C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  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...

  The TBMT Program      It’s an old adage in bodybuilding/strength communities—and I suppose it’s probably applicable in other arenas, as well—that “everything works, but nothing works for long.”  Or as I also like to say: everything works…for about 6-8 weeks.  Kinda similar to another adage that “the best program is the one you’re not doing.”  Well, you get the point.      Having said all of those cliched-but-still-true pithy little aphorisms, some programs definitely do work better than others.  It’s the reason that I’m always trying to come up with new, slightly different (from the programs you see in the “mainstream,” at least) training regimens.  When you have plenty of effective, result-producing programs in your workout arsenal, then you’ll always have something to go to when what you’re currently doing stops working at that 8-week mark (or before).  Enter Total Body Mass Building , or TBMT for ...