C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Bradley J. Steiner, author of the original "Rugged Size and Strength Split Routine"      In the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, Bradley J. Steiner was the voice of (what he called) “sane, sensible” barbell training.   His workouts were full-body programs done 3 times per week, utilizing a limited number of big “bang-for-your-buck” movements such as squats, deadlifts, barbell rows, bench presses, overhead presses, barbell curls and the like.   They were intended for the average, drug-free lifter who didn’t have the luxury of living at Muscle Beach in Venice, California and training all day, but worked a full-time job, had a wife and kids—you know, a “regular” life—but still wanted to build a strong, impressive physique that could move some heavy iron and turn heads at the local swimming hole.      He wrote prolifically for (primarily) IronMan magazine up until the early years of this century.   When I started writing for IronMan i...

  5 Tips to Turn an Easy Strength Program into a Mass Building Regimen      As regular readers know, I’m a fan of high-frequency training (HFT, for short).   In particular, I regularly promote easystrength and (what I call) easy muscle training programs.      Easy strength regimens are, you guessed it, strength programs, but ones built around frequent training, low reps, and fairly low volume in general.   I would argue that easy strength methods are hands down the most underutilized form of strength-building in the entire training world.      Easy muscle programs are similar to their easy strength cousins in that they utilize HFT but couple it with relatively low intensity (“intensity” here referring to how it’s utilized in strength training—as a % of one-rep max) and high reps.   Neither method of training is “hard”—in fact, you should always leave the gym feeling decidedly better than when you ...

       I read a lot.  And I re-read a lot of books that I like, especially in the fields that I’m particularly interested in, such as strength training, budo, and philosophy (of all types, Christian and pagan, western and eastern).  Today I was reading Pavel and Dan John’s book “Easy Strength.”  I’ve read this book a couple of times, but thought I’d return to it today, thinking it might give me some quotes I could include in my ongoing HFT series, when I came upon, well, this quote of Pavel’s: “There is nothing wrong with a split if you’re not using it as an excuse to have a bis and tris day.  Ben Johnson lifted six times a week: three for the upper body and three for the lower body.  He cut down to four days when felt the need to back off.  I like Charles Poliquin’s weekly strength plan for fighters: 5 days of lifting a week, only two exercises per workout.”      First, I don’t think it’s necessarily ...

  Part One of a "How to Get Strong On (fill-in-the-blank)" Series      Based on a whole slew—or, well, at least a handful—of emails that I’ve received in recent weeks, I thought it might be a good idea to do a series dealing with how to get strong on various lifts and exercises.  I don’t know how long or short this series will be.  It depends on how many exercises I end up covering, and if there’s interest from readers for additional tips about exercises I don’t cover at first.  So, hell, this thing could just be two articles or it could be five or six.  We’ll just wait and see.      Questions I receive regarding getting stronger on certain exercises come in, generally, two forms.  Some readers will ask about specific powerlifts or quick lifts; stuff such as how to get stronger on the bench press, the squat, the deadlift, the overhead press, the power clean, or some variation of those seem to be the most c...