C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Bodyweight Training and More for Upper Body Size and Strength      You don’t need much equipment to build a good physique.  A lot of trainees spend all their time at the gym doing endless bench press exercises with barbells and dumbbells along with an assorted array of machine movements for their chest, shoulders, and triceps.  Most gym-goers could get equally good results, and perhaps even better gains, with little other than dips and push-ups, however.  Push-ups seem so “basic” that many think there isn’t much use for them once one gets past the beginner stage or has access to “better” exercises.  But they still work as well as about anything.  And old-school bodybuilders and lifters from yesteryear often called dips the “upper body squat” for a reason.  Dips can produce big-time upper body gains.      Dips and push-ups have been around for a long time.  Well over a thousand years ago, Roman and Gre...

An Essay on HFT Ideas for Achieving Your Physique Goals      In my recent article High-Volume, High-Frequency Workouts for Quick Mass Gains , I outlined a training routine that uses high volume as the primary training variable with high frequency the 2nd.  For anyone who likes to train with a lot of volume and particularly loves getting a “pump” while training, I would suggest giving that regimen a chance, especially if you’re new to training with both high volume and frequency and aren’t quite sure where to even start with high-frequency training (HFT).  In this essay, however, I want to present some different ideas for other ways that you might utilize HFT, notably if you like the idea of experimenting with new and/or different training strategies that you haven’t utilized before.  If you’re new to training, you probably need to get on a more detailed, regimented program, one where you don’t have to put a whole lot of thought into your workout...