Lean Hybrid Muscle Building

The following is an excerpt from the newly updated book Vince Gironda Legend and Myth reprinted with permission.  The Iron Guru father of bodybuilding answers a reader’s question.

THE ALPHA STATE

Q. Vince, You probably don’t remember me but you published a letter of mind in “The Wild Physique” column of the Kennedy Muscle Mag. I explained that usually I could do 10 squat mauling reps with 250 pounds and that would be all she wrote but on one special occasion I really dug in and did 18 reps with that weight. Next workout I was back to the normal 10 reps with the 250 pounds. You said that I had entered into what you call an Alpha zone where my mental and physical state merged to optimize my normal strength levels. 

You said to be happy that I had the opportunity to experience it and that hopefully it would happen again. Vince I am writing (I tried to call but some guy said you were out of the office) to tell you I had experienced the Alpha zone again, but this time it happened with the bench press. Usually I get a big triple with 300 pounds but on my last workout I did 11 reps with this weight. It’s been awhile since that letter was published and I and the readers who read your reply understand the Alpha zone, the new readers who missed reading that letter and answer might not know what I am talking about in this letter. Thanks!
Edward Bett – Yuma, AZ

A. It is good to hear from you Ed. I remember well your letter which was published in the October 1987 issue of Muscle Mag in my Wild Physique column. It is very thoughtful of you to think of the new readers of Muscle Mag and my comments 5 years ago regarding the Alpha zone. I am really busy right now working out a deal with my book publisher and I could just say that the Alpha zone is a combination of perfect concentration, perfect tension, perfect training tempo and a perfect range of movement within the set and leave it at that but I can’t and refuse to leave the readers hanging. In order to workout in this desirable state, it requires that a bodybuilder workout in the early morning because strength levels can be as high as 50% over any other time of day.

As mentioned to you previously, I have entered into the Alpha zone a few times in my life and one that I remember most was the time I was getting ready to do some curls on the preacher bench. While I was waiting for the man before me to finish up his sets and step aside, I concentrated on the perfect set of preacher curls in my mind for 12 seconds. Then I continued to concentrate for 12 more times of 12 seconds (two minutes and twenty-four seconds). By now I was in a state of meditation and ready to go. I picked up the barbell, took the proper grip which was wide to the inside collars of the 5′ exercise bar. I then placed my elbows close together with the top of the bench stand 3″ below the peck line. My shoulders are rounded forward over the preacher stand and both feet are parallel. I begin by lowering the barbell smoothly to the low position, and then I slowly curled the bar up to where it touched my collarbone. I always make an effort to keep the shoulders rounded forward in order to finish out the curl properly.

I was only interested in working the sepalphic (outer head) area of the bicep muscle in good, slow, smooth form (cadence). I had no number of reps in mind. Just a good honest set in as perfect form as I could achieve. The number of reps I usually did with this particular weight was 12. But due to the fact that I had achieved at total Alpha state during the waiting period (where I concentrated in to a level of meditation), my body disassociated the reps factor and I performed 24 reps with no more effort or strain than if I had performed the usual 12 reps.

The example I am trying to make is simply that if you limit yourself to any number of reps, that is all you will do. I h ad somehow rejected the fact that 12 reps was my limit. I continued to rep-out to a point where the muscle was actually able to perform before it encountered a feeling of truly needing glucose.

Your nutritional awareness is an important and not to be forgotten key to achieving the Alpha state. That’s why I tell my students and you Muscle Mag readers the value of keeping at least 20 grams of amino’s in the blood every three hours by taking 4 amino caps every three hours, plus 10 to 20 liver tablets (100 per day). Drinking 2 ounces of ½ & ½ dairy cream with 6 raw eggs mixed in is important too. Oh yeah, don’t forget to pop 2 or 3 amino acid tablets during your workout too.

Ed, your 300 pounds for 11 reps over your previous best of 3 reps proves that the Alpha state is just not my own unique experience, even if it did happen with that darn bench press. Enough!!! Vince

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Have you ever achieved the alpha sate in your training?  At strength Camp sometimes Elliott refers to something similar when he says, “Turn your brain off.”

Do you always decide the number of reps you are going to do ahead of time?  Do you ever find that limiting?  Let us know your comment below.

Oh and if you haven’t picked up your copy of Vince Gironda Legend and Myth I highly recommend you go to this web page to add this piece of bodybuilding history to your library.
http://leanhybridmuscle.com/goto/vincegironda

-Mike