C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Reimagining a Classic Bodybuilding Method for Strength and Power      When I first started lifting—not to mention reading bodybuilding magazines—in the mid to late ‘80s, most bodybuilders trained the same way.  By and large, although there were exceptions, mind you, so I don’t mean this as an entirely blanket statement, the majority of bodybuilders trained on either a 6-on, 1-off split, or a 3-on, 1-off split.  The body was split 3 ways.  Typically, one followed either a push (chest, shoulders, triceps)/pull (back and biceps)/legs split or an “antagonistic” split where you trained your chest and back one day, your shoulders, bis and tris the 2nd day, and, finally, your legs on the 3rd day.      Although this seems as if it’s a lot of volume, especially if you’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid of “high-intensity” training, it was actually less work than bodybuilders from previous eras.  Arnold, for instance, trained on a 6-on, 1-off split, but he trained each muscle group three times per w

       When a lot of lifters or bodybuilders first take up “briefer-is-better” workout programs such as H.I.T., the “Heavy Duty” programs of Mike Mentzer, or the strength-oriented training programs of Dr. Ken Leistner, they are often surprised at how much hypertrophy or strength gains they make in such a relatively short period of time.  This is especially true if they've been “killing it” in the gym beforehand with much more voluminous, frequent training programs.  But then the gains stop, and the lifter just can’t quite figure out what went wrong.      One problem—and this might just be the problem that plagues the average gym-goer—is the thinking that it is the workout that produces results.  I often refer to this as the erroneous belief of letting the means (the workouts themselves) justify the ends (the results seeking to be obtained) .  You see this approach in things such as “cardio classes” or “workouts-of-the-day” in Crossfit.  But that is the opposite approach of what

A Double-Split Program for Weekend Strength Warriors      A good portion of the material I write on my blog is precipitated by questions I receive in emails.  Of course, a lot of the questions that I get have been covered in my various essays and articles, so I don’t write additional material about those questions.  This morning, however, I received a question that I thought might deserve its own essay since there might be other readers in a similar situation.  To paraphrase, the questioner asked me if it would be a good idea to use a “double-split” (where you train twice in one day) on the weekends since he has plenty of time to train on Saturday and Sunday but little time for training during the week.  His plan is to get 4 training sessions in on the weekend, then try to fit one more workout in during the week.  After a few emails back and forth to understand his training history, I told him that, yes, I do think it’s a good idea, especially if he can get one full-body workout in the