C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

      I have not been able to write quite as much on the blog as usual of late.  I also write full-time for a media company, and sometimes it causes me to get a little behind in the stuff that I really love to write about; hardcore strength and power, traditional budo, etc.  Anyway, I should have some more "regular" articles published here in the next couple weeks, and, until then, I thought it would be good to do another "Thursday Throwback."      This is an article I wrote for Planet Muscle  around ten years ago.  I think it's a good article, and, in fact, I thought it would be more popular than it was/is.  You can find quite a bit of my training programs out there on the internet - my "high-frequency focus training" is rather popular, for instance - but you don't see this program anywhere.  Credit Jeff Everson - who I miss dearly every time I think of my time writing for PM - for running a lot of my programs in the pages of his rag.  Believe it

   The following is an article of mine that first appeared in the July/August 2013 issue of Planet Muscle  magazine .  I thought this would be a good "Thursday Throwback" piece since I just mentioned Bulgarian-style training in my recent essay "4 Tips for Serious Lifters" where I presented some ideas of strength coach Nick Horton - a proponent of the "Bulgarian method" - who said "overtraining doesn't exist."  Whether you agree with that statement or not, you shouldn't really argue against it, or for it, unless you have at least attempted the sort of training that Horton was discussing.      (With regards to the defunct Planet Muscle , in the future I would also like to do a piece on its founder and editor, Jeff Everson, who died suddenly in 2019 at the age of 68.  Everson and I became friends over the course of me working for him.  And I miss my friend.)      On with our Throwback: Iconic picture of the iconic weightlifter Anatoly Pisare

     This is a little belated—should have done it a couple of weeks ago—but my latest article is out in Planet Muscle magazine (October, 2013).  It is on "strongman-style" training, replete with a few weeks of workouts to get you started if you want to begin such a thing.      Here I am—in my study, semi-naked as usual when writing or engaging in creative endeavors—holding up the cover:      And here is what the article looks like inside the magazine:      To whet your appetite just a little bit more, here's a brief excerpt:      Most of you reading this will probably never compete in a strongman competition, but the kind of lifting they utilize can be a great way of training for any bodybuilder looking to pack on some muscle mass.      The program presented here allows you to train as if you were preparing for—or even competing in—a strongman competition.  First, I am going to lay out the parameters of the program.  Second, I will discuss the benefits of

Here's another "redux" of an article I wrote a couple years ago for Planet Muscle magazine.  (For even more of my articles for them, check out their new, "upgraded" website.) Enjoy... The New Hypertrophy Program Constructing A New Breed of Mass-Building Workouts      Based on some of the latest “innovations” in mass-building workouts, and what I have learned over years of training powerlifters and other strength athletes, what follows are the “keys” that I believe unleash the most potential for both building muscle mass and inducing strength and power at the same time.  These are the ground rules—the secrets if you will—that unlock the sacred door of muscle growth.  While these keys aren’t set in stone (bodybuilding rules—like all rules—were made to be broken, after all) they represent what I would call the best parameters now available.  Strap on your mass-inducing engine—its time for some serious muscle growth. Key #1: Full Body Training