C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

       I received a question the other day via email.   It was succinct and to the point—and, when first received, I thought a bit generic.   “What’s the easiest way to gain mass fast?”   I get quite a bit of questions, and they are usually more in depth.   Most of them, truth be told, are the opposite of this question.   I find that a good many lifters have too many questions, usually because they overthink things too much or they are somehow searching for the “perfect” workout program (which doesn’t exist, by the way).   In the case of this questioner, I responded with a small litany of “the usual” advice for someone in need of quick mass gains: full-body workouts, compound movements, high-frequency training, the “big 4,” plenty of calories, lots of protein… yada, yada, yada.      Then last night, while I was watching one of those cozy little British murder mysteries on PBS and trying my absolute best to not...

High-Frequency Training Parameters and Programming Ideas      Yesterday, I was sitting in my garage gym—pen and paper in hand as I jotted down some different article ideas—watching my son Garrett go through a lower body session when I told him the title for this article.   I thought “Train Easy, Repeat Often” was a pretty good title.   I originally intended it to simply be the title for a workout program.      Then Garrett said, “Okay, but how easy and how often?”      I stroked my beard as I began to mull over his question and the wheels began turning in my mind.   “Good point,” I replied.   “Maybe that’s what the article should be about.   I could still outline some workout programs, but I could mainly just explain how much you should train based on how frequent you want to lift.”      Garrett gave me a thumbs up, then returned to his sumo deficit deadlifts.   I doubt ...