8 by 8 exercises: description of the method, technique, reviews

• July 18, 2018
• Home workouts
• Ekaterina Kholodova

The shock training method of 8 by 8 exercises from the legendary Vince Gironda will allow you to achieve an interesting result within a month: burn subcutaneous fat and properly build muscle in the place where it is lacking.

It is aimed at working out muscles and creating muscle mass. Unlike strength training, the goal of this system is not to increase the athlete's strength. Its purpose is this:

• aesthetic appearance;
• bringing muscles to the required volume;
• formation of deep muscle relief;
• operational fat burning.

The “8 x 8” complex is perfect for men (lagging muscles are built up, the body gets aggressive relief) and for women (with the help of this program the abs are drawn and the gluteal muscles are tightened, and excess fat throughout the body is burned).

To progress, you need to put the body under stress, give it shocking loads, then the body can adapt to any kind of strong, exhausting training according to the most extreme programs. Only then will stable growth and development of muscles be noticeable.

Principle, mechanics

• Each training session involves working out 2-3 muscle groups (small).
• For each specific muscle group, you need to select 3 exercises (two are possible).
• The exercises are performed according to the following scheme: 8 sets of 8 repetitions, and no more than 30 seconds should pass between sets. Your rest should be minimal in time.

The total duration of the entire workout is 50 minutes. You put a lot of stress on your muscles in a short time, but don't overload them. It is not recommended to train for more than an hour, otherwise the entire fitness process will only negatively affect the production of hormones, and there will also be difficulties with the restoration of muscles and the entire body.

The most important thing in the 8 by 8 set of exercises is maintaining the tempo of the training; here you need to place the main emphasis.

You need to start with the lightest weight in your arsenal. Cut the weight you are used to by half.

JM press or California barbell press

Author: Jay M. Blakely

Powerlifter J.M. Blakely is known for gaining and then losing 45 kilograms before competitions - he went so far as to pour olive oil on a large pizza and also eat 10 to 15 Hershey's bars. Of course, this is not worth doing.

If you're looking to break through a bench press plateau, be sure to try his original movement, a hybrid of the close-grip bench press and the French bench press that has helped many famous benchers increase weight.

This exercise strengthens the triceps by loading them with more weight than you can usually lift with movements like the French press at any bench angle.

Performance:

1. Lie down on a flat bench, holding the barbell in straight arms with a narrow grip as when performing the exercise of the same name.
2. Smoothly lower the projectile down to neck level, moving your elbows forward along your body. When you feel maximum tension in your triceps, at the bottom of the range of motion, return the weight to the starting position.
3. The trajectory of the barbell should resemble a large letter L.

Description and author

Who else, if not the legendary bodybuilder and trainer Vince Gironda, should present the truth about our bodies? He knew and adhered to those techniques that were rejected by his contemporaries, but worked 15-20 years later. Vince claimed that the shocking shake was the best tool for muscle growth.

How many stars studied using his systems? Many, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom Vince once called a piece of lard.

If you feel like your workouts are no longer challenging, you should try the 8 by 8 exercise program. Do your muscles need a kick to keep growing and developing? Then you can try this method.

Biography facts

Vincent Anselmo Gironda was born in 1917, Ventura, USA in the family of a stuntman and a housewife. In 1925, my father was offered to star in a film about Jesus Christ, and everyone moved to Los Angeles. Captivated by his father’s adventurous profession, the teenager could not even imagine that he would take up strength sports. Bodybuilding came into life at the age of 19, when the guy saw a photograph of John Grimek. When looking at the athlete’s figure, something clicked in the guy’s head. He immediately went to a local gym that belonged to the Christian Association, where he trained for 8 months. Then he moved to the Easton Brothers Club, and there he began experimenting with training methods. In 1948, he opened his own hall , which existed until 1995.

Method

Getting the most out of your muscles is what the 8 sets of 8 reps protocol achieves. This super-efficient system is not for the faint of heart. It provides a tremendous volume of load at a high pace with a frequency of repetitions that ensure muscle hypertrophy.

1. Two days in a row - training, two days - complete rest.
2. Do one exercise for each body part every day - 8 sets of 8 repetitions. This should be a shock to the muscles, causing them to move and grow.
3. Pauses for a maximum of 30 seconds - no more.
4. The maximum time spent in these classes is 6 weeks; you do not need to stick to this program longer.
5. Start with a small weight, increasing every two weeks.

