C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

How and Why Planned “Overtraining” is a Key to More Size and Strength      At some point, “overtraining” became a bad word in the world of strength training and muscle building.  Basically, or so the thinking goes, one of the keys to making continuous progress is ensuring that you never overtrain.  Many of the greatest strength athletes, not to mention strength coaches, of all time, however, thought that not only is overtraining not bad, but that it’s also a necessity once the lifter reaches a certain level.      My original strength mentor was the late and great strength coach Bill Starr.  Starr wrote several articles on the need for overtraining.  He believed that, in order to make continuous progress, you must do “too much” for a certain period of time—the so-called “overtraining” period—before backing off after that.  It was during this “de-load” period when the athlete makes the most gains, but those gain...

A Simple Method for Quick Muscle (and Strength) Gains      When it comes to building muscle, especially for the natural lifter, I don’t think anything “beats” high-frequency training (HFT).  It works whether you want to use high reps or low reps, whether you’re after strength or hypertrophy or if you’re seeking a combination of both.  If there’s an “issue” with it, it’s the fact that you can’t generally do a lot of work for one muscle group.  I’ve had conversations with lifters—whether in person or through the internet—who have told me that HFT, no doubt, works but that they missed doing more volume for their muscles.  These are typically bodybuilders who really enjoy pump training and the feeling of completely congesting a muscle (or muscle groups) with a lot of sets for a massive pump.  I understand.  After all, in the pseudo-documentary “Pumping Iron,” Arnold even compared the pleasure of “da pump” to the pleasure of good sex. ...