C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

       I received a question the other day via email.   It was succinct and to the point—and, when first received, I thought a bit generic.   “What’s the easiest way to gain mass fast?”   I get quite a bit of questions, and they are usually more in depth.   Most of them, truth be told, are the opposite of this question.   I find that a good many lifters have too many questions, usually because they overthink things too much or they are somehow searching for the “perfect” workout program (which doesn’t exist, by the way).   In the case of this questioner, I responded with a small litany of “the usual” advice for someone in need of quick mass gains: full-body workouts, compound movements, high-frequency training, the “big 4,” plenty of calories, lots of protein… yada, yada, yada.      Then last night, while I was watching one of those cozy little British murder mysteries on PBS and trying my absolute best to not...

A Hybrid High-Frequency Regimen for Natural Mass-Building      I have long been a fan of high-frequency training (HFT) and other methods of lifting that go against the stream of most modern training.   This is especially true of strictly muscle-building methods.   Perhaps it’s hubris on my part to think that I know better than bodybuilders lifting in today’s gyms, but I think there are better methods for the natural bodybuilder than what is currently used by the vast majority of lifters (at least in the West—bodybuilders in East Europe are another story).      Infrequent training simply isn’t a good method for the majority of lifters if their goal is to gain muscle mass.  And by “majority” I mean  natural  lifters.  Steroids change the equation—and change it  big time .  Anabolic steroid use is often cited as the reason why bodybuilders from the ‘70s, ‘80s, and early ‘90s (before Dorian ...

  Old-School Mass Building for New-Age Muscle Gains John Farbotnik as he appeared on Strength & Health  magazine      At times, when I need inspiration for an article or just for my personal training, I scour my attic and the boxes upon boxes (upon boxes) of all the old muscle magazines that I own.   I don’t think I’ve thrown out an issue of a single bodybuilding rag I ever purchased.   Anyway, this morning I stumbled upon an article by Gene Mozee, published in the April ’92 issue of IronMan magazine, that I had completely forgotten about, but, once my memory was properly jogged, I remembered using, and had pretty good results.   Perhaps I had forgotten about this article because it was so similar to other programs Mozee wrote, which I used more than this particular one.      The article in question is titled “No Frills Mass.”   It details the mass-building program that Mozee received from the old-school body...

  An “Easy” Full-Body Muscle-Building Program      I have written quite a bit over the past year on high-frequency training.  I have a semi-regular, ongoing series discussing how to use HFT for various goals—general strength, powerlifting, fat loss, and whatnot.  Although I have written some about it—such as this post from last May—I would like to do a few different essays on HFT for hypertrophy .      The program I’ve designed for this article has its roots in the full-body workout programs of the old-time bodybuilders from the ‘30s and early ‘40s where they used, primarily, full-body workouts performed 3x per week and multiple exercises for a limited number of sets per exercise—often no more than 1 set per movement, sometimes 2 at the most .  In fact, it wasn’t until the likes of Clancy Ross and Leo Stern—who trained with each other in the military—that bodybuilders started utilizing 3 or 4 sets per exercise in t...