C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Arm Specialization Training for Massive Guns by Jared Smith Arnold showing off his "guns" in this early '70s pic It Begins with an Epiphany Many of the greatest things in the world were born out of necessity. In my case, I am not speaking of an invention, but rather a method of training that would allow me to bring up a lagging muscle group by forcing me to train it more often. I have always been of the mindset that the major lifts need to be trained often. Squats, bench presses, overhead presses, and deadlifts in all their various forms should be done as often as possible to stimulate growth throughout the entire body. One day I was squatting, as I had done a thousand times before, only this time my body decided it had done enough. A pain that felt like a rusty knife scraping across my kneecap hit me all at once. I rested and backed down the weight, thinking that perhaps it was just “wear and tear” and that a little light weight set or two may e...

When I first began training over 20 years ago, many things were the same then as they are now.  There were plenty of bad workout programs, and plenty of people “just working out” instead of following a training program. A lot hasn't changed. And, yet, a lot has.  Training advice is more readily available in our internet age, for better or for worse.  For better because there is a lot of really sound advice that can be found, assuming of course that you want to actually listen (or read) sound advice.  For instance – and not to toot my own horn, so to speak – I would have loved, when I first started lifting, to have an ever-present blog such as this one at my fingertips. For worse because any Tom, Dick, or Harry can now be an “expert” even though he/she may have very little knowledge.  But I think, overall, that the pros more than outweigh the cons. Also, even though it is often said that there is nothing new under the bodybuilding sun, train...

My friend—and fellow iron-pumper—Jared Smith (a big, hulking power-bodybuilder) sent me the following training "mini-article". Jared has some good advice in this piece. And most of you who read this blog for training advice might actually follow it. (Unlike a lot of the so-called bodybuilders who read most of the newsstand mags.) So... here it is: Commercial Manipulation and the REAL Key to Massive Arms Jared Smith I can't tell you how man times I've picked up a magazine that only glorifies abs and biceps and tells you that the key to bigger arms is simply to curl until your brain goes numb. Before I even get into the meat and potatoes of the program I'll outline, don't get the idea that I am anti-curl, but the curl aint gonna put size on those arms. What puts size on your arms are the same things that put size on the rest of you: COMPOUND MOVEMENTS. Benches, dips, deadlifts,chins, squats. Now before the vast majority of everyone who reads this get co...

     Anyone who has read many of my article for Iron Man  magazine knows that I'm a big fan of heavy weight, high-set, low-rep weight training.  If you're going to follow any kind of "split" training program then high-set, low-rep training (HS,LR training from henceforth in this post) is—I think—the way to go for a great majority of lifters.      In an article I wrote for Iron Man  a few years ago entitled "Big Weights, Big Sets" (at least, I think that was the title of the article; I've lost the magazine, but I still have my original draft of it on file), here are some of the reasons—and people—that I gave for this kind of training to be so effective:      As for high-set, low rep training it is something quite different.   This type of training, like no other, can produce phenomenal strength and size gains.      If you doubt it, then consider some of these examples of bodybuilders, powerlif...