Classic Bodybuilding Articles and Essays

Marvin Eder’s Mass-Building Methods

The Many and Varied Mass-Building Methods of Power Bodybuilding’s G.O.A.T. Eder as he appeared in my article "Full Body Workouts" for IronMan magazine. In many ways, the essay you are now reading is the one that has had the “longest time coming.” I have no clue why it has taken me this long to write an article specifically on Marvin Eder, especially considering the fact that I have long considered him the greatest bodybuilder cum strength athlete of all friggin’ time . In fact, over 20 years ago, I wrote this in the pages of IronMan magazine: In my opinion, the greatest all-around bodybuilder, powerlifter and strength athlete ever to walk the planet, Eder had 19-inch arms at a bodyweight of 198. He could bench 510, squat 550 for 10 reps and do a barbell press with 365. He was reported to have achieved the amazing feat of cranking out 1,000 dips in only 17 minutes. Imagine doing a dip a second for 17 minutes. As Gene Mozee once put ...

Easy Strength Meets Easy Muscle

A Hybrid High-Frequency Training Program for a Combination of Size and Strength For more than 20 years, I have preached the benefits of high-frequency training (HFT) programs. First in the pages of some of the major bodybuilding magazines, such as IronMan magazine and Planet Muscle , and then on the blog when I started it in 2009. For the most part, the training I recommended was for strength first, with size, if it occurred, as more of a side-effect of the strength and power training. And for more than a decade, one of my favorite ways to use HFT is through so-called easy strength methods. However, I have in the last couple years proposed the theory of using an “easy muscle” approach, where you largely keep the “tenets” of easy strength but do it for higher repetitions, with the sole goal of hypertrophy. I’m not alone in thinking that this might be a good method for many seeking gains in muscle mass....

The Big and Strong Series - Legs and Back

The High-Set, Low-Rep Training Manifesto Part 1: Training the Legs and Back In several of my recent essays and articles, I have discussed various HFT methods, most of them using higher volume. Starting with this article, I’m now going to turn my attention to a series of essays on (what I believe to be) the most effective method for attaining a combination of muscle mass and serious strength: workouts that combine high sets with (relatively) low reps. I’m going to do a series for one primary reason—different lifts/muscle groups should be trained in different ways. I will cover legs and back (this one), shoulders (overhead press training), chest and lats, and arm training. Each of those are best developed when trained a little bit different from one another. So, we will have 4 parts, with, perhaps, some additional essays on how to bring the 4 together into a cohesive, holistic strength program or on anything else that come...

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Search This Blog