C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  5 Tips to Turn an Easy Strength Program into a Mass Building Regimen      As regular readers know, I’m a fan of high-frequency training (HFT, for short).   In particular, I regularly promote easystrength and (what I call) easy muscle training programs.      Easy strength regimens are, you guessed it, strength programs, but ones built around frequent training, low reps, and fairly low volume in general.   I would argue that easy strength methods are hands down the most underutilized form of strength-building in the entire training world.      Easy muscle programs are similar to their easy strength cousins in that they utilize HFT but couple it with relatively low intensity (“intensity” here referring to how it’s utilized in strength training—as a % of one-rep max) and high reps.   Neither method of training is “hard”—in fact, you should always leave the gym feeling decidedly better than when you ...

  Some Slightly Rambling Thoughts, Musings, and Reflections on How One Should Train (and How I Train)      The other day I received a question from a reader who asked how I really train.  He said that, since I write about a lot of different training methods, he wanted to know how I actually trained.  He wanted to know this because he was confused about how he should train.  He said that he read a lot of the articles here on the blog, but he was confused because I seemed to recommend so many different training methods, and it left him a little bit bewildered and conflicted over the correct training methods for him—those weren’t his exact words, but I’m just paraphrasing in my own vernacular.      I have received questions such as this one before.  I even wrote an article over ten years ago entitled “My Training Philosophy” because of the confusion about the various lifting methodologies I recommend, but I figure...

  Some “Easy Strength” Methods, Tips, and Ideas for Easy Fat Loss      I have written a lot—and will continue to write a lot—about high-frequency training .  I have sort of an ever ongoing series, in fact, dealing with different ways to use and incorporate HFT based on your goals and needs.  In this essay, I want to discuss some ways that you can use HFT for fat loss.      I believe that a lot of lifters, and regular gym-goers in general, don’t achieve their fat loss goals because they train too hard and they diet too strictly.  That might seem as if it’s an odd statement at first.  After all, do we not get the best results when we are regimented and serious about our training and eating?  In some ways maybe, but not so fast.  When you eat very little and train with a lot of intensity—even if it’s just “intense” cardio—you quickly burn out, you don’t feel good, and you don’t stick with it.  You may...