I recently read about a routine supposedly created by Vince Gironda that he calls 8X8. It is 3 or 4 exercises per bodypart for 8 sets of 8 reps each. The weight used is very light. About 60% of your 8 RM. And rest intervals are about 15 seconds. Has anyone ever tried this? Did it actually work work? I have been thinking about trying it for a couple weeks mainly to try and get over some aches and pains that I have that I think may be tendonitis. I figure I should be able to recover from these pains by using a routine like this with the extremely light weights rather than taking time completely off. I would be interested in hearing from anyone that has done this or anything similar. Or even from anyone that has an opinion but did not actually try it.
I’ve never tried it myself, but when I trained at Vince’s Gym I saw him use the program successfully with several different clients. It works.
If you’ve got tendonitis, though, you should check out the tendonitis threads for some good advice. Lower weights/higher reps probably won’t help too much (if it really is tendonitis).
I just guessed at the tendonitis. I mainly have pain in my shoulders and the tie-in between shoulders and pecs. This occurs after a while of heavy lifting and then subsides when I go to lighter weights. I just tried one of these workouts now. It was a leg day. It kicked my ass. I had to use 30 second rest intervals rather than 15. And I had to make the weights even lower than I anticipated. It is hard to walk up stairs now. Thanks for the response.
I just finished this routine last week. It is good for stripping body fat. I was going to do it for four weeks but lost interest after three. If you are going to do it make sure you drink a lot of water and pay close attention to tempo. I lost 1% of body fat a week while maintaining muscle mass.
Chris, did you lower your calories while you dropped this bodyfat? Or was it just because of the change in training?
This routine looks pretty interesting, but I have a quick question. Is the game plan similar to GVT…where the target number of reps for every set would be 8, but they actually decline due to fatigue (e.g. 8,8,7,6,…)? Or is the idea to maintain 8 reps per set by dropping weight when needed?
char-dog, I am alo curious why you haven’t tried it if you saw the program get results for several different people.
You do not drop the weights. The weight stays the same for each set attempting to get 8 reps on all sets. For the first few sets, you stop at 8 even though more are possible. It is going to take me a couple days for each bodypart to get the weights right. I tried to use too much weight on exercises like Squats and Deadlifts. Then on curls, etc., I started too low. Sure is making me sore as hell.
What kind of training split are you doing?
I am doing Legs, Shoulders/Arms, OFF, Chest/Back, OFF.
To Steve: Sounds to me more like you have a rotator cuff problem than tendonitis. Try doing some rotator cuff exercises (pulling on tubes and so on) before your workouts.
To Quick Question: Well, I was doing a different program at the time that worked pretty well for me, so I didn’t see any reason to change. Also, I should say that I have tried GVT, which is very similar, although not with the short rest intervals, and GBC which is somewhat of the same idea. Vince mainly used his “honest workout” (8x8) with overweight actors who came in and needed to get in shape fast for a role. I saw several of them go through it, and they all shaped up quickly. Of course, they were all very highly motivated to do so, which probably had a lot to do with their success. And Vince himself was personally supervising most of them. You didn’t want to slack off when Vince was around…
I don’t mean to be anal abou this, but I want to make sure I understand. I understand that Vince Gironda’s clients used 3 or 4 exercises per bodypart for 8 sets of 8 reps each, but what do you mean by “per body part?” For example, do you mean his clients would do 3 or 4 total exercises for arms…or 3 or 4 sets for biceps and 3 or 4 set for triceps?
Thanks!
I use 4 exercises for each on Chest, Back, and Quads. 3 exercises each for hamstrings, biceps, triceps, shoulders, calfs.
The 8x8 program is a real result getter. It is particularly useful as a pre-contest routine. Note that Vince designed this program for use with only ONE exercise per bodypart. That is, sticking with the same movement for the entire 8 sets of 8. Remember, no more that 15 seconds or 5 deep breaths between sets. Vince also recommended using “simple” exercises to eliminate wasted time on setting-up for the next exercise when switching body parts. The weight is kept constant for each body part…it may take a few trys to find the particular weight that you can stick with for 8x8 though.
char-dawg, do you know a guy named Ron Kosloff? He was one of Vince’s trainers.
Can’t say the name rings a bell, but that doesn’t mean much. (It’s been a while…) I remember an old fellow named Nick who seemed to get good results, and a lady with snake tatoos all over her (fairly large) arms who was also good. Can’t recall her name, but she had a cameo in a Janet Jackson video, the one where JJ is dancing through the streets in a Mexican border town. (Maybe her name was Jan, now that I think of it…) I also ran into Don Howorth once, and that was a treat! Still had those unbelievable shoulders, even at 50-some. Nice guy, too.
I sure wish that I had the opportunity to train at Vince’s, it would have been a treat to see the “Master” in motion. I was trained by Ron Kosloff who was taken under Vince’s wing and tutored in his techniques. I had quite an interest in them and have been instructed on most of his techniques and read all of his training manuals. I still have the manuals…I suppose that they are a collectors item now. Vince’s routines are VERY tough. In fact, they are so tough that most people quit using them. I still employ a lot of his techniques, but have toned-down the pace a notch-or-two. (getting old, I suppose)
I wonder if anyone on these boards even know who Don Howorth is?
Some of the older guys on this board are pretty damn knowledgable. But I doubt that many of the younger generation know the name. And it’s a shame, too, because Howorth was one of the all-time genetic freaks. He doesn’t look quite as impressive stacked up against the current androgen crowd, but for his time (and for any time if you look at competitors who were almost totally natural) he was amazing. The shot of him from the waist up in Vince’s book is one of my personal standards for physical perfection, and there was a shot of him that hung in Vince’s gym that was simply amazing. Shoulders that looked as broad as my desk here at work.
I’m just finishing up a two month cycle of this routine. I loved it. I will definitley go back to it whenever i’m trying to drop bodyfat or need to break a plateau. Start w/ 30 second breaks though.