C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Grow Dragon-like Wings and Torch the Three-headed Monster by Jared Smith The Massive Back and Triceps of Dorian Yates I recall the first time I ever stepped foot in a gym. I saw a man—who would later become one of my mentors—standing in front of the mirror sporting a stringer tank, with a back that looked wide enough to project a movie upon, and thick enough to cushion a fall from a ten-story building.  From that point on, I knew that in order to really look powerful and “swole”, I had to pack on plenty of back beef!       In addition to having an impressive back, his triceps were monstrous. I had never seen someone standing relaxed that looked so impressive. I remember seeing the veins snaking up the long head of his triceps, and being in awe of the density they displayed. That image stuck with me—and has inspired me ever since: from the first set of barbell rows to the last set of skull crushers. Inspiration is great, but how do we sculpt such g...

Little Known Training Routines for Massively Muscled Arms   Arnold shows off his "guns" at their most massive!      The “x-factors” are those little-known training programs that not many people even know about, let alone actually do.   But for the bodybuilders who do perform these workouts, there can be little doubt: these are the best programs in existence, capable of transforming physiques, and turning proverbial 98-pound weaklings into the big boys of the beach.      For this installment of “x-factor” training, I thought I would turn my hypertrophy-inducing beacon of light on every bodybuilder’s favorite bodypart(s): the arms.   So if you’re prepared to go down the rabbit hole, to swallow Morpheus’s red pill and enter an arm-training world that you thought only existed on some quantum paradoxical alternate universe, read on.   (And prepare to put inches on your arms as never before.) Arm Traini...

PRIME time for sliced Hams and PUMPED quads! by Jared Smith How a person trains can tell you a lot about that person. There are always the guys and gals who only train the “beach” muscles and seldom pay attention to the really important things such as legs and back. You can also tell when someone has spent too much time doing the “more bang for your buck” movements without properly preparing themselves for it. I have fallen victim to the same thing in the past. I was so excited to get under the bar that I all but ignored the preparation aspect of training, and, after a while, I started feeling the effects. I have no intention of being that old man who still packs a little muscle, yet can hardly get off the toilet without the joints sounding like someone pouring milk over a bowl of Rice Crispies! There is a way to keep pounding at the king of all exercises while preserving your knees and hips—and I will show you how. If you have read the previous installments of Prim...

Control Your Calories, Your Macronutrients, and Your Training for an Awesomely "Ripped" Physique by Matthew Sloan Matthew Sloan displays the results of his hard work, both in the gym and in the kitchen.      This is a very important topic and it is important for one reason: millions of people set their goal to lose fat every year, and only a very small percentage succeed. Some people will say that these people are just lazy, but the simple fact is that the majority of people who fail to lose the fat have been misguided in the way to accomplish their goals. So I am going to attempt to enlighten you on the real way to lose fat and to lose it permanently .      Let me begin by saying that this is not the ONLY way to lose fat, but this is an effective way and many of these principles are necessary in any fat loss journey. The most important factor in losing fat is one thing, and one thing only, and that is calories . You must be expending mor...

C.S.'s note: The chest-training methods that Jared uses in this article are ones that he first laid out in his "Prime and Pump for Massive Muscle Growth" article a couple of posts back.  Do yourself a favor and read that one first, if you haven't yet done so, before proceeding to this new bodypart-centric piece.  If you read the article below without  having read the other one, you may be confused over some of the terminology Jared uses. Prime and Pump Training for a Silverback Set of Pecs and Animalistic Arms! by Jared Smith I’ve heard some say that a pump will limit one's ability to go heavy. This could not be further from the truth. Physics dictates that the more mass something has, the more power it will possess. I’m not saying to obliterate a muscle with insanely high reps before attempting to go heavy, but if you pump the muscles that support the lift, it will add “mass” via sarcoplasmic expansion which will lend itself to more strength. ...

     In the late '70s-early '80s,  Steve Davis became a well-known figure in the bodybuilding world.  He graced the cover of quite a few bodybuilding magazines due to his "classical" physique—he was by no means "massive" in the sense that we think of it today, but he had clean lines, and a well-proportioned physique.  But it wasn't necessarily his build that made him so popular, but, rather, the transformation that occurred in his body.      You can see Steve's rather impressive transformation on the cover of his popular book "Total Muscularity."      In addition to the above book, he also wrote a few others, but "Total Muscularity" remained the favorite among his readers.      When I took up serious  bodybuilding training in the early '90s, Davis wrote a monthly column for MuscleMag International  that, I'm afraid, was overlooked by many of its readers—I just never felt as if Steve got his jus...