C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Learn the Training Methods and Workout Programs of the Silver Age Bodybuilders      What follows is, in many ways, nothing more than an extension of some of the subjects I have been discussing in recent articles, such as Part 3 of my ongoing Tailoring Your Workouts series, and my other essays on The Old-School Way , Effective Full-Body Training , and How to Train Through the Soreness . Enter Old-School      Old-school bodybuilders knew how to build muscle.  In many ways, I think the training methods and workout programs they utilized were a lot better than the routines of the modern bodybuilder.  I also realize that modern bodybuilders—many of whom have larger, sometimes much larger, muscles than their old-school counterparts—might scoff at such an idea.  After all, hasn’t training evolved in the last few decades?  Don’t modern bodybuilders know more about the “science” of hypertrophy than bodybuilders whose heyday...

A Strong-as-You-Look Bill Starr-Influenced, Old-School Strongman-Inspired Program for the Natural Bodybuilder/Lifter      Modern bodybuilding is certainly capable of producing hypertrophy.  The problem with it is that it often doesn’t produce the kind of muscle size that is as strong as it looks.  This program takes care of that problem.  If you want to build muscle that is also strong and powerful, then look no further.  This one is as good as they come.      This program combines, in one routine, many of my favorite methods. It utilizes heavy/light/medium training a la Bill Starr.  It uses load-cycling, where several training weeks move from lighter to heavier, then back off again.  And it also utilizes an old-school weight ladder method inspired by the legendary strongman Hermann Goerner that I have grown more fond of the more I use it.  Goerner called them “chains” where—unlike “rep ladders” in whi...