Excerpt characterizing Gironda, Vince

“You sleep, but I can’t,” answered the first voice approaching the window. She apparently leaned out of the window completely, because the rustling of her dress and even her breathing could be heard. Everything became quiet and petrified, like the moon and its light and shadows. Prince Andrei was also afraid to move, so as not to betray his involuntary presence. - Sonya! Sonya! – the first voice was heard again. - Well, how can you sleep! Look what a beauty it is! Oh, how lovely! “Wake up, Sonya,” she said almost with tears in her voice. - After all, such a lovely night has never, never happened. Sonya reluctantly answered something. - No, look what a moon it is!... Oh, how lovely! Come here. Darling, my dear, come here. Well, do you see? So I would squat down, like this, I would grab myself under the knees - tighter, as tight as possible - you have to strain. Like this! - Come on, you'll fall. There was a struggle and Sonya’s dissatisfied voice: “It’s two o’clock.” - Oh, you're just ruining everything for me. Well, go, go. Again everything fell silent, but Prince Andrei knew that she was still sitting here, he sometimes heard quiet movements, sometimes sighs. - Oh my god! My God! what is this! – she suddenly screamed. - Sleep like that! – and slammed the window. “And they don’t care about my existence!” thought Prince Andrei as he listened to her conversation, for some reason expecting and fearing that she would say something about him. - “And there she is again! And how on purpose!” he thought. In his soul suddenly arose such an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes, contradicting his whole life, that he, feeling unable to understand his condition, immediately fell asleep. The next day, having said goodbye to only one count, without waiting for the ladies to leave, Prince Andrei went home. It was already the beginning of June when Prince Andrei, returning home, again drove into that birch grove in which this old, gnarled oak had struck him so strangely and memorably. The bells rang even more muffled in the forest than a month and a half ago; everything was full, shady and dense; and the young spruces, scattered throughout the forest, did not disturb the overall beauty and, imitating the general character, were tenderly green with fluffy young shoots. It was hot all day, a thunderstorm was gathering somewhere, but only a small cloud splashed on the dust of the road and on the succulent leaves. The left side of the forest was dark, in shadow; the right one, wet and glossy, glistened in the sun, slightly swaying in the wind. Everything was in bloom; the nightingales chattered and rolled, now close, now far away. “Yes, here, in this forest, there was this oak tree with which we agreed,” thought Prince Andrei. “Where is he,” Prince Andrei thought again, looking at the left side of the road and without knowing it, without recognizing him, he admired the oak tree that he was looking for. The old oak tree, completely transformed, spread out like a tent of lush, dark greenery, swayed slightly, swaying slightly in the rays of the evening sun. No gnarled fingers, no sores, no old mistrust and grief - nothing was visible. Juicy, young leaves broke through the tough, hundred-year-old bark without knots, so it was impossible to believe that this old man had produced them. “Yes, this is that same oak tree,” thought Prince Andrei, and suddenly an unreasonable, spring feeling of joy and renewal came over him. All the best moments of his life suddenly came back to him at the same time. And Austerlitz with the high sky, and the dead, reproachful face of his wife, and Pierre on the ferry, and the girl excited by the beauty of the night, and this night, and the moon - and all this suddenly came to his mind. “No, life is not over at the age of 31, Prince Andrei suddenly finally, permanently decided. Not only do I know everything that is in me, it is necessary for everyone to know it: both Pierre and this girl who wanted to fly into the sky, it is necessary for everyone to know me, so that my life does not go on for me alone So that they don’t live so independently of my life, so that it affects everyone and so that they all live with me!” Returning from his trip, Prince Andrei decided to go to St. Petersburg in the fall and came up with various reasons for this decision. A whole series of reasonable, logical arguments why he needed to go to St. Petersburg and even serve were ready at his service every minute. Even now he did not understand how he could ever doubt the need to take an active part in life, just as a month ago he did not understand how the thought of leaving the village could have occurred to him. It seemed clear to him that all his experiences in life would have been in vain and would have been meaningless if he had not applied them to action and taken an active part in life again. He did not even understand how, on the basis of the same poor reasonable arguments, it had previously been obvious that he would have humiliated himself if now, after his life lessons, he again believed in the possibility of being useful and in the possibility of happiness and love. Now my mind suggested something completely different. After this trip, Prince Andrei began to get bored in the village, his previous activities did not interest him, and often, sitting alone in his office, he got up, went to the mirror and looked at his face for a long time. Then he turned away and looked at the portrait of the deceased Lisa, who, with her curls whipped up a la grecque [in Greek], tenderly and cheerfully looked at him from the golden frame. She no longer spoke the same terrible words to her husband; she simply and cheerfully looked at him with curiosity. And Prince Andrei, clasping his hands back, walked around the room for a long time, now frowning, now smiling, reconsidering those unreasonable, inexpressible in words, secret as a crime thoughts associated with Pierre, with fame, with the girl on the window, with the oak tree, with female beauty and love that changed his whole life. And at these moments, when someone came to him, he was especially dry, strictly decisive and especially unpleasantly logical. “Mon cher, [My dear,],” Princess Marya would say when entering at such a moment, “Nikolushka can’t go for a walk today: it’s very cold.” “If it were warm,” Prince Andrei answered his sister especially dryly at such moments, “then he would go in just a shirt, but since it’s cold, we need to put warm clothes on him, which were invented for this purpose.” This is what follows from the fact that it’s cold, and not like staying at home when the child needs air,” he said with particular logic, as if punishing someone for all this secret, illogical inner work that was happening in him. Princess Marya thought in these cases about how this mental work dries out men. Prince Andrey arrived in St. Petersburg in August 1809. This was the time of the apogee of the glory of the young Speransky and the energy of the revolutions he carried out. In this very August, the sovereign, while riding in a carriage, fell out, injured his leg, and remained in Peterhof for three weeks, seeing daily and exclusively with Speransky. At this time, not only two so famous and alarming decrees were being prepared on the abolition of court ranks and on examinations for the ranks of collegiate assessors and state councilors, but also an entire state constitution, which was supposed to change the existing judicial, administrative and financial order of government of Russia from the state council to the volost board. Now those vague, liberal dreams with which Emperor Alexander ascended the throne were being realized and embodied, and which he sought to realize with the help of his assistants Chartorizhsky, Novosiltsev, Kochubey and Strogonov, whom he himself jokingly called comite du salut publique. [Committee of Public Safety.] Now everyone has been replaced by Speransky on the civil side and Arakcheev on the military side. Prince Andrei, soon after his arrival, as a chamberlain, came to the court and left. The Tsar, having met him twice, did not honor him with a single word. It always seemed to Prince Andrei that he was antipathetic to the sovereign, that the sovereign was unpleasant about his face and his whole being. In the dry, distant look with which the sovereign looked at him, Prince Andrei found confirmation of this assumption even more than before. The courtiers explained to Prince Andrey the sovereign's lack of attention to him by the fact that His Majesty was dissatisfied with the fact that Bolkonsky had not served since 1805. “I myself know how much we have no control over our likes and dislikes,” thought Prince Andrei, and therefore there is no need to think about personally presenting my note on the military regulations to the sovereign, but the matter will speak for itself.” He conveyed his note to the old field marshal, a friend of his father. The field marshal, having appointed an hour for him, received him kindly and promised to report to the sovereign. A few days later it was announced to Prince Andrey that he had to appear before the Minister of War, Count Arakcheev. At nine o'clock in the morning, on the appointed day, Prince Andrei appeared in the reception room of Count Arakcheev. Prince Andrei did not know Arakcheev personally and had never seen him, but everything he knew about him inspired him with little respect for this man. “He is the Minister of War, the confidant of the Emperor; no one should care about his personal properties; he was instructed to consider my note, therefore he alone can give it a go,” thought Prince Andrei, waiting among many important and unimportant persons in the reception room of Count Arakcheev. Prince Andrei, during his mostly adjutant service, saw a lot of adopted important persons and the different characters of these adopted ones were very clear to him. Count Arakcheev had a very special character in his reception room. A sense of shame and humility was written on the unimportant faces waiting in line for an audience in Count Arakcheev’s reception room; on the more official faces one common feeling of awkwardness was expressed, hidden under the guise of swagger and ridicule of oneself, one’s position and one’s expected face. Some walked thoughtfully back and forth, others laughed in whispers, and Prince Andrei heard the sobriquet [mocking nickname] of Andreich’s forces and the words: “uncle will ask,” referring to Count Arakcheev. One general (an important person), apparently offended that he had to wait so long, sat crossing his legs and smiling contemptuously at himself. But as soon as the door opened, all the faces instantly expressed only one thing - fear. Prince Andrei asked the duty officer to report about himself another time, but they looked at him with ridicule and said that his turn would come in due time. After several persons were brought in and out by the adjutant from the minister’s office, an officer was let in through the terrible door, striking Prince Andrei with his humiliated and frightened appearance. The officer's audience lasted a long time. Suddenly, peals of an unpleasant voice were heard from behind the door, and a pale officer, with trembling lips, came out of there, grabbed his head, and walked through the reception area. Following this, Prince Andrei was led to the door, and the attendant said in a whisper: “to the right, to the window.” Prince Andrei entered a modest, neat office and at the desk saw a forty-year-old man with a long waist, a long, short-cropped head and thick wrinkles, with frowning eyebrows over brown, dull green eyes and a drooping red nose. Arakcheev turned his head towards him, without looking at him. -What are you asking for? – Arakcheev asked. “I don’t... please, your Excellency,” said Prince Andrei quietly. Arakcheev's eyes turned to him. “Sit down,” said Arakcheev, “Prince Bolkonsky?” “I’m not asking for anything, but the Emperor deigned to forward the note I submitted to your Excellency...” “Please see, my dear, I read your note,” Arakcheev interrupted, only saying the first words affectionately, again without looking him in the face and becoming more and more depressed. and more in a grumpily contemptuous tone. – Are you proposing new military laws? There are many laws, and there is no one to enforce the old ones. Nowadays all laws are written; it is easier to write than to do. “I came by the will of the Emperor to find out from your Excellency what course you intend to give to the submitted note?” - Prince Andrey said politely. “I have added a resolution to your note and forwarded it to the committee.” “I don’t approve,” said Arakcheev, getting up and taking a paper from the desk. - Here! – he handed it to Prince Andrey. On the paper across it, in pencil, without capital letters, without spelling, without punctuation, was written: “unfoundedly composed as an imitation copied from the French military regulations and from the military article without the need of retreating.” – Which committee was the note sent to? - asked Prince Andrei. - To the committee on military regulations, and I submitted a proposal to enroll your honor as a member. Just no salary.

Why does fat burn so quickly and why is it so difficult?

The rapid destruction of fat is due to a short rest between approaches, which, according to the rules, should not last longer than 30 seconds. A short rest entails an increase in metabolic processes and ensures more intensive work of the endocrine system. The fat can only be burned.

The creator of the method, Vince Gironda, in no way called for an “overdose” of training; he proposed “shock therapy” for muscles with the aim of their new growth. But at first it feels like temporary overtraining.

Zercher squats (squats with a barbell on the elbows)

Another unusual and strange squat from strongman Ed Zercher, this puts a lot of stress on the quadriceps, and the abs get a significant load.

The technique is as follows:

• the barbell is placed on the elbows, which are pressed to the body, and the palms are clenched;
• you need to squat until your thighs are parallel to the floor;
• There is no need to pause at the bottom point; you need to immediately rise up.

To keep the barbell comfortable, you need to take a towel.

Advantages

1. You won't get tired of it. The program is intended for short-term use - no more than 2 months.
2. 8 x 8 allows you to exercise even with injuries, since you take light weights.
3. This workout can be counted as cardio, and for those with a high metabolic rate, these 8 vascular exercises will be an excellent aerobic exercise.

Reviews

What do reviews say about the 8x8 training program? Many people say that they literally crawl out of the hall on all fours. But all suffering is justified. The body will adapt to the load by growing muscles, intensively burning calories, which is what is required.

Using the “8 by 8” technique, you can very well work out those muscles that are usually not given due attention. For example, the rear delts are perfectly pumped with chest rows or bent-over dumbbell flyes.

The reviews are unanimous - the program is complex, after it there is a period of difficult recovery - the muscles are very sore the next day, there seems to be no overstrain, but the first two weeks are very difficult to get used to, especially those who have not used additional sports supplements say so. In the third week, muscles begin to grow, subcutaneous fat melts. According to reviews of those training on the 8 by 8 exercise program for 2 months, weight increased by approximately 4-5 kilograms (for example, from 76 to 81 kg) due to muscle mass.

Many professionals in the reviews advised adding an eight-by-eight workout to the main program, which needed to improve the undeveloped muscle group.

For large muscle groups (back, for example), training is not recommended, since according to reviews, 8 by 8 exercises are still a very difficult workout and are suitable for small muscle groups. Large volumes must be worked out in a less intense mode, so that later the body does not react with failures.

Zottman Curls

Author: George Zottman

At the beginning of the century, strongman George Zottman was a very peculiar person. He had 38cm forearms and competed until he was 50 years old. In addition, he set a world record in the clean and jerk with one arm - a weight of 79 kg, which has not yet been broken. But his main contribution is undoubtedly the Zottman curls, which he regularly did to develop his monstrous grip strength.

Performance:

1. Bend your arms with dumbbells all the way, palms facing yourself.
2. At the top of the movement, open your palms and then slowly lower the dumbbells.
3. Return to starting position and repeat.