C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  How to Build Mass, Strength, and Power Without Squats Tips, Advice, and Programs      On October 20th, I posted a Q&A article with my answers to a few questions that I had received lately.  One of the questions asked: Could one design a strength-building, mass-gaining program without the use of squats?  The question came from the fact that I have, over and over throughout the years, pushed the squat as the king of all exercises.  On top of that, I have, in fact, written more than once that if you don’t do heavy squats, you can all but forget about building prodigious amounts of muscle mass and strength.  However, I also pointed out that I thought it is possible to build strength and power without the almighty squat if you include enough other big, compound lifts that work the entirety of the body, especially lifts that work the back and the legs.  This essay will include, in much more detail, what I think such programs sh...

      Doing a high rep set of squats or deadlifts with a heavy poundage is one of the toughest, most demanding, most painful, and most brutal things you can do.  It is a training principle that has built tons of muscle and it is a training principle that has been endorsed by many of the most knowledgeable and influential writers to ever grace the game.  Dr. Ken Leistner, Peary Rader, Dr. Randall J. Strossen, John McCallum, Mark Berry, Joe Hise, Arthur Jones, and Bradley J. Steiner all have written at length about the almost uncanny ability of heavy, high rep leg and back work to transform a bag of bones into a human gorilla. ~Brooks Kubik in Dinosaur Training (1996 ed.) Kevin Tolbert (adopted son of Ken Leistner and current head strength coach at Michigan) seen here in his younger days.  He was massively strong, and used the sort of workouts described here.      After my brief essay at the beginning of the month on a basi...