Vince Gironda’s Column…

Vince Gironda’s Column

At the gym where I train, there used to be a member named George who was still training in his late 70’s. In his prime, George was a regional power lifting and bodybuilding champion – claims that were backed up with photographs and certificates, proving he wasn’t just an old man with a tale or two.

One day, George came in and gave me an old copy of ‘Bodybuilding Monthly’ magazine – volume 1, Issue 10, July 1978 to be exact. The front cover shows a picture of Mr and MIss Great Britain 1978. The winners of these awards were Bill Richardson and Bridgett Gibbons, both looking in great shape.

Although I don’t follow bodybuilding particularly, if there was any era of the sport I am most interested in, it would have to be the 70’s, where a youthful naivety around steroid use led the competitors to impressive rather than grotesque physiques.

There was an innocence around the sport then it seems, where bodybuilders and regular exercisers practiced there hobby in empty gyms, used by a tiny percentage of the population. In the UK at least, the commercial gym just didn’t exist then.

Anyway, today I have been sorting through my office, removing paperwork, updating documents etc and I happened upon the magazine. Amongst the news of the recent contest results and thousands of adverts for home barbell kits, I spotted the ‘Vince Gironda Column’.

For those of you who don’t know who Vince Gironda is, he was a bodybuilder/personal trainer who shot to fame (in the industry at least) in the 1950’s, and stayed there ever since.  He was seen as a renegade when he first started his career, prescribing many of his clients all kinds of strange (it seemed at the time) approaches to getting in shape. All boiled down, much of his approach is actually replicated today, only with scientific backing this time!

He prescribed low carb eating, practiced a form of intermittent fasting, was a fan of high density training and hated cardio – all of these are still in popular use amongst personal trainers today! I personally prescribe these approaches to a number of my own personal training clients!

Vince was the first trainer to the stars in Hollywood – he claimed (probably correctly) that he could get actors into shape quicker than anyone else. A client list including Client Eastwood, Denzel Washington and Cher followed, boosting his media platform further. In addition, he wrote columns for articles, delivered seminars, ran his own gym and competed as a bodybuilder.

He was a man before his time, and the vast majority of his teaching worked. He walked the walk too.

So now you know about Vince, here is the contents of his column from July 1978 in Bodybuilding Monthly. Written word for word…

Vince Girdonda’s column…

COMMON ERRORS IN BODYBUILDING, by Vince Gironda

1. Over training. (Anything over 45 minutes is over training).
2. Working out too slow.
3. Full sit ups and leg raises.
4. Working abdominals every workout.
5. Working upper body and lower body on the same day.
6. Not touching chest to bar and calling it chinning.
7. Not raising up on the big toe when doing toe raises (also pulling heels together on counter action).
8. Bench presses for pecs (90 degree front deltoid)
9. Not touching all 4 bells together on dumbbell bench work. (90% deltoid if not performed this way).
10. Deep knee bends.
11. Leg presses.
12. Under working and over working a muscle by performing too wide a variety of exercises on a given muscle.
13. Jogging.
14. Cheating exercises.
15. Presses for deltoid.
16. Over arm exercises.
17. Mixing carbohydrates and protein.
18. Behind neck chins on pull-down machine.
19. Not working hyperextensions and full arm on every upper body day.
20. Working upper body and legs on same day.
21. Skipping breakfast.
22. Swimming.
23. Side bends.
24. Sag protein.
25. Not ingesting enzymes at every meal.
26. Not arching back on lat work.
27. Leg extensions.
28. Leg curls on extension table.
29. Not selecting the proper exercise for deficient muscle areas.
30. Not keeping chin on chest, feet under face and elbows wide on parallel dips for pecs.
31. No knowledge of combining exercises.
32. Not changing programme often enough.
33. No knowledge of breaking a rut.
34. Not specialising on slow-growing areas.
35. Not taking supplements.
36. Taking too many supplements.
37. Lack of concentration during workouts.
38. Not having an expert to answer your questions.
39. Unwillingness to accept new or different concepts.

So there is Vince Gironda’s column, written in 1978. Some of the suggestions are questionable now given the scientific progressions, but history shows us he was a man way ahead of his time, and most of his suggestions in this list still hold true today.

Sometimes, we could make more progress from looking to the past, rather than trying to innovate merely for the sake of it. Learning some lessons from the previous generations could help many of you new to training.

Have a read of Vince Gironda’s column and see if you can improve your training using some old school advice!

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