repetitions in calf training. He often advised continuing to do eight series but raising the repetitions to twenty.
THE BOARD
| 8 X TRAINING A | |
| CROSSES | 8 X 8 |
| RELAXATION PANCA PIANA BILANCERE AL COLLO | 8 X 8 |
| DISTENSIONS BENCH INCLINED WITH HANDLEBARS | 8 X 8 |
| PARALLEL | 8 X 8 |
| DRAG CURL | 8 X 8 |
| PANCA SCOTT | 8 X 8 |
| CURL WITH ALTERNATE HANDLEBARS | 8 X 8 |
| WRIST CURL WITH ROCKER | 8 X 8 |
| WRIST REVERSE CURL | 8 X 8 |
| TRAINING B | |
| SEAT SIDE LIFTS | 8 X 8 |
| SEAT SIDE LIFTS | 8 X 8 |
| PULL TO THE CHIN WITH WIDE HAND | 8 X 8 |
| SLOW NEXT | 8 X 8 |
| RAISE 90 ° | 8 X 8 |
| CALF RAISE ON FOOT | 8 X 8 |
| CALF RAISE BY SEAT | 8 X 8 |
| CRUNCH WITH OVERLOAD | 8 X 8 |
| SIT UP FREE FEET | 8 X 8 |
| TRAINING C | |
| TRACTIONS TO THE BAR NEXT | 8 X 8 |
| REMATOR WITH TWO HANDLEBARS | 8 X 8 |
| PULLEY | 8 X 8 |
| LAT MACHINE INVERSA | 8 X 8 |
| LEG CURL | 8 X 8 |
| SEATED CURL LEG | 8 X 8 |
| SEMI FLESSE LEGS REMOVAL | 8 X 8 |
| WORK OUT | 8 X 8 |
| SQUAT | 8 X 8 |
| HACK SQUAT | 8 X 8 |
| lunges | 8 X 8 |
| LEG EXTENSION | 8 X 8 |
| PUSH DOWN | 8 X 8 |
| EXTENSIONS FROM DISTESI | 8 X 8 |
| TRICIPIT BUST 90 ° | 8 X 8 |
Although superfluous, it is still good to remember that the proposal is not a card for beginners and that it takes at least two years of experience on the shoulders before approaching such methods.
The last words of this article are linked to the title, or they try to return to the origins. I say this because too many times we see articles in which training sessions are presented which are nothing more than slight modifications of techniques born 60 years ago. My invitation is to go and read what the fathers of bodybuilding have written in order to be more critical of those who write books, promising miraculous muscle growth !!! Let's go back to training as we once did trying to understand that the fifth essence of bodybuilding is fatigue and the joy of trying it ... leaving other essences to others .............. !!!
