C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

A Mass and Power Program for the Natural Lifter      This morning, I was reading some old muscle magazines—I have hundreds of them boxed in my attic—when I came across an article by Don “Ripper” Ross entitled, aptly for this essay, “Power Bodybuilding.”  I’m always looking for inspiration for new training programs, and this article gave the idea for the program you’re now reading.      Ross’s program was a 6-days-per-week routine where you trained chest and arms on days 1 and 4, back and shoulders on days 2 and 5, and, finally, legs on days 3 and 6.  I really like a lot of the training programs that Ross created—this one included—but I do think it had too much overall volume at each session for that many training days.  Each day contained between 8 and 10 exercises in his program.  Ross was the kind of guy that thrived on hard work and a lot of volume (oh, and a lot of anabolics).  This program keeps some of Ross’s principles—heavy training, multiple sets for each lift, low reps—and k

       I first tried using high-set, low-rep training sometime in the early to mid ‘90s.  At the time, I was bodybuilding and not powerlifting, and had just started writing for some of the major bodybuilding magazines, but I still had plenty to learn.  Don’t get me wrong.  I had done some low-rep training, especially for a few sets at the end of a workout, but I had never done low rep training exclusively using really high sets.  At one point, however, I read an arm training article by Greg Zulak, where he mentioned that it was beneficial to do 15 to 20 sets of 2 to 3 reps on occasion.  Now, to be honest, I can’t remember the exact article—I tried to find it in my attic full of old magazines while this essay was churning around in my mind, but to no avail.  Anyway, after reading it, my workout partner Dusty and I decided to see how that kind of workout felt.  We had been training at the time with a lot of sets, but also a lot of reps, so we were well conditioned to high-volume trainin

  An Eder-Inspired High-Set, Low-Rep Program      After writing my last essay on the great Marvin Eder, I thought more and more about his Olympic lifting program (which is featured in that essay).  Of all the programs that he did, and recommended to others, I think that program might be his most effective for lifters after a combination of raw power and muscle mass.  I also think for the average gym-goer, however, it would probably be a bit “too much.”  So with that in mind I created a sorta kinder, gentler version that will be more effective for the vast majority of readers.      I would encourage you to read my Eder article, but if you don’t, then just know this: Eder was fond of high-set, low-rep workouts, especially when training for Olympic lifting, but combined his lifting workouts with bodybuilding workouts to create—what we would probably now call—a “hybrid” system of training.  The program below uses this approach, but gives an extra arm-only workout session to allow you to re

A 6-Week HFT Program for Fixing Muscle Imbalances, Getting Stronger, and Feeling Your Best      Sometimes, the more a lifter trains, the worse he looks.  I say “he” for a reason.  You just don’t see this problem so much in women, but we’ll get around to that in just a little bit.  The problem, to put it quite simply, is imbalance.  If you spend the majority of your training time blasting your pecs and “bombing and blitzing” your biceps, you may, indeed, develop large, muscular, and even downright strong, pecs and biceps muscles, but at an expense.  Because if a lifter keeps this up, he will end up looking more like an ape than the well-developed towering mass of muscle that he wants.  Doubly so if he’s eating everything in sight.  His gut grows along with his chest and biceps, turning him into a mountain gorilla minus the strong back, traps, shoulders, and legs that I’m pretty sure all mountain gorillas probably have.  But it’s not just about not looking good.  Oh, he may look imbalan