THE OG: Training the Stars

In his more than forty years as a trainer, Vince trained a who's who of Hollywood talent, male and female. Here's who and how

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.

We’ve already had Vince’s biography and two instalments laying out the principles behind his approach to bodybuilding, in both practical and more theoretical terms. After that we looked at Vince’s 8x8 workout, otherwise known as the “Honest Workout,” and how proper breathing technique is essential to being able to perform this workout. Since then we discovered that Vince actually invented German Volume Training (no, he really did), and we looked in detail at his plateau-busting 10-8-6-15 workout.

Last week I talked about a little titbit of advice Vince gave about building bigger arms.

Today I’m going to talk a bit about how Vince trained the many Hollywood stars who came—or were sent—to his North Hollywood gym. Almost all of them had very different aims from your typical bodybuilder. Yes, they wanted to look good, but they didn’t want to build serious muscle. So what did Vince do with them?

Quotations, unless otherwise stated, are from The Wild Physique (1984).

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Vince’s gym, on Ventura Blvd in Studio City, North Hollywood, was perfectly suited to cater to the needs of Hollywood and its beautiful men and women—and especially those men and women who studio executives thought didn’t look quite as beautiful as they should.

Vince trained, among others, Ernest Borgnine, Gary Busey, David Carradine, Cher, Clint Eastwood, Marty Feldman, Kurt Russell, Shawn Penn, Burt Reynolds, O.J. Simpson, Clint Walker and Carl Weathers.

Towards the end of his career, Vince recounted:

I am famous for training the stars of showbusiness. People come to me from all walks of entertainment—stage, TV, films... even circus performers.

This, of course, all came about from connections initially made by my father. He was a Hollywood stuntman par excellence! I was so proud of him that I did all kinds of stunt work in my youth, and many show-business personalities remembered me when I had finally saved enough money to open a gym. There has been an endless flow of stars and starlets to Vince's Gym in North Hollywood ever since.

Actually, not all the actors and actresses come to me by choice. Sometimes they are sent by the studio bosses. And invariably I am instructed to get these stars into shape within a week. So not only do the stars have a problem. I'm the one who takes the responsibility. (WP, p.179)

Vince often didn’t have a great deal of time with the actors who were sent to him, and their goals were seldom if ever the same as those of the bodybuilders or aspiring bodybuilders who darkened his doors. Hollywood actors and actress often needed simply to lose pounds they had gained through overindulgence between filming. They weren’t looking to have a physique fit to grace the Mr Universe stage; although some, most notably Carl Weathers, who played Apollo Creed in the Rocky films and Dillon in Predator alongside a former Gironda disciple by the name of Arnold Schwarzenegger, would not have looked out of place in posing trunks.

Since Vince usually didn’t have much time, his principle of “creating the illusion” came to the fore. Remember: What good is mass if you don’t appear to have mass? A bulky waist can make a set of shoulders as wide as a door frame look narrow.

When it came to Hollywood stars, the principle was applied more basically, with less rigour. Physical posture and attitude were emphasised. Hold yourself properly and “project animal magnetism.” Vince explains: