Vince was an extremely dogmatic, often abrasive individual who’s I.Q. often got in the way of his ability to communicate with the average joe. I had the privilege of visiting Vince’s Gym, one of the oldest gyms in the country, during my days in Los Angeles in the late 80s. What a museum…but indeed, it was a “last bastion of physical culture” as his book describes it. Spandex-clad, steroid-popping bodybuilders were far removed from the picture. Here you would find hard-working, real human beings who only cared about honest results. Perhaps that’s why I admired the man so much—he was results-oriented, but refused to ‘cheat the process’—and forget about being politically-correct about the matter! If he saw that 36 eggs made a difference, he’d preach 36 eggs, despite being at the height of the “eggs elevate cholesterol” scare.

A Gruff Sense Of Humor

A humorous “Vince story” was relayed to me during my visit. Vince trained many top bodybuilders of the day, actors, etc. so it was no big deal for him to see someone famous. When Arnold Schwarzenegger first arrived in the United States he paid a visit to Vince’s Gym. Vince was on the phone and Arnold walked in like he owned the place. Arnold, young and brash himself in those days, proclaimed, “I’m Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mr. Universe” in his thick Austrian accent. Vince looks up from his phone conversation for about a second or two, scanned Arnold, and simply said, “You just look like a fat f**k to me”, and continued his conversation like no one had entered the room. Pardon his French, btw.

Classic Vince.

At any rate, one of the training techniques I’ve been toying with recently is one of Vince’s and it’s a good one: 8 sets of 8 reps. Setting the weight properly is important, as you will keep the same weight throughout the movement. The key is the limited rest factor. Vince said his preference was “to eventually not even remove your hands from the bar or dumbbells.” We’re talking 10-30 seconds of rest, tops. Begin with 30 and work your way down.

Now before you HIT freaks pounce on me, think of this as one long set rather than 8 sets. It’s a wonderful way to combine volume training, exhausting more and more fibers each set, with HIT training—plus you use less weight and therefore can concentrate better and risk less injury in the process.

I’ll use 8x8 on dumbbell incline presses, for example, and do one other movement for chest in HIT fashion (1 set to near failure.) Or, my favorite here-of-late is to to 8x8 or 10x10 on the squat. This is truly brutal! I find the 10x10 especially difficult as the rest intervals are so brief. I extend the rest intervals to 45 seconds just to make it through during the last several sets, but try and keep it at about 20 seconds for the majority.

Granted, this is not true HIT. You are not going to failure or anywhere near it for the majority of your workload. But, once again, results are what counts. Vince called this type of training “arriving at a pump in an honest way.”

Give it a shot and let me know if it works for you.

To learn an even more effective method of this form of training, known as “density training”, visit 7 Minute Muscle.com.