Vince Gironda's 8X8 Training

As a change from the normal workout's you see everyone in the gym doing, I decided to try something a little more radical that I hadn't seen anyone doing before. This was when I was scrolling forums and body-building websites looking for something extra-ordinary.

Vince Gironda's 8X8 training caught my eye just from the sheer volume of reps you have to carry out just to complete one workout for one body part.

The general idea of this type of training is to progressively overload the muscle with a consistent weight throughout the 8 sets. Rest periods should be kept short (from 25-30 seconds) between each set.
As for choosing the correct weight to start with, this can be tricky due to having to last eight sets. A tip to solve this would be to reduce the weight you would normally use for eight reps by around 40% in order to last eight sets.

While performing this form of training you should aim for three to four exercises per body part, I personally carried out three per body part except on arms where I only carried out two.

I trained like this 5 days a week, no cardio, usual diet and supplementation, for around 2 months. I noticed significant increases in cardiac performance and endurance after this training as well as better muscular endurance and a decrease in rest time needed between sets when lifting weights.

As for other improvements, I've noticed increases in strength and a decrease in body fat as well as some gain in muscle mass.

Just as a general rule, I try to stick to the key exercises that nearly everyone will, or should include in their workout in one way, shape or form. I'm talking bench press, deadlifts and the squat. My variations would be incline bench press when I train chest, normal deadlifts on back day and squats on leg day.

If anyone has tried out this form of workout feel free to share your results and leave a comment!

thank you for reading,

Josh