THE OG: Odds and Sods (6x6 and 15x4)

Two more routines associated with Vince Gironda. It's hard to come by reliable information about these two, so I try to fill in the blanks...

Welcome back, my friends, to The OG, my series on all things Vince Gironda. I sat down over Christmas and really had a good think about everything I could say with regard to the great Iron Guru. Turns out, there’s a lot.

We’ve already had Vince’s biography and two instalments laying out the principles behind his approach to bodybuilding, in both practical and more theoretical terms. After that we looked at Vince’s 8x8 workout, otherwise known as the “Honest Workout,” and how proper breathing technique is essential to being able to perform this workout. Since then we discovered that Vince actually invented German Volume Training (no, he really did), and we looked in detail at his plateau-busting 10-8-6-15 workout.

After that I talked about a little titbit of advice Vince gave about building bigger arms, and then last week we looked at how Vince used to train the many Hollywood stars and other celebrities who were sent to him to be whipped into shape.

This week we’re going to look at two routines there isn’t a lot of readily available information about: the 6x6 and the 15x4. I’ve also heard mention of the 10x3, which we can basically assume is the same as the 15x4: I think the same principles apply.

Quotations, unless otherwise stated, are from The Wild Physique (1984).

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So far we’ve looked at a variety of different set and rep schemes—the 8x8, the 10x10, the 10-8-6-15, the Hollywood circuits—and we’ve seen how all of them apply the fundamental Gironda Principles I outlined at the beginning of this series, including specificity, intensity and density.

While there’s a good amount of information about those routines floating around, there’s much less readily available information about today’s two routines: the 6x6 and the 15x4. Even so, I think we can piece together the fundamentals so you can try these routines yourself.

The 6x6 is associated with Vince Gironda’s “Golden Boy,” Larry Scott, the winner of the first and second Mr Olympia competitions. The consensus, as far as I can tell, is that Larry Scott performed a full-body routine, using 6x6, three times a week.

Here’s the routine he supposedly used.

Guillotine press 6x6-8 reps

Back squats 6x8

Calf raises 6x15-20

Behind the neck press 6x6-8

Front pulldowns 6x8-10

Lying barbell triceps extensions 6x6-8

Preacher curls 6x6-8

Bent-leg knee raises (for abs) 1x100

Larry Scott, Vince’s “Golden Boy”

Some of this—the back squats, the high-rep ab work—doesn’t look Gironda-kosher. In The Wild Physique, Vince tells a different story:

But as soon as [Larry] became my pupil, he never missed a workout and trained six days a week. His mind was totally tuned in to his training. Once he had found the exercises that worked best for him like preacher curls for his biceps, dips on the wide parallel bars, sissy squats, lateral raise, he never dropped them. He always forced himself to lift more weight, but the exercises hardly ever changed. (WP, p.159)

It could be that Larry graduated on to the routine outlined before, when he had been at Vince’s Gym for a while, after initially training six days a week. Or, of course, it could be that the internet is just telling porkies. I think Larry would have enjoyed a certain amount of latitude with Vince once he was established as the prodigy he became. I can’t imagine Vince kicking Larry to the curb for doing back squats, or Larry being too afraid of Vince to do them.