Vince Gironda Odyssey

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1


I can hardly wait! I have to but its sooooo hard. I ordered some of Vince Girondas training manuals and I feel like a kid at Xmas eve staring at the box under the tree and wondering what cool thing I will soon be playing with.

Around 8 weeks ago I ordered the Larry Scott “Sharing The Secrets” Training Reports from his web site. I tore though the pages like a Harry Potter fan who got a prerelease copy of the last book. Found many, many great tips in the 33 some odd reports. I made gains in my arm like never before and my back is now firmly connected to my mind when I work it. (Mind muscle thing… never got it for my back till now)

But after the shine of the new super secret training reports were more fully under stood and I scrutinized them more fully I found that the reports were rather redundant and at times hard to fully understand due to the lack of detailed photos. And most reports talked about equipment that is either very rare/odd or flat out not available at most gyms, but wait! You can purchase it at: your guessed it Larrys web site.

In all fairness I did say I made gains, gain like never before. Well I started digging and reviewed the interview Larry made with probodybuildingweekly.com and he did say that Vince Gironda was his trainer and that he would help him. I had read about Vince many times over the years and most of the training was odd and went Against the grain so I never used it much but a grip here and a rep scheme there or a work out once in a while to take me out of the doldrums of my work out

But most to all of the Scott system could be traced back to the door of Vinces gym.
I reread all I had on the man that was most misunderstood and then read all that was offered on the internet on him (long week). After exhausted all the free writings I went back to a story on Vince written by Ron Kosloff (a Disciple of Vince). I say Disciple because the study of Vince is a study of some far off religion found only in a mountain village by people who are well muscled and live off whole raw food and speak only one word VINCE!

But hey I found Larrys regurgitation of Vince so helpful What the hell right? Well the only thing is that the only place you can get Vince’s Courses is through Ron Kosloff and the company of NSP research nutrition. No web site, no email only a phone number and not a toll free at that Called and Ron answered! One man show I suppose. Ordered two of the courses:

The Wild Physique
(From the catalog)
I remember Vince calling it his candy bar publication. What do you expect from a man who has an I.Q. of genius? I say it’s just great! 28 separate sections of topics of bodybuilding for men and women. It touches on every aspect of interest of our sport from steroids, intensity, nutrition, posing, and lots of great pictures of the stars, many many exercises and much more.
AND
Blueprint For The Bodybuilder:
(From the catalog)
This Vince gem is worth a million dollars as it contains the maximum information and knowledge of this fantastic and revolutionary principle that are priceless. As he said,

Nutrition is 85% of bodybuilding
and if you don’t accept this fact you will fail.

I will get the Courses by early September.

One side note: the catalog came in a regular envelope stuffed with all different sized papers with information on this and that on the supplements (old school liver things/stuff) as well as the course info
Reminded me of the Charles Atlas stuff from the comic books, flash back
Will update with more as I get them have time to chew on the new super secret super chicken sauce…

You knew the job was dangerous when you took it Fred
ba gack!!

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Vince’s and Larry’s stuff is very interesting. Ron is also pretty generous with his time and loves to talk about Vince’s training.

For me Gironda’s best qualities(through writing at least) was to develop the body beautifully and how to use food as the anabolic aid, not steroids. He had my absolute favorite bodybuilders of that era(Howorth and Scott) training at his gym although they kind of went to the beat of their own drum.

A lot of these greats seem to forget how they trained when they were gaining the best and according to a source who trained along side Scott he usually did simple 5x5s always trying to move up in weight with his key exercises, and went slow compared to Vince’s teachings.

I think you will very much enjoy his writing but don’t get swalllowed up in his charisma, use the things he preaches like illusion of width but cater it to yourself.

Howorth did basically just behind the neck presses and bent over laterals and crafted the biggest delts of the time, Gironda(who was against presses for delts) forgot to mention that when he had Howorth posing in his Vince’s Gym tank top for his catalogues.

3

[quote]scottiscool wrote:

I think you will very much enjoy his writing but don’t get swalllowed up in his charisma, use the things he preaches like illusion of width but cater it to yourself.

