C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Real Bodybuilding: A Squat Specialization Program for Huge Gains in Mass and Strength      “I started Marvin on weights a couple of years ago as a bet.   It was a mistake.   He got to like it.   Marvin’s training methods are as simple as he is.   He went from a skinny nut to a bulky nut in no time flat by squatting three times a week and eating everything that didn’t bite back.      “Marvin avoids work like the bubonic plague.   His only other recreation is the beach.   He walks around with his chest stuck out, eats hamburgers, and kicks sand in everyone’s face.” ~John McCallum        For natural lifters, very few programs are as effective as a squat specialization program for packing on mass fast .   The book “Super Squats: How to Gain 30 Pounds of Muscle in 6 Weeks” is a testament to this fact.   It has been a perennial bestseller since it was first published in 1989...

  How Classic Bodybuilders Gained Mass, Sculpted Their Physiques, and Achieved Fantastic Condition!          Ever since I first picked up a muscle magazine in the 1980s, I have loved the old-school, classic bodybuilders from the decades that came before me.   I realize that I’m old enough that even my training heyday of the ‘90s is now considered “old-school,” which, if I’m being entirely honest, seems quite odd to me.   However, when I think of old-school, I think of the “silver era” of bodybuilding (roughly the ‘40s and ‘50s) along with the “golden age” of bodybuilding (‘60s and ‘70s).      I still love those eras.   I love writing about those eras.   I love reading about those eras.   I love the training from those eras.      I think that the training wisdom from those bygone days of bodybuilding glory has a lot to offer the modern bodybuilder, especially the drug-free o...

  A.K.A. - How to Gain 40 Pounds of Bulk in 8 Weeks John McCallum’s High-Frequency, High-Volume Routine for Rapid Mass Gains      In the 1960s, John McCallum wrote arguably the greatest monthly column the bodybuilding world has ever known.  It was called “The Keys to Progress” and appeared in what was probably also the greatest muscle magazine of all time, Strength and Health .  His column is still fantastic to this day.  To be honest, it’s probably better today because of all the nonsense that you see, hear, or read about in the ultra-saturated world we all know and love called the internet.  I wonder what the hell McCallum would think about training and nutrition information these days?  I have a feeling he wouldn’t think highly of it at all.      I thought about McCallum this morning when I was “thumbing” through my new digital copy of “The Complete Keys to Progress.”  I have an older, slightly tatt...

       There really is nothing new under the bodybuilding, strength-gaining sun.  One of the proofs of that is John McCallum’s Definition Diet , which he wrote about in 1968 (at least, that’s where the information for this article comes from).  Actually, John McCallum himself is proof.  All you have to do is read his “The Complete Keys to Progress,” a compilation of his articles from Strength and Health that he wrote throughout the ‘60s, and discover that McCallum wrote about every single training theory, technique, program, or bodybuilding diet more than 50 years ago.  Randall J. Strossen—of “Super Squats” fame and the founder of IronMind Enterprises—said that if you were to only read one book, ever , on how to train, that book would be it.  I think he wrote that in the ‘90s, but I seriously doubt that he’s changed his opinion in 2024.      When I started bodybuilding in the ‘80s, I think it’s safe to say ...