C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  The Bulk-Building Program of Jack Delinger This photo was taken of Delinger after he won the '56 Mr. Universe. Delinger was a well-known bodybuilder from the ‘40s and ‘50s that, unfortunately, just isn't as well-known today as many of his contemporaries.  This, despite the fact that he had an “All-American” look; blonde, aesthetic physique, young, and good-looking.  I have a feeling that the only reason he isn’t more well-known today—at least, it has to be a partial reason—is because he only won 3 contests his entire career .  (I have read conflicting reports as to how many competitions he actually entered.  In one article from the ‘50s, it said that Delinger only entered these three contests, but other sources show that he probably competed in 6 competitions, but it was only these 3 that he won outright.) Delinger competed in, and won, the 1946 Mr. Northern California, the 1949 AAU Mr. America, and, finally, the 1956 Mr. Universe.  At the Mr. Universe, he became one of only

     A little more than ten years ago, or thereabouts, I made a change in how I trained.  I switched over from heavy, full-body infrequent routines to heavy, full-body, frequent training programs.  I’m not going to get into all of the details here as to why this happened – you can read past posts about my success with the powerlifting programs of Boris Sheiko if you desire to know more.      Once I had success with Sheiko’s programs, however, I wanted to try more routines, so I voraciously read everything I could get my hands on from knowledgeable lifters/writers who had espoused such forms of frequent training over the years.  Some writer/trainers (whether they were bodybuilders, powerlifters, or Olympic lifters) were better than others.      Bill Starr, of course, was one of the best.  (And he still is.)  But I had been doing Starr’s routines – or stuff similar – for quite a long time before ever attempting the insane (or so I thought) amount of volume that the Sheiko’s routin

Thoughts on the Two-Barbell Rule      Over at T-Nation, Tony Gentilcore has an article where he mentions something he calls the “two-barbell rule.” [1]   The “rule” is pretty simple: At each training session, perform two barbell exercises before doing anything else.      Although I never thought about making this one of the “rules” of training, I like it.   In fact, a couple of things crossed my mind upon reading about it.   First, I wished I would have thought of it myself—it’s one of those things that’s so simple, it should be blatantly obvious to most lifters, but it’s not.   Second, I realize that I “do” this rule almost every time that I train myself or others.      The two-barbell rule—although simple, and although it should be obvious to most lifters—needs a little clarification.   What I would like to discuss here, then, is ways that you can make this “rule” work.   If applied properly, in fact, I think it can be the thing that takes your training from mediocre or