C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

       The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book, currently titled "The Book of Old-School Bodybuilding Methods."  (It's my tentative title, so it could change.)  This is the chapter on Pat Casey.  It's a revision of a much earlier article that I posted in 2017.  I am posting this excerpt for a couple of reasons.  One, obviously, is to drum up interest in my new book.  The second is to demonstrate how different this one is from the earlier article.  Although most of the chapters in my book are revisions of articles I have already written for the blog, I have added a good bit to each one, and revised them so that they are, I believe, MUCH better than what I originally wrote, meaning that I think you will want to purchase the book even if I have articles already available on most of the book's subjects.      With that out of the way, here is Chapter 11 of my upcoming book: Pat Casey, King of the Powerlifters... ...

Q: Hey, Sloan.  In your last essay on “the rule of 3,” you showed the current 3-way split that you are using.  Why do you train chest, back, and shoulders on one of the days and biceps and triceps alone on another?  Why not use a push/pull/legs split or chest/back on one day and shoulders/bis/tris on another?  It just seems like an odd choice, but I guess you have your reasons? A: Yes, I do have my reasons.  For one, and this would only apply to anyone else in my “predicament,” I have a well-developed chest, a large back, and good shoulders but my arms have always been my biggest weak area.  I have long, ape-like arms with a very wide and broad back.  I could stop training entirely and my back would still be big.  So, for me, it makes sense.  My lats will even grow from training my chest.  For instance, when I was a kid and was training in martial arts before I ever picked up a barbell, we would do a lot of push-ups to begin class—regula...