C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  One time world's strongest man, Doug Hepburn, used methods very similar to the ones listed in this article.      Years ago, as in the previous century, when the internet was in its inception, I wrote regular articles for most of the major bodybuilding magazines.  At the time, there wasn’t much good information available on the internet—oh, there were a couple of sites here and there, but even when you could access them, they could take as long as hours to upload; you know, “dial up”—and so most lifters still got their information from the monthly bodybuilding and powerlifting rags.      Before Facebook (or even MySpace), and the advent of other social media sites, the primary thing that the internet was used for was email.  I sent my articles to the different magazines via the “traditional” method of mailing them through actual mail, the post office.  And if any readers wanted to ask me a question before email was a “thing,” they had to actually write me a letter.  So I thought

     How to Start a High-Frequency, High-Volume, Low-Intensity Training Program for Building Muscle Mass The Godfather of Fitness, Jack LaLanne (seen here in his younger days), trained in almost the exact manner as the workouts below, albeit with quite a lot MORE volume.      This morning, after getting frustrated with a chapter of a book that I'm currently writing, I decided to check my email, see if I had any questions to answer from readers, and just generally get my mind on something else.  It was perfect timing.  I had just received an email from a reader who finished reading my last post on manipulating the three training variables , and was interested in starting a high-frequency training (we will simply refer to it as "HFT" for the remainder of this essay) regimen with the sole intent of building muscle mass, but really didn't know where to start.  Since I have a feeling that other readers may have similar questions—and since writing stuff other than my book(s

Forgotten or Never-Used Workouts for Muscle Size and Strength Several of the workouts below are just the sort that Bronze Era lifters, such as George Hackenschmidt, used to great success.      I've written a few articles or essays similar to this one in the past.  Years ago—as in the '90s —I wrote an article for IronMan magazine called "X-Factors" which was about workouts that were never  used by mainstream bodybuilders, rarer even than sightings of Bigfoot or other pseudo-scientific, supposedly-existing cryptids.  And about ten years ago, I wrote an article here on the blog entitled "The Best Leg Workout You've Never Tried."  I doubt many people have still  ever tried it.  (Hint: it involved bottom-position squats, deficit sumo deadlifts, and sled drags—combined together, which is brutally hard, so, yep, it probably still is the best leg workout you've never done.)      Which brings us around to  this  essay.  Collected here are a few different mass

  or How to REALLY Train, Eat, and Rest for Muscle Growth and Performance Bill Starr was a man who knew—and inspired—the information contained in much of this article. As of late, I have received more emails than I have in quite some time.  And most of them sorta, kinda—but not exactly, since I suppose it's almost human nature—surprised me.  Why?  Because most of them dealt with confusion in training.  Confusion about the proper diet, confusion about proper training (I'm 25 years old; should I follow your Ageless Bodybuilding program?), and even confusion over rest—a topic I just  covered in my essay on "Stillness, Rest, and Relaxation" for muscle growth.  Geez!  Initially, I didn't really respond to the questions other than tell the said questioners to, you know, actually search my blog for the topics they are interested in learning more about.  But this morning, I thought, what-the-hell, it's always a good time to discuss getting back-to-the-basics—in traini