C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

       In my previous article, I presented a basic program, for building both mass and strength, that demonstrated how you can best utilize load cycling.  The premise is simple, but it’s the key to making consistent gains.  You start with a lighter load and do workouts where you are not taking any of your sets to failure, or approaching failure, really.  Then, you increase the load from week to week until you reach the point that you are approaching failure.  When you reach that point in the program, you back off again and repeat.  This method has been used by various strength athletes—powerlifters, Olympic lifters, and the like—for decades in order to produce consistent gains.      In this essay, I want to look at some varied ways to make this principle work.  We’ll also look at some different programs.      This principle is more important than most lifters realize.  It’...

  Use the Power Rack for Massive Gains in Size and Strength      In my last essay on “The Big 4,” one of the programs that I outlined was a power rack program inspired by Brooks Kubik’s “Dinosaur Training.”  I read that book sometime (I think) in ‘96, although it could have been ‘97.  The book was instrumental in my switch from training like a bodybuilder to training like a lifter.  In ‘98, I bought a power rack, an Olympic barbell set, and started training in my garage.  I have rarely stepped foot in a commercial gym since.      Although I found that some of the programs in that book didn’t work well for me, I wholeheartedly embraced the ideas Kubik espoused regarding power rack training.  And though I eventually went on to experiment, and often utilize, the training methods of Westside Barbell, and then the much more voluminous methods of lifting that came out of the countries of the former Soviet republi...