C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Classic Bodybuilding:  Don “The Ripper” Ross’s Mass-Building Routine for Stubborn Calves Don "The Ripper" Ross in competition shape.      I have never had good calf development.  My calves were always stubborn and the hardest body part for me to grow.      Those two opening sentences are completely true for my personal calf development.  But I also think they’re the truth for a lot of lifters and bodybuilders; there are probably an endless sea of trainees who have uttered the very same words.  In fact, there have been a lot of bodybuilders in general that have had an almost stellar physique in every way but with one lone exception : they had poor calf development.      When I first started bodybuilding, there was nothing that would make my calves grow.  I would have swore to you up-and-down at the time that I had tried everything to make them grow, too, but they just didn’t seem to budge.  My legs grew.  My chest grew.  My back grew easily .  My arms grew—they were stubbo

      I am currently working on some writing projects that are still keeping me away from the blog.  I hope to get back to more regular writing in a week or two.  Until then, I thought today - being Thursday and all - would be a good time for another "Throwback" article.      This was published in 2003 in IronMan Magazine .   I actually got some "hate" from disgruntled readers after it was published, probably dealing with the fact that it doesn't paint "bodybuilding" in a very good light from a strictly "strength and power" perspective.  Since I wrote this over 20 years ago, I would probably change at least a couple of points if I was to re-write it, and I would change some of the "terminology" to fit in with recent advances in strength training.  Also, reading it again made me realize that I write better now than I did then (and not so hyperbolically), but I decided to just re-post it as originally written.  This way, it also gives

  The Look of Power Tips for Developing Mass that “Stands Out” from the Crowd Tim Belknap - seen here on a 1982 cover of IronMan  - definitely had the "look of power."       “When you see an individual who has built his or her muscle mass to an advanced degree, and has done it with basic, heavy exercises, they have a certain look about them.  It is hard to describe in words, yet everyone knows it when they see it.  Extremely developed bodybuilders, however, often lack this ‘look,’ despite having a high level of muscle tissue, and having perhaps very large muscular measurements.  Still, they look, as my younger brother once noted, ‘like a bunch of body parts strewn together.’  One who has predominantly utilized the ‘basics,’ and is capable of using relatively heavy weights for moderately high repetitions, looks powerful and strong.  Again, it is an almost undefinable, yet undeniable truth.”           ~Ken Leistner (in a March, 1987 issue of “The Steel Tip”)      If you want to