Classic Bodybuilding Articles and Essays

Overtraining

Some Thoughts on Understanding and Avoiding Overtraining When it comes to the state commonly referred to as “overtraining,” opinions vary. They run quite the gamut, too. Some lifters are so bold as to declare “no such thing as overtraining exists.” On the polar opposite, flip side of that you have the typical “hardgainer” advice that more than just two workouts—hell, maybe more than just one hard session—per week will lead to “OVERTRAINING.” For some reason, the latter group typically capitalizes “overtraining.” I guess that’s to show the rest of us overtrainers just how scary of a subject it can be. The truth, of course, and you may have already surmised this, lies somewhere in between those two extremes. There are three areas , I believe, in which overtraining occurs. They overlap but are still particular enough that they each deserve their own mention. You can overtrain your movemen...

The High-Protein, High-Set Program

A.K.A. - How to Gain 40 Pounds of Bulk in 8 Weeks John McCallum’s High-Frequency, High-Volume Routine for Rapid Mass Gains In the 1960s, John McCallum wrote arguably the greatest monthly column the bodybuilding world has ever known. It was called “The Keys to Progress” and appeared in what was probably also the greatest muscle magazine of all time, Strength and Health . His column is still fantastic to this day. To be honest, it’s probably better today because of all the nonsense that you see, hear, or read about in the ultra-saturated world we all know and love called the internet. I wonder what the hell McCallum would think about training and nutrition information these days? I have a feeling he wouldn’t think highly of it at all. I thought about McCallum this morning when I was “thumbing” through my new digital copy of “The Complete Keys to Progress.” I have an older, slightly tatt...

The Top 10 Posts of 2024!

Now that 2024 is behind us, I thought I would do a "Top 10" post for the start of 2025. Many of you may be knee-deep at the moment in trying to achieve some of your New Year's resolutions - assuming you haven't quit already😏. Well, if getting big and/or strong is at the top of your list of resolutions, perhaps some of the following essays and articles from last year might help. The following were the top 10 most read posts from 2024: The Look of Power Size AND Strength: The Best Way to Train for Both Easy Muscle Classic Bodybuilding: How to Gain 50 Pounds of Muscle, Part One (and if you find Part One interesting, make sure you check out Parts Two and Three ) Long, Hard, or Frequent Training The High-Frequency Training Manifesto Old-School, Full-Body Mass Building Power Bodybuilding The Full-Body Big Barbell 5 Program And the #1 most read post... Marvin Eder's Mass-Building Methods

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

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