C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

A Unique Training Idea for Renewed Size and Strength Gains (Plus a Little Fun)      To make consistent gains in size and strength, you need two vital components.  You need to actually be on a training program but you also need one that has enough variety for continued progress.  I’ve always believed that this is the reason training programs, even though they might be diversely different, such as Westside Barbell and Bill Starr ’s heavy-light-medium program work so well.  They have a template that never changes—you can stick with that template for years on end—but one with a lot of variety inherently “built” into its system.      Many of your average gym-goers train the exact same way all the time.  When they train their chest, it’s always flat bench presses for 3 sets of 10 reps or maybe 5x5 if they’re interested in more strength, or whatever it is.  It’s pretty much the same thing for all of their other muscl...

Some Ideas for Training and Program Design Based on the Type of Lifter That You Are      The famous fantasy and science fiction author George R.R. Martin once said that he believed there are, basically, two kinds of writers in the world.  There are the architects.  And there are the gardeners.  Architects plan every point of their novel, memoir, essay, or article down to the finest details.  Like an architect building a house, they have a blueprint and know the layout of every room along with the wiring, piping, and whatnot of the building.  Gardeners plant a seed and then watch to see what grows.  They know to plant certain seeds—you don’t plant sunflower seeds if you’re attempting to grow tomatoes—but exactly what the shape of the plant will be, what the branches and flowers look like, is up to nature.  Of course, as Martin explained, rarely is anyone a pure type—an architect might have to change plans because the building i...

Some Thoughts and Ideas on Designing a Workout Plan Made for You      I’ve mentioned in other essays that what makes training so unique and ultimately rewarding—though also downright frustrating for many, though I ain’t one of ‘em and proud of it, despite “pride goeth before the fall” and all that—is that training itself is unique to you .  What builds muscle—sometimes a whole heapin’, heckuva lot of muscle—for one person in spades doesn’t do jack-squat for another lifter.  If that guy you know who grows huge arms with 2 heavy, super-intense sets and a workout that lasts a grand total of 15 minutes done twice per week attempted a high-volume, 15-20 sets per muscle regimen, he’d make near-zero gains.  But if my buddy Mac, who thrives off 25 sets per bodypart workouts, tried the Heavy Duty dude’s system, he’d shrivel up worse than Charles Atlas’s scrawny beach geek who got sand kicked in his face and his gal taken away from him by the muscle-bound j...

Musings on Lifting, Life, and the Reasons for Training (with a few workouts thrown in for good measure)      Why do you train?  It’s a question you must ask yourself and it’s a question that only you can answer.  To help you with the question, I can only tell you why I train.  But to do that, we have to go back to the past a little bit.  Why did I train?  What got me started in the first place?  What kept me going?  Why do I train now and why will I continue to train long into the future?      I started training when I was pretty young, around 13 years old.  It might have been 14.  I’m not really sure, though 13 sounds about right.  It would have been in ‘86 or ‘87, when my father bought me one of those cement-filled DP weight sets for either my birthday or Christmas.  I think it was my birthday, because I remember first training in the summer, and I was born in May.  My siste...