Vince Gironda

Vince Gironda (* 9 November 1917 in New York ; † 18th October 1997 ) was an American bodybuilder , bodybuilding author and owner of the famous "Vince's Gym" fitness studio s in North Hollywood, California. He was also called the Iron Guru (dt. Iron guru ).

Life

Vince Gironda was born on November 9, 1917 in the Bronx , New York . His family moved to Los Angeles when he was a child after his father got a role as a stunt performer in the 1925 Ben Hur film . Like his father, Gironda wanted to be a stuntman. However, he knew that he had to develop physically after seeing a photo of John Grimek . So he started lifting weights at the age of 22. First he trained at the local YMCA . After about eight months he moved to the Easton Brothers' gym. The Easton brothers trained him to be a coach. He worked in her gym and experimented with various exercise methods until he opened his own studio in North Hollywood in 1948.

In the early 1950s, he became famous as a coach to bodybuilding champions and movie stars . Since Gironda's training methods made everyone look athletic very quickly, film studios kept sending their stars to him. Robert Blake , Cher , Clint Eastwood , Denzel Washington , James Garner , Brian Keith , Tommy Chong and Erik Estrada are just a few who trained with Vince Gironda.

In the 1960s, his reputation as a personal trainer grew as his protégés won all major bodybuilding championships. The best known was Larry Scott : He became the first winner of the IFBB Mr. Olympia in 1965. In addition, some well-known bodybuilders have trained under Gironda for years. Including Jake Steinman , Lou Ferrigno (" The Incredible Hulk "), Frank Zane , Don Howorth and Arnold Schwarzenegger . At this time he was nicknamed "Iron Guru"

In the 1970s Gironda wrote many articles for the American Iron Man magazine. He opened a supplementary nutrition business and wrote his own exercise and nutrition books. He did all of this alongside his work in the studio. A book was published in collaboration with the American MuscleMag International magazine. Editor Robert Kennedy published it under the title "Unleashing the Wild Physique". It summarized the expertise that Gironda had acquired in over 30 years of his bodybuilding career. The publication of the book was followed by a promotional tour through the USA and Canada, during which Gironda sold its seminars and courses.

As interest in modern gyms increased and most stars had personal trainers in the 1990s, it became difficult for simple gyms to survive. For this reason, Vince Gironda had to close his studio in November 1995. Another reason that took away his motivation in training was that his son Guy had serious heart disease. On October 18, 1997, less than a month before his 80th birthday, the iron guru died.

Training philosophy

Gironda has often emphasized that 85% of bodybuilding consists of proper nutrition. In fact, he was a raw food fanatic and a proponent of low-carb diets. He also recommended the extensive use of supplements along with liver tablets, seaweed, digestive enzymes and glandulars (dried glandular secretions from animals that support the function of the body's own glands; see also glandula ). In certain circumstances, he also recommended more than three dozen eggs a day along with untreated milk. He believed that consuming a large amount of eggs had the same effect as the steroid Dianabol .

Many observers believed that his training methods were unorthodox. Unlike most other coaches, he was against the use of the squat on male bodybuilders. As a result, no equipment was found in his studio to practice squats. He believed that doing squats would overdevelop your buttocks and hips. These would then look too large relative to the thighs, which was undesirable among bodybuilders. The only exceptions were female bodybuilders and men who wanted strong buttocks and hips development. Instead, he recommended so-called sissy squats , hack lifts, front squats , and a special type of squat he called the thigh squat. He was also one of the few people who suggested that sit-ups had no effect on abdominal muscle development.

Gironda kept mentioning that the regular bench press was an inferior chest muscle development exercise. He preferred the "neck press". In this exercise, the barbell is lowered with a wide grip towards the neck instead of towards the chest. This method is rarely seen in gyms, however, as it allows you to lift less weight than you would with a regular bench press. For the best possible development of the chest muscles, he recommended his own "Gironda dips". In Gironda's view, the breast should look like a large area and not have a "female breast" approach.

Fonts

Robert Kennedy, Vince Gironda: Unleashing the Wild Physique. Sterling Pub. Co, 1984, ISBN 0-8069-7888-0 .
Alan Palmieri: Vince Gironda Legend And Myth. CD-ROM, 2004.
Daryl Conant: InVINCEable ™. 2009.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Gironda, Vince
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Iron Guru
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American bodybuilder
DATE OF BIRTH	November 9, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bronx , New York , USA
DATE OF DEATH	October 18, 1997