C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Thoughts on Training to Failure, the “Everything Moderate” Approach to Lifting, and Some “Easy” Size and Strength Programs      When it comes to achieving goals, winning in competitions, or being our very best in whatever domain, “winners” often take the view that “failure is not an option.”  But when it comes to building muscle, a lot of bodybuilders, personal trainers, and now “fitness influencers” take the view that failure—or training to complete momentary muscular failure—is the best, or even only, option for surefire hypertrophy gains.  This view isn’t anything new.  When I first started reading bodybuilding magazines back in the 1980s, the debate was already swirling around whether or not bodybuilders should train to total muscular failure on their sets.  Some—the most obvious being Arthur Jones and then later Mike Mentzer—believed that you should only train to failure, using minimal sets for each muscle.  Others, such as Bill Pe...

In Autumn When the Leaves Fall, the Sandbag is Carried, and the Thick Bars are Taken Outside      With fall upon us—though it doesn’t feel particularly fall-like here in west-central Alabama, where I live on a few acres down a little-traveled gravel road—I thought I’d return to an essay that I wrote three years ago, and originally titled “Outdoor Lifting in the Fall.”  Initially, I thought I’d just repost it as a “Thursday Throwback” piece, since I haven’t posted one of those in quite some time.  As I was reading over it, however, I realized that it could be fleshed out even more, so I’ve added additional, brand-new workouts, and I combined the original article with another fall training essay on outdoor training challenges that I wrote a couple years ago, about a year after the first one.  Perhaps it will give you some ideas for your autumn training…        “What should be sad in the falling of spent leaves, of leav...

  Gain Size and Strength Using a Modified Russian Powerlifting Program Question: After reading some of your articles, I’m interested in using a “Russian style” powerlifting program—high volume with sub-maximal effort training—for increasing my powerlifts but also gaining muscle mass.  You wrote that the “problem” with Sheiko training was that you had to stop because you were gaining too much muscle without trying to.  That’s a “problem” I would like to have.  But my question is this: Because of work and other obligations, I have trouble making it to the gym more than 3 days a week.  Can I make significant progress in both size and strength by training just 3 days weekly?  I noticed that there is a 3-day Sheiko program, for example, and I wondered if you would recommend it or if you have another 3-day program that you think would be good instead?       I received the above question a few days ago from a reader.  After sending h...