C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

      Doing a high rep set of squats or deadlifts with a heavy poundage is one of the toughest, most demanding, most painful, and most brutal things you can do.  It is a training principle that has built tons of muscle and it is a training principle that has been endorsed by many of the most knowledgeable and influential writers to ever grace the game.  Dr. Ken Leistner, Peary Rader, Dr. Randall J. Strossen, John McCallum, Mark Berry, Joe Hise, Arthur Jones, and Bradley J. Steiner all have written at length about the almost uncanny ability of heavy, high rep leg and back work to transform a bag of bones into a human gorilla. ~Brooks Kubik in Dinosaur Training (1996 ed.) Kevin Tolbert (adopted son of Ken Leistner and current head strength coach at Michigan) seen here in his younger days.  He was massively strong, and used the sort of workouts described here.      After my brief essay at the beginning of the month on a basic 20-rep squat program, I thought I would return to the same sub

     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

Massively High-Rep Training for Massively Built Muscles (AKA: An Homage to the Late Dr. Ken Leistner)     Around five or six years ago, I was training with a good friend of mine.  Even though he and I are good friends, we rarely trained together (and still don’t) due to the simple fact that he never liked to train legs or back muscles very hard, and, unfortunately, preferred a lot more training on the “showy” bodyparts of the chest and biceps.  And, while I’m not against a nice “pump” workout for the pecs and the arms, I’m primarily going to train my legs and my back hard, even if it’s at the expense of other muscle groups.     And even though my friend could out-bench press me by a couple hundred pounds, I could easily (at least at one time) out-squat or out-deadlift my friend by 300 pounds on each lift!     That’s just sad in my book.     Now, even though my friend knew that I liked to train my back and my legs with plenty of intensity (“intensity” in this case refe