C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Read On and Learn One of THE Keys for Becoming Strong and Powerful      In multiple articles, essays, and training programs that I’ve created, I’ve repeatedly mentioned the concept “same but different.”  It’s one of the most important concepts if you plan on getting brutally strong on a lift, any lift.  It’s so simple that—like a lot of simple things—its power is often overlooked.  But if you want to achieve your physique goals—not just strength and power but hypertrophy, as well—you need to put the principle into practice.      A couple things are key for continually increasing your strength.  First, you need variety.  As I’m fond of saying, or writing about in this case, everything works… for about 8 weeks.  Somewhere around that 8 week mark, most lifters need to make some changes.  If you’ve been at this training thing for awhile, then you probably should make changes long before even 8 weeks...

  Partial Rep and Power Rack Training for Added Strength and Power Pointers, Tips, Programs      After some time spent under the bar, a lifter will often hit a wall when it comes to strength gains.  It can happen to any lift or to all of one’s lifts.  Oftentimes, the lifter will try new training programs, additional work, or less work.  Sometimes, they may attempt to alter their nutritional regimens, increasing calories and/or protein, all in a hope to get their strength moving again.  But one of the best techniques for increasing strength once more is the time-tested method of partial reps, often performed in the rack but also with the help of boards or blocks.  In this essay, I want to look at the various ways that partials can be utilized, especially for the three powerlifts, the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift, although it can be used for other lifts, such as overhead movements and even curls.     ...

  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, ...