C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

AKA: The 90% Rule for Mass and Power Some Thoughts and Programs on “Skill Training” as a Method for Gaining Size and Strength      In my recent essay “Heavy and High,” I suggested that the key to gaining mass for the natural bodybuilder lies in the ability to do programs that utilize both heavy weights and a high workload.  When a lot of modern bodybuilders think about training for hypertrophy, they largely think along the lines of training hard and then coupling this with plenty of rest and recovery.  Almost every program you encounter—whether you read about them, watch a YouTube video discussing it, or have a casual conversation about them with a fellow gym-goer—revolves around the balance of “intensity” with rest days after workouts.  The harder, or more , you train then the more you should rest.  I’m not denying here that workouts do, and should , involve those considerations, but I prefer lifters to think in terms of workload and work ...

    Heavy/Light/Medium Training Part 5: An H/L/M Miscellany – On Variation and Advanced Options      This is the 5 th part of our ongoing series on heavy, light, and medium training based on the coaching of the (always) great strength writer extraordinaire Bill Starr.   If you haven’t done so, then please read the other parts before reading this.   If you don’t read them, then the rest of this essay may be a bit confusing—unless, of course, you are already familiar with Starr’s methodology, in which case you can just jump right in here.   When I presented parts 2 through 4, I mentioned that you at least needed to have read part 1 before reading any of those, though it wasn’t necessary to read the other parts aside from the 1st.   With this essay, it’s good to read part 1 and be familiar with the other parts.   This article will discuss bits from all of the previous installments and assumes a working knowledge of those pieces. ...

  Heavy/Light/Medium Training Part 4: Building a Massive Back and Monstrous Pulling Strength      This is the 4 th part of our ongoing series on heavy, light, and medium training inspired by the methods of one of the greatest strength coaches to ever walk the planet, Bill Starr.   Once this series is finished, I hope that it will include everything one needs to know in order to train using this methodology.   If you haven’t done so already, or if this is the first article in the series that you’ve stumbled across, please take your time to read the other articles.   At the very least, you need to read the first part before continuing here.   It lays the foundation that the other articles are based upon, and the rest of the articles assume a working knowledge of that one.   So, here’s the links to the past essays in this series: Part One: How to design an H/L/M program Part Two: Upper body training Part Three: How to build a mas...