C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  The Power/Mass Methods of the “Silver Era” Bodybuilders from the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s!      Years ago, I wrote an article for IronMan magazine entitled “Attack of the Old-Time Strength and Power Routines” which included several programs that were, at least somewhat, based on the training programs of many of the bodybuilders from the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s.  The title, of course, was an homage to the B monster and sci-fi movies of the ‘40s and the ‘50s.  This article’s title is, as you may have already surmised, also an homage to that era of awesome B movies that I loved as a kid, and pretty much still love to this day.  So - assuming you read the “Attack” article, as well - you can look at this as the second presentation in our double-feature from the Silver Era of bodybuilding.      We’ll look at a couple of programs that were used by the old-school lifters of this era, and ways that these training routines can work for you .  The first program is a “basic” program - but don’t let t

Reg Park - seen here in his 50s - built ALL of his muscle by keeping it simple! What follows might be slightly rambling (hey, it’s my blog so I can ramble however much I want).  So… I sat down at my computer this morning to crank out - or at least attempt to crank out - my second installment on “Sets and Reps”, a follow-up to my “Frequency” Fundamentals post from a few months ago, when I said to myself, “ya’ know, CS” (I always talk to myself in my mind in the third person for some damn reason) “I think you jumped the gun a little bit.  Maybe you need to just tell everyone to keep it simple, and stop trying to be so complex, before you get into the varying nuances of sets and reps .” Now, why did I tell myself this?  A couple of reasons. First, it started with a co-worker of mine who wanted to know about “sets and reps” himself.  He has been going to the gym for several months, and, of course, not making the best progress because he has been attempting to “go it alone” instead of liste

 When I first began working on this series, I was going to title it "Back-to-Basics".  However, I've had a change of heart.  From henceforth (man, that sounds official), this series will be titled "Fundamentals" in an homage to the great Bradley Steiner, who penned a column of the same name for Ironman Magazine  for a few decades beginning in the '70s. Bradley Steiner is seen here on the cover of one of his training booklets Steiner preached no-nonsense, sane, sensible training - almost ALWAYS full-body, 3-days-per-week workouts.  The man had a profound effect upon me through all of his many articles, not just as a lifter but as a writer and trainer. Everything in the rest of this series will follow his sane, sensible, no-nonsense theory of training. In the first post, I discussed workout frequency.  If you haven't done so, read that one first.  This one will build upon that one. Okay, now, before we get into the specifics  of the sets and reps that I