Jack Lalanne - Life is a battlefield

Back-Off Sets and Extra Work for the Strength Athlete

Some Thoughts on How/When to Use Back-Off Sets, Add Extra Work, and Increase the Total Workload of Your Training The other day, I received an email from a reader who wanted to know my advice on back-off sets and how to use them. His question was based on the fact that he was having a hard time increasing the weight on his “top-end” sets using a standard 5x5 training model. This essay is partly an answer to that question but, in addition to that, I want to use it to discuss how (and when) you should not only do back-off sets but also when a lifter should add extra work, whether that additional training is at the end of a workout or in another workout altogether. The goal of all of this being, of course, greater strength on the core lifts, whatever those core lifts might be, whether you’re a powerlifter attempting to increase the three powerlifts, an Olympic lifter looking to increase your quick lifts, or just an “all-around” strength...

Tommy Kono’s Insights

Strength-Building and Mind-Power Secrets from the 20th Century’s Greatest Weightlifter/Bodybuilder I love old-school bodybuilders. If you’ve scoured this site, or have been a long-time reader, you’re probably aware of that. My most popular articles at Integral Strength are almost all “classic bodybuilding” pieces. Old-school bodybuilders—especially before the ‘70s—were a different breed. Like bodybuilders today, they trained for aesthetics and to have a pleasing physique, but they also trained for strength and power, for flexibility, on various “odd” lifts, and for all-around athleticism. They were, essentially, one part bodybuilder, one part weightlifter, and one part gymnast. But a few stood out above all others. One of those was, without a doubt, the great Tommy Kono. Superlatives such as “great” are heaped upon a lot of old-time lifters, but with Kono it’s no hyperbole....

Full-Body Big & Strong

A 3 Days Per Week, “Moderate Strength” Program for Size and Power Last week, I published a Q&A article based on a few questions that I had been asked in the preceding weeks. One of the questions asked was if it was possible to do an “easy strength” program just 3 days per week. I answered the question in the best way that I could—if you want to read my answer in full, then, well, read that article—but the more that I thought about it in the days since, the more I think that one of my answers might just be the way to set up a full-body program for 3 days per week of training. I suggested that it might work for a 3 day program if you simply bumped up your total volume to around 15 reps per lift. In this article, I want to outline in much more detail what this might look like and how you can use it to get the most out of a 3 day per week, full-body program. In many ways, this shouldn’t really be thou...

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Search This Blog