C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Hypertrophy Training that WORKS for the Natural Lifter      In my recent essay “ The Game Changers ,” I wrote this about high-frequency training: “Although it (HFT) is more mainstream now, I suppose, it’s still the kind of lesser-known of training methods, at least among the general population.  And even among lifters who do know about it, it’s still often dismissed because it’s not how competitive bodybuilders train.  It’s also certainly not how pro bodybuilders—i.e. drug users—train.  But that’s the thing.  It’s dismissed because it’s not attempted by enough drug-free bodybuilders.  Something tells me that if anabolic steroids never existed, it might be the #1 method of lifting among everyone—powerlifters, Olympic lifters, and bodybuilders.”  For some reason today, I thought about that sentence—there are always thoughts about my training and writing swirling around in my head; it can be a bit annoying—and then it made me think about other forgotten methods of training that might

  My son Garrett Sloan trains, eats, and looks  like a warrior.      One of the problems I often see in strength-training/muscle-building circles is an emphasis on aesthetics over performance.  Aesthetics can be “tricky” and even misleading if you only go by the “mirror” instead of what you are actually doing in your workouts.  So—you might now be asking—how should you approach your training, not to mention your diet, if the emphasis is on performance instead of mere aesthetics?  What follows are a few thoughts on exactly that. Train the Movement or Train the Muscle? Go By the Mirror or Go By the Weight on the Bar?      This is one of the “arguments” that you will often hear/read about, and one that can sometimes become heatedly debated.  Some bodybuilders, for instance, will argue that you should train the muscle, and not so much the movement.  They will talk about feeling the muscle, and about how you should leave your “ego at the door,” and the like.  They’re definitely not wrong

  One time world's strongest man, Doug Hepburn, used methods very similar to the ones listed in this article.      Years ago, as in the previous century, when the internet was in its inception, I wrote regular articles for most of the major bodybuilding magazines.  At the time, there wasn’t much good information available on the internet—oh, there were a couple of sites here and there, but even when you could access them, they could take as long as hours to upload; you know, “dial up”—and so most lifters still got their information from the monthly bodybuilding and powerlifting rags.      Before Facebook (or even MySpace), and the advent of other social media sites, the primary thing that the internet was used for was email.  I sent my articles to the different magazines via the “traditional” method of mailing them through actual mail, the post office.  And if any readers wanted to ask me a question before email was a “thing,” they had to actually write me a letter.  So I thought