[/quote]

oh yes, most defiantly…

My super secret sauce will have some of the same ingredients, Like a large cup of
Bruce Lee:
Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.

and a peppering of
GUNNY Highway:
You improvise. You adapt. You overcome!

Solid

4

I enjoy Gironda’s writing, i used to read his column in some mag, musclemag i think, many years ago.

Ron Kosloff strikes me as a man with integrity too, and also writes with passion.

I have ‘wild physique…’ the book. Gironda trained champs who already had size and others who needed to develop a certain look (i.e. movie stars). His exercises are all developed around these goals.

His exercises are expertly crafted for muscle stimulus but some have said a few of them arent ideal for joints (e.g. bench to neck, high pulls). He also advocated very little rest between sets, it isnt a power/strength workout.

I’m pretty sure that if you were with Gironda he would get intensity out of you, but suspect it would be more difficult to get it on your own with his exercise plans, which often include quite a few isolation movements.

He was very much against drugs but had to deal with bodybuilders who took them, including some of his favorites - this must have been hard on him.

He developed ideas started by Rheo Blair on nutrition - a huge advocate of eggs and eating frequently. Gironda was also big on supplements. The plans in his book are serious eating, though you’d rattle with all the pills!

I’ve heard people call him ‘skinny’ and so on because he didnt sport 17’+ arms but he had an amazing sweep to his back, very broad chest and balanced legs for a smallish guy in a smallish frame.

5

received my order this Saturday the 1st of Sept.

I started with the Blueprint for the bodybuilder and The wild physique…

Tore through the Blueprint for the bodybuilder, not very large more of a pamphlet, pamphlet chalked full of information…

Skimmed through the Wild Physique, reads at times like a text book. Story type books can be read at one sitting but there is too much information in detail to blow through this book in one sitting…

Will start my diet on monday, going shopping today to fill my stores with the needed whole foods…

only sups I will take is fish oil tabs, liver tabs, calcium and C tabs…

Will post my meal log on Monday and take a photo…

Wish me luck and hopefully It’s not too dark inside this dog to read…

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Meal log updated on my blog took pic…

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Just read your blog, what training do you plan on starting with?

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[quote]scottiscool wrote:
Just read your blog, what training do you plan on starting with?[/quote]

My Training will be the same only less weight and lower reps due to very little carbs. Intensity will be high only 20-30 seconds between sets

updated my blog with my split & my meal log

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updated my blog

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Holy crap, I’m definetly intrigued and will be reading often. I started lifting gironda style recently and it definetly works. I started with 15 second rests, but have found through experimentation that my body responds best to 20-30 second rests depending on how I feel that particular day.

I’m not fully into bodybuilding so I haven’t taken it to this level, but I’ll have to do it if the results look good.

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VG’s short rests between sets is an effective route to intensity - but i’d guess not to strength so much as you simply cant regain enough energy in 20 seconds of hard breathing to go at it with the same power as you had available in the previous set. He, and his best pupils, must have had an exceptional combination of aerobic and anaerobic condition to do this in his advanced 8x8 format!

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[quote]gswork wrote:
VG’s short rests between sets is an effective route to intensity - but i’d guess not to strength so much as you simply cant regain enough energy in 20 seconds of hard breathing to go at it with the same power as you had available in the previous set. He, and his best pupils, must have had an exceptional combination of aerobic and anaerobic condition to do this in his advanced 8x8 format![/quote]

I have found this to be true. I started waiting no more than 30 seconds between sets and man it’s insane. but I am on this ride for 28 days so I will see…

I have all ways been big on get in and get out of the gym and not going for the 3 hour marathon or the social crap of the gym. I used to be a 45 - 60 seconds per set guy but I am on the VG Odyssey so in for a pennie in for (a Loss) pound (fat)

I hope

Updated blog

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Gironda was a Guru before there were guru’s. I have ‘Wild Physique’ and use his training periodically.

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[quote]blueknight wrote:
Gironda was a Guru before there were guru’s. I have ‘Wild Physique’ and use his training periodically.[/quote]

I’ve got that book too and like it, though the format is similar to other Rob Kennedy books of the period (like ‘beef it’, i think one of them was called!).

