C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Can a Lifter Really Train Using Instinct Alone? My Slightly Rambling Thoughts on the Subject      Ever since I first picked up a bodybuilding magazine sometime in the mid to late ‘80s, I’ve read about so-called instinctive training.  Even then (as there are now) there were debates over whether or not one could train “instinctively.”  A lot of bodybuilders, once they became advanced enough, seemed to naturally incline toward instinctive training.  Vic Richards—perhaps bodybuilding’s first true “mass monster”—trained in what seemed to be an entirely haphazard manner, but he simply called it instinctive training.  He would show up at the gym, have absolutely nothing planned, then did whatever he thought felt “right” when he hit the weights.  On the opposite side of that, you had Mike Mentzer , and others who took a more “scientific” approach to training (or at least thought they did—there might be more science to what we call instinctive tr...

       Ken Waller is probably most well-known from the “documentary” Pumping Iron.  Although Pumping Iron primarily focused on Arnold’s rivalry with Ferrigno in the Mr. Olympia competition, the other main “story” of the pseudo-doc revolved around the rivalry of Waller and (fellow Mr. Universe competitor) Mike Katz.  Waller was sort of portrayed as the “villain” in the Universe competition to the more “All-American” Katz.  The problem is that the storyline was set up by the filmmakers, and none of it was actually true.  Katz and Waller were, in truth, actually good friends.      I still love Pumping Iron to this day, but I really wish I would have known that the Waller and Katz story was fabricated when I was a teenager.  Because before watching Pumping Iron, I liked Waller.  Afterwards, not so much.  Sometime in the late ‘90s, I discovered the truth (or “untruth,” I suppose) about Pumping Iron, and...

The Most Impactful Changes You Can Make to Your Training for More Size and/or Strength      I received a question from a reader yesterday, and, after responding to it, thought it would be good to share here, and, essentially, use my response for this essay.  So, the question from “Alan S.” goes something like this (edited slightly by yours truly): “I was wondering what the biggest ‘game changers’ are that you have used over the years?  By this, I mean what things have you added to your training that made the most improvements to your physique and your strength?  Or what things have you added to the programs of lifters you have trained that made the most difference in their size and strength?”  (Emphasis added is mine.)      At first, I thought about just rattling off to Alan what I call the “Big 4,” but I figured he had read enough of my programs and/or articles—his question was even more in-depth, but I removed any...