THE OG: The Gironda Principles Pt.2

In this second part of the Gironda Principles, I'm going to talk about Vince Gironda's approach to aesthetics and the actual process of adding mass to one's body

You did read part one, didn’t you? Vince will be disappointed if you didn’t…

Welcome back, my friends, to the OG, my series on all things Vince Gironda. I sat down over Christmas and really had a good think about everything I could say with regard to the great Iron Guru. Turns out, there’s a lot. The most logical place to begin, after the biography I posted last time, is with a discussion of the principles Gironda followed in his bodybuilding system.

Now, most bodybuilders don’t necessarily have a system. Sure, they work out and they know what works for them, but they don’t have a properly thought-out and articulated approach to bodybuilding. On a few, like Mike Mentzer, who I’ve written about in detail, have a system, or something approaching one.

Vince was one of those rare bodybuilders, as cerebral as physical, and the ins and outs of his system are worth discussion in detail. I’ve decided to discuss the system in two parts, focusing first, in this part, on how Gironda thought exercise should be performed and its relation to diet. In the second part, which should follow next week, I’ll talk about his views on aesthetics and how the bodybuilder should add mass to his or her body. These posts will be illustrated with choice quotations from Vince himself, especially from his 1984 book The Wild Physique (hereafter “WP”, with a page reference). The Wild Physique represents the consummation of some 40 years of training and teaching, and many of his ideas that are expressed elsewhere find their fullest, or final, form in this book.

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In the previous instalment, I talked about the training-based principles that underlie Vince Gironda’s system of bodybuilding. Simply put, there are the training approaches he advocated for his students at Vince’s Gym. They included, in no particular order, the principle that a bodybuilder should aim for density (i.e. to increase the amount of work done in a given amount of time, rather than just adding weight to the bar) and thus avoid overtraining; that the bodybuilder must be specific in his choice of exercises and diet; that he must train intensely; that he must listen to his body (i.e. take note of the effect training has and whether it feels like it’s working and how); and that he must place a particular emphasis on nutrition — whence Gironda’s famous maxim that “bodybuilding is 85% nutrition”.

Another principle was that in order to know which muscles to work out — and how — you need to stand in front of a mirror and look. As I noted,

Bodybuilding, as opposed to any form of primarily strength-based training or competition, is about visual impact. With that in mind, the mirror should be your guide as to which exercises you choose to incorporate in your workouts.

If it’s chest, shoulders and triceps today, how do your chest, shoulders and triceps look? Are your rear delts lagging? Or maybe it’s your lower chest definition that’s lacking? Only the mirror will tell you the answers to these questions, and only your knowledge of the right exercises to address each weak point will tell you how to remedy these weak points.

This leads us on to today’s topic: aesthetics, and the principles underlying Vince’s approach to creating the right physical effect with your body.