Content is good though and the physiques selected for the pics are worthy of the VG look on the whole.

One of the early pics - ‘vince throws a casual pose…’ quickly puts a lie to those folks who say VG was small or skinny!

The nutrition sections were very interesting and got me researching whole foods and rheo blair’s ideas.

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You commented in your blog you feel tired a lot, are you carbing up as per Vince’s diet or some other fashion? Low carbs for very long periods of time can beat the best of us ha.

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[quote]scottiscool wrote:
You commented in your blog you feel tired a lot, are you carbing up as per Vince’s diet or some other fashion? Low carbs for very long periods of time can beat the best of us ha.[/quote]

Yes once every 4th day I eat spaghetti with tomato sauce (no meat) and I do feel good for about a day or 2 then it’s back to the naps to get me through the day and works outs…

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[quote]inthego wrote:
scottiscool wrote:
You commented in your blog you feel tired a lot, are you carbing up as per Vince’s diet or some other fashion? Low carbs for very long periods of time can beat the best of us ha.

Yes once every 4th day I eat spaghetti with tomato sauce (no meat) and I do feel good for about a day or 2 then it’s back to the naps to get me through the day and works outs…

[/quote]

I’ve been on the AD for gaining and Vince’s plan for cutting and both are great. I do understand that energy drops after about 3 days of low carb and fat becomes the dominant fuel source. But you know what, I found something that fixes the problem of low energy.

I think that to burn fat the body requires more oxygen than normal, so the low energy and sluggish feeling is your body saying that it needs more oxygen. I found that taking 5-10 deep breaths fixes my energy problems when I have them later in the week. I’m talking deeeep breaths too. Like through your nostrils and it feeling like your breathing to your toes. Has worked like a charm for me, lemme know if it does for you (if you try it).

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[quote]Bizmark wrote:
inthego wrote:
scottiscool wrote:
You commented in your blog you feel tired a lot, are you carbing up as per Vince’s diet or some other fashion? Low carbs for very long periods of time can beat the best of us ha.

Yes once every 4th day I eat spaghetti with tomato sauce (no meat) and I do feel good for about a day or 2 then it’s back to the naps to get me through the day and works outs…

I’ve been on the AD for gaining and Vince’s plan for cutting and both are great. I do understand that energy drops after about 3 days of low carb and fat becomes the dominant fuel source. But you know what, I found something that fixes the problem of low energy.

I think that to burn fat the body requires more oxygen than normal, so the low energy and sluggish feeling is your body saying that it needs more oxygen. I found that taking 5-10 deep breaths fixes my energy problems when I have them later in the week. I’m talking deeeep breaths too. Like through your nostrils and it feeling like your breathing to your toes. Has worked like a charm for me, lemme know if it does for you (if you try it).[/quote]

Hell i’ll try it brother…

let you know
thanx

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This Sunday Sept 16th I added carbs to the menu…

Only carbs from Salad, romaine, endive and spinach raw all I can eat. No dressing…

It’s Monday and I feel WAY better more alert and did not yon once…

As for my training all I am going to change is the time between sets… Back to 45 seconds to 60 seconds max the 20-30 sec coupled with the lack of carbs was a B I T C H…

Will still use it for shock once every 3 or 4 weeks…

I also ordered 2 more manuals they are:
Vince’s First Workout Bulletin and
Vince’s Second Workout Bulletin

They will arrive around Thursday or Friday :^)

20

I use the 8x8 for rapid weight loss and return to size after recovering from an injury. I take a week of full body workouts with some cardio worked into the routine just to get used to the gym again.

Then for the next 8 weeks hit the 8x8 works wonderfully, and I don’t have to do cardio for the rapid weight loss. However my nutrition does have to change. I separate my meals all the time, carbs and proteins are never eaten together. When I do 8x8 its a must that carbs increase a bit, 2 meals a day become slightly larger, and I usually add a protein meal, adjusting for calories of course, of veggies and protein. This helps with the fatigue, both in the gym and out.