Vince Gironda: Legend & Myth

If you’re a serious bodybuilder, but you’re not familiar with Vince Gironda, you owe it to yourself to get acquainted with his result-producing training methods and exercises as well as his diet tricks for fast fat loss and muscle gain.

Vince was a Hollywood gym owner and trainer back in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s who was way ahead of his time. I worked for him at his Vince’s Gym in Studio City in the ’60s, so I know from first-hand experience that his methods work–he was a genius at building muscle and burning fat in record time, which is why many movie stars came to Vince to get them in shape quickly for film roles.

Vince also trained the first Mr. Olympia, Larry Scott, and Larry has nothing but praise for Gironda and his amazing methods. Vince was instrumental in Larry’s bodybuilding success, no question.

I recently came across an e-book that is a tremendous collection of Vince’s methods, quotes, workouts and advice. The title is Vince Gironda: Legend & Myth, and it’s by Alan Palmieri, who was one of Vince’s students.

Reading through this e-book flooded my mind with memories of Vince and the incredible results he used to get from those he trained. The subjects include:

Train 21 days, rest 7
Why a muscle has four sides
10-8-6-15 ab-etching program
Protein-fat diet for getting ripped
Best exercises for stubborn muscles
Exercise tempo
And much, much more

That last one, exercise tempo, is very important, as it’s one of the cornerstones of Vince’s muscle-building, fat-burning philosophy. Here’s a quote from the 300-plus-page e-book that explains:

“To increase muscle size, you must increase the intensity of work done within a given time. This means that it doesn’t matter how much work you do but how fast you do it. This is known as the overload principle.”

So Vince had a different view of overload–it wasn’t just about trying to lift more and more weight–it was about doing more work in less time, which was also known as his density principle:

“This principle explains why sprinters have larger muscle size all over their bodies than long distance runners. Although it is more work to run a mile than 100 yards, the sprinter is doing more work per second and as a result, his muscles will enlarge.”

A lot of what Vince said back in the ’60s is finally being proven by science, such as his density principle and his low-carb diet for fat loss. Vince has interesting twists on both of those that are explained in detail in the e-book (like steak and eggs for breakfast for maximum muscle size and fat loss).

Having known Vince and worked for him, I can honestly say that he is one of the all-time greatest bodybuilding trainers in history. And I highly recommend Vince Gironda: Legend & Myth for every serious bodybuilder’s training library.

–John Balik

Note: Vince Gironda: Legend & Myth is available with a number of free gifts, such as Vince’s 8×8 Workout System. For more information, go HERE.