C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Turn up the Volume for More Size and Strength      Okay.  Yeah.  I know.  If you’ve read even a smattering of my articles or essays, you’ve probably seen me say that squatting is king.  Well, it is.  If you give it your all on squats—whether it’s back squats or front squats, barbell squats, kettlebell squats, or just your bodyweight, really high-repetition squats or heavy-as-heck, low-rep squats—you will make gains.  In fact, if you’re not going to squat, you might as well hang it up as far as gains are concerned.  No squats.  No gains.  It’s that simple.  (Okay, I did write THIS article on how to make gains without squatting, but that aside…)  But let’s just go ahead and assume that squats are mandatory.  Because the truth is also this: You can squat and not make any gains if you’re on a crappy program where you train infrequently or just do random “whatever” workouts.     ...

Training Ideas and Workout Plans for Power and Mass      I think one of the best methods for your workouts, no matter your goals, is rest-pause training.  Although when it is used, it’s done so by bodybuilders more than strength athletes, it can also be a valuable lifting tool for those seeking strength above all else.  In this article, I’ll offer some different workout ideas using rest-pause training and some ways to incorporate the ideas into different programs.      Rest-pause training, in my view, is great because it allows you to use “density” workouts, where you can get an incredible amount of work within a short period of time.  Remember, the more work that you are capable of doing in a limited time, the better your results will be.  Now, this doesn’t mean just doing more work is the answer—you need to have the work capacity to handle the workload.  But rest-pause training is a good way to incorporate de...

How to Improve and Increase Your Work Capacity for Better, More Consistent Gains in Size and Strength      There are several problems that I see in modern-day training and among modern lifters.  I probably rail against them quite a bit in my writings, but that’s only because I want to see lifters get better and achieve their training goals.  One of the major issues in today’s training world is that gym-goers think a workout or training program is “good” if it produces fatigue, makes them tired, or leaves them exhausted at the end of a training session.  That might be good, at times, and is even necessary periodically for increasing one’s work capacity, the very thing that we’re going to discuss here.  Because another major problem is that modern lifters—both strength athletes and bodybuilders—rarely increase their work capacity, or their ability to handle greater and greater workloads in their training.  Without the ability to handle he...