C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  The "Original" Rapid Mass-Gaining Regimen A picture of a young Ken Leistner, one of the modern "popularizers" of 20-rep programs such as the one below.       When writing my “Old School is Still the Best… and Always Will Be” essay, I mentioned that I would begin to write regular programs on various old school training regimens.  And even though it wasn’t that long ago that I wrote about a 20-rep squat program (in a post a few months back on power rack training), and even though several of my articles/posts have mentioned 20-rep squat programs, I still thought that this would be the best program to begin any series on old-school muscle-building.      The 20-rep squat program is the original mass-builder.  Before steroids even came onto the scene, a couple of men named J.C. Hise—who first used the program to great success—and Mark Berry—who first wrote about the program—made this form of training the method for packing on muscle mass in a fashion never seen befor

  Part One: A Basic, Full-Body Power Rack Program  (Inspired by the Legendary Charles A. Smith) illustrations as they appeared in one of Smith's rack training articles for Muscle Power I keep a notebook on my person at all times to jot down ideas for articles and essays as they come to me.  My sons, of course, explain to me that I could make it easier if I just use a “notepad” on my cell phone.  But I won’t budge.  I’m pretty stubborn in that way, but it’s also because I don’t think we should be so quick to “throw out the old for the new.”  I bring this up for two points.  The first is that, looking through my notebook(s) of ideas, I realized that I haven’t written anything on “power rack training” in quite some time.  The 2nd is that you shouldn’t be so quick to get rid of “old” training ideas in favor of whatever “new-fangled” ones appear to work better; and, unfortunately, the lifting world seems to have forgotten some of the great exercises that can be done in the power rack. 

Revisiting the 20-Rep Squat Program Your 2014 Mass Gaining Protocol! “Trust me, if you do an honest 20 rep program, at some point Jesus will talk to you. On the last day of the program, he asked if he could work in.”- Mark Rippetoe      For many of you, it’s time to get started on your New Year’s resolution. [1]   And it could be that—for some of you, at least—your resolution is a simple one: to get as big and strong as possible in the shortest amount of time.  If that’s the case, then this article is written solely for you.      In years past, there was one routine, and one routine only, that was seen as the holy grail of mass-building protocols: the 20-rep squat program.  I first read about this program more than 20 years ago in the pages of Iron Man magazine, and then in the pages of Randall Strossen’s book “Super Squats”, which I devoured in one sitting upon receiving it in the mail.  But the nucleus of the program goes back almost 80 years ago, to the 1930s, when Mar