Probably my all time favourite weightlifting personality is:
Vince Gironda
The man was a visionary.
For example, he banned his students from regular barbell back squats because they overdevelop the hips and glutes while doing comparatively little for the quads.
Likewise, he banned regular barbell bench presses in favour of neck presses (also disturbingly referred to as “guillotine presses”).
Why?
Bench presses involve too much front delt and too little chest.
You’d be forgiven for thinking fanboying over “The Iron Guru” is a little strange, given my dogmatic preaching about the importance of getting strong in basic squats, presses, and pulls.
Nevertheless, to do so would be to fall into the same trap that snares many otherwise earnest and hardworking training aficionados.
How so?
You have to read Vince Gironda’s work in context.
The man trained men and women who were already strong, fit, and mobile. Many of his clients were famous actors and champion bodybuilders, but even those who weren’t were in much better shape than people today by grace of being born in a time before smartphones, ultra-processed foods, and sitting on your backside all day being “normal”.
Hence, they were ready to tackle what we can be fairly considered intermediate to advanced methods from the get-go.
By contrast, put your typical 21st century dad who works in an office and has dabbled in a bit of training here and there through a Gironda programme and problems will invariably arise very quickly.
This means some “remedial” work is required to build a solid foundation of muscle and strength for most people.
Even those who have been training for some time – perhaps a long time – because what they have been doing up to this point has been inefficient and ineffective.
“Strength Standards” are a decent (albeit somewhat blunt) way to measure if this includes you.
To wit, if you cannot:
* Barbell deadlift 2 – 2.5 x bodyweight
* Barbell back squat 1.75 – 2 x bodyweight
* Barbell bench press 1.25 – 1.5 x bodyweight
* Barbell press 1 x bodyweight
You almost certainly need to invest a chunk of time getting to or near those measurements before you even think about tackling something fancier.
If you would like assistance with this, I recommend booking a call into my diary.
I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending they’re anything other than an opportunity for me to sell you my programme, but I have been told by people who bought and people who didn’t that the conversation was informative and entertaining.
Go here to book:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/consult/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman