C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Build Muscle and Strength With This Basic 3x5 HFT Program! Matthew Sloan—at just 16 years of age—has built plenty of lean muscle and an aesthetic physique using HFT programs almost exclusively      After my last several posts on HFT, I thought it would be good—based on several emails that I have received, with readers pondering how to properly apply the HFT principles—if I did a few posts with specific methods of training.  These posts will take out more of the guesswork from planning, and then implementing, a HFT plan.      Keep in mind that these programs are just examples .  You may need to make your own adjustments based on genetics, past training history, etc.  But, for the average lifter, these programs—as examples—will be good on setting you on the correct path.  Some of you may need more training, and some may need to be less, but stick with the programs as I recommend them before deciding that you need to make personal c...

If you read this blog regularly, then you know that I haven't posted anything in quite some time. There are a few reasons for this.  I've been extremely busy with work, training, and  writing some totally non-strength related material.  The lack of material here, however, is about to change. First, you'll notice that the blog has a new "look"—assuming enough readers like the new look, we'll keep it as is. I'm also proud to say that I've hooked up with a couple of people who are very important to me—my dear friend Jared Smith and my oldest son Matthew Sloan—who are going to do some regularly contributing to the blog.  Hopefully it will be enough so that, between the three of us, we can have two to three posts each week. Jared Smith Jared is a former workout partner of mine, and a man who I'm proud to have called my friend for the past decade or so.  He's also one incredibly massive S.O.B.  But don't take my word for it.  Here's...

     Before you even begin this post, let me warn you: it may be one of the most rambling things I’ve written.   This is primarily because I’m not sure if I know exactly what the hell I’m going to say—which has never exactly stopped me in the past, mind you—but I do have several things on my mind as of late.   (Add to the fact that I’ve not written too much in the last few weeks, and so I knew I needed to get something on my blog.)      It all started a few days ago when my friend Josh texted me—I hate texting, but I must admit that it has become a pretty good way to communicate with friends who live several states away—and wanted to know if I remembered the book “Big Beyond Belief” from the mid to late ‘90s, and wanted to know what I thought/think about it.   Did I remember it?   Heck, yeah, I remembered it, I proceeded to tell him.   Hell, I shelled out a hefty $50 for the thing, at a time when I had l...

     Simplicity can be a virtuous thing.  For some reason, in our current age, we want to make things decidedly not simple.  Perhaps this is because our lives are not simple – we have made them more and more complex by a stream of never-ending texts, instant messages, YouTube videos, music streaming, and the general need to always feel as if we need to be doing something.  I might add, however, without us actually doing anything, since we are more slothful and gluttonous – not to mention pear-shaped; especially the younger generation – than ever before.      Life should not be that way.  We were built for simplicity – in fact, the only way to enter into the complexity of things is to purposefully simplify.  If for instance, you want to enter the depths of your consciousness, the very depths of your being , you don’t do so by anything so complex as various ascetic feats of standing on your head or other odd yogic poses, o...

      This is a second part in a series on (what I call) Texas Volume Training.  It would serve you well to read the first article before starting this one.  The program presented here is strictly for powerlifters (or lifters who want to spend some time building their powerlifts) who are interested in building muscle – whether it’s purely for ascetical reasons or whether it’s because they are interested in moving up a weight class.      The program presented here is not for lifters who need to stay in the same weight class or who are trying to drop bodyweight.  (To be honest, the original article on Texas Volume Training isn’t for this class of people, either.  The volume is just too high, making it well-nigh impossible to not gain some amount of muscle.)      What follows is much of the original article (including the “template” from the first article) with a lot of additional commentary for changing up the...

Hybrid Leg Training 21 st Century Bodybuilding for Awesome Leg Growth      I love training legs—always have, always will.  I love it because it’s what separates the men from the boys.  I love it because it creates a euphoric pump (when doing bodybuilding workouts, at least) that can’t be “beat” by the pump that’s achieved in any other sort of training.  I love it because leg training will add muscle everywhere .      About twenty years ago, I attended a seminar with Tom Platz.  He was back in awesome shape at the time, and when I saw him, he had just finished doing some photo shoots with several of the top magazines—namely Iron Man and MuscleMag International .  (I wrote for both of those magazines back then, which made it even cooler, and the rumor mill was saying that Platz was going to get back into competition—Masters Olympia, or something of the sort.  He never did compete, but he still looked unbe...

Here's another "redux" of an article I wrote a couple years ago for Planet Muscle magazine.  (For even more of my articles for them, check out their new, "upgraded" website.) Enjoy... The New Hypertrophy Program Constructing A New Breed of Mass-Building Workouts      Based on some of the latest “innovations” in mass-building workouts, and what I have learned over years of training powerlifters and other strength athletes, what follows are the “keys” that I believe unleash the most potential for both building muscle mass and inducing strength and power at the same time.  These are the ground rules—the secrets if you will—that unlock the sacred door of muscle growth.  While these keys aren’t set in stone (bodybuilding rules—like all rules—were made to be broken, after all) they represent what I would call the best parameters now available.  Strap on your mass-inducing engine—its time for some serious muscle growth. Key #1: Full Bod...