Classic Bodybuilding Articles and Essays

My Favorite Split Training Routines

The other day, after writing my recent article “Full-Body Workouts—Variety and Specialization,” I received an email that went something like this: “Okay, coach, I get it. You like, and I mean really like, full-body workouts. But let’s say that you could only do split workouts for the rest of your life instead of full-body training. What split workouts would you use? I guess I’m asking, and really just want to know, what are your favorite bodypart splits?” That is, I admit, paraphrasing the email, but it captures the essence and tone of my questioner. Also, there was a lot more to the email than just those few sentences, but for the sake of what I want to write about here, that covers it. I replied to the email and then didn’t think about it until a couple days ago, when I was in the middle of my current full-body routine and thought it might actually be a good subject for an ...

A Different Kind of Heavy/Light Training

A Total-Body, High-Frequency Training Program for Building Strength, Gaining Mass, and Conditioning Your Body As regular readers of this blog, and my writing in general, probably know, I’m a big fan of high-frequency training (HFT for short). I believe that HFT is the best form of lifting for the vast majority of trainees, especially the natural lifter. Here at Integral Strength , I have a wide range of different HFT programs, from my popular 30-Rep Program (along with quite a few other easy strength regimens) to the 3-to-5 Method to Bill Starr-style H-L-M workouts to John McCallum’s High-Protein, High-Set Program —and everything in between. In fact, most of my training programs fall under the umbrella of HFT. Although it’s not always the case, HFT is usually combined with full-body workouts. Many times, this is out of necessity. If, for instance, you want to use a HFT program but you ...

The Heavy-Light-Medium-Light Program

A Bill Starr-Inspired Program for Advanced Strength and Power Athletes One of my favorite programs for strength athletes is the heavy-light-medium program as it was designed by Bill Starr. I’ve written about the HLM system aplenty over the years—including my recent 7-part series on how to train with it. (Consider this an unofficial Part 8.) Once you’ve used it for a lengthy period of time, it’s wise to add an extra session so that you are training more than just 3 days a week. This is exactly what Starr himself recommended. He utilized a heavy-light-light-medium system for this extra day of training. If you’ve been training Monday (heavy), Wednesday (light), and Friday (medium) then you move to an extra light day on Tuesday, one with an even lower workload than the Wednesday workout. I have recommended that exact plan myself. However, as the years have gone by and I have trained more and more lifters, ...

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

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