C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Ageless Bodybuilding Part 2 A Basic “Break-In” Program Don Howorth and Vince Gironda.  Howorth, I believe, was in his 50s when this picture was taken! If you haven’t done so, read Part 1 before continuing to THIS article.  Without the first part, you may not understand just what-the-heck is going on here, and why in the world you are attempting such an “odd” workout-style in the first place!  It will also explain a very basic outline to my entire Ageless Bodybuilding System. Okay, now that you have read Part One , we can move on to THIS workout program. This Break-In program should be used by anyone who starts my Ageless Bodybuilding System.  I write this because I have a feeling IF everyone reading this had my complete Ageless Bodybuilding System at their fingertips—which, of course, will eventually be the case once I have written the entire damn thing on this blog—the majority of you would probably skip this first one because, well, it just seems too “b...

Are You on a Training Program or Are You Just Working Out? Programming and the Importance of Routine Vince Gironda, poolside in the 1950s, the inspiration for this post. The title of this blog post comes from a quote from the legendary "Iron Guru" Vince Gironda, who would often extol, "Are you on a training program or just working out?"  Gironda knew that one of the most important facets of training - maybe the most important factor - was consistency, and the only way to be consistent is to be on a program. Programs.  Routines.  Schedules. The three words are thrown around almost interchangeably when it comes to workout programs, since we often refer to them as workout "routines" or workout "schedules," as well.  When it comes to "programming" - I mean exactly this usage.  When it comes to "routine" I mean it here as your daily schedule , the daily routine of your life  that is necessary for the program you are using to proper...

For Fast Muscle-Building Results At first, I was going to write this as one "big-as-hell" article the same as my one from last week on old-school arm training.  However, I thought this might work best as a sort of semi-regular series on various "little known" or "secret" muscle-building tips and techniques for easy  mass-gaining.  Besides, it was getting kind of long as it is.  Introduction out of the way, I hope you enjoy... The "Iron Guru" Vince Gironda, seen here in his competitive days, was the inspiration for this article.  Gironda had more knowledge of "secret" muscle-building tips and tricks than just about any trainer before or since.   In many of my posts and articles, I often lament the fact that many lifters (and I use that word loosely here) seem to prefer over-complicated and easy instead of simple but hard  training programs.  I suppose nutrition would fit the bill, too.  But in the case of diets, I think more people are ...

     For the last few days, I've been working on a post/article on the original Muscle Beach Iron Guru Vince Gironda. That piece will be much more extensive than this one, but it will also be largely about his training principles, revolutionary as they were at the time Gironda unleashed them upon the bodybuilding world. But in rummaging/scouring through old Ironman and MuscleMag International articles, I came across an article in the October '95 Ironman where Gironda listed his weight-gaining suggestions. Gironda at his peak      Gironda had so many innovative - not to mention downright cool sometimes - training ideas that it would be almost impossible to discuss them in one article, but I will discuss a couple of other additional nutrition ideas he had at the end of this post. But first, the tips! Here they are*:Drink water during your workout. Drink at least one pint after each muscle group worked, but dont' drink out of a fountain, because you swall...

Here's an article that I wrote around 10 years ago for IronMan Magazine .  At one time, I had a link to the original article on IronMan's  website, but that link doesn't work anymore, so I removed the old post.  But, anyway, here's the article in its entirety: Dorian Yates performed some pretty "insane" workouts in his day. Mass Insanity Stuck in a rut?  Need something different from the run-of-the-mill training program you've been doing for the past several months?  Sometimes in order to keep the gains coming -- or to bust out of the rut you're stuck in -- you have to get a little crazy. Enter mass insanity .  On the following pages, I'm going to outline several training programs that I guarantee you haven't been doing lately. In fact, it could be that you've never attempted -- or even thought of attempting them.   I'm including four different plans. Variety is a crucial component of making continuous ga...