A Young Vince
Vince Gironda, known by many as the "Iron Guru", was an American bodybuilder born November 9, 1917 in The Bronx, New York. After moving to Los Angeles with his family for his fathers role as a stuntman in Ben Hur, young Vince initially sought to follow in his fathers footsteps. Vince realized that he lacked the physique and size to be a stuntman, so with inspiration from photographs of the "Monarch of Muscledom", John Grimek, young Vince began his weightlifting career in 1939 at the age of 22.
He started training at his local YMCA and within a year had moved on to training at Easton Brother's gym, a renowned gym in Hollywood. While at Easton Brother's gym, his training methods proved to be successful and he established himself as a top-tier trainer. By 1948, Vince had opened his own gym, called Vince's Gym, to train aspiring and established bodybuilders in what was the start of the Golden Age of bodybuilding.
Training Philosophy
What set Vince apart was his strict training protocols for training and nutrition. His passion for bodybuilding was much more than an obsession with weightlifting. Vince was an expert in human anatomy and could point to every muscle in the human body, name it, and tell you exactly how it functions. He is quoted as saying that bodybuilding is 85% nutrition and preached that a low carbohydrate, high protein, high fat diet is the optimal way to grow muscle and cut body fat. At the time, his methods were considered "unorthodox" and many people didn't believe him, but the results spoke for themselves.
Training at Vince's Gym was not like training at your local commercial gym. When you trained there, you were submitting to Vince's way of life and were among the greats of the sport. Vince would