Classic Bodybuilding Articles and Essays

Marvin Eder’s Mass-Building Methods

The Many and Varied Mass-Building Methods of Power Bodybuilding’s G.O.A.T. Eder as he appeared in my article "Full Body Workouts" for IronMan magazine. In many ways, the essay you are now reading is the one that has had the “longest time coming.” I have no clue why it has taken me this long to write an article specifically on Marvin Eder, especially considering the fact that I have long considered him the greatest bodybuilder cum strength athlete of all friggin’ time . In fact, over 20 years ago, I wrote this in the pages of IronMan magazine: In my opinion, the greatest all-around bodybuilder, powerlifter and strength athlete ever to walk the planet, Eder had 19-inch arms at a bodyweight of 198. He could bench 510, squat 550 for 10 reps and do a barbell press with 365. He was reported to have achieved the amazing feat of cranking out 1,000 dips in only 17 minutes. Imagine doing a dip a second for 17 minutes. As Gene Mozee once put ...

My Son’s High-Volume, High-Frequency Training

High-Volume, High-Frequency Training and Realistic Muscle-Building for the Natural Bodybuilder This article, I will admit, is in many ways nothing more than an excuse to show off my youngest son Garrett’s physique as seen above. But since I have a good feeling that he has exactly the kind of body that most men would love to acquire, I also want to discuss his training philosophy and some lessons that you can learn from it. First, however, let’s discuss the 3 training variables of volume, frequency, and intensity. If you’re familiar with my point-of-view, you can skip ahead to the next paragraph. If you’re not, then pay attention! In order to get results out of resistance training, no matter your goals, you must properly balance and manipulate the 3 training variables of volume, frequency, and intensity. Two of the variables need to be high (or one high and the other moderate) and the remaining v...

Singles

Some Thoughts on Single-Rep Training for Strength, Power, and Muscle Size “Many dinosaurs do heavy singles. Why? Because they have discovered that for many men, singles build more muscle and strength than sets of multiple repetitions. Yeah, I KNOW that singles are contrary to modern wisdom and conventional training protocols. I KNOW that all of the modern experts say that single reps are dangerous and non-productive. I KNOW that all of the modern ‘champs’ say to train with light weights and concentrate on ‘feeling’ the muscles. I KNOW that everyone at the House of Chrome and Ferns never does a single rep on anything. And I KNOW that we have all kinds of wonderful ‘scientific’ training systems that regard heavy singles as worthless, dangerous, insane, and ridiculously old fashioned. “The experts are WRONG when they say singles don’t work. For many men, singles build muscle and st...

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

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