C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

The 10 Most Common Mistakes Lifters Make When Building Strength, Power, and Muscle Mass      What follows are 10 of the most common mistakes that lifters make when trying to add muscle mass and build strength.   Fix these mistakes and your mass-building/strength-gaining plateaus will be a thing of the past.      In true countdown fashion, we’ll start with #10 before we make it down to the #1 mistake that the majority of trainees make—not to mention coaches. #10: Using a Percentage-based Training Program       For some of you, this may seem like an odd thing that I would pick as a mistake.   Especially considering the fact that the most-effective powerlifting program I ever used was (is) a percentage-based program: the training plans of Boris Sheiko.   But Sheiko is the exception, not the rule, and it’s not something you need to attempt until you have plenty of training under your belt. ...

     What follows is the original, "uncut" version of an article of mine that was published a few months ago in Planet Muscle magazine.  This is a form of training that I enjoy occasionally doing.  If you're the kind of lifter that actually enjoys more Crossfit-style training—as opposed to the more conventional training I typically recommend—this should be right up your alley. Strongman Muscle Using Strongman-style Training for Maximum Muscle Gains      Watch the “World’s Strongest Man” competition and you’ll see some of the most massively muscled men on the planet.  And they didn’t get that way by training like your average bodybuilder.  They got big, strong, and muscular by training on core lifts (squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, etc.) and utilizing a lot of odd lifts such as the farmer’s walk, log presses, sand-bag carries, and the tire flip—to name just a few.      Most of you reading thi...