C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

        I have a new book available on Amazon Kindle.  It's entitled "Ultimate Mass and Power: A Collection of Training Programs for Getting Massively Big and Incredibly Strong." (Click on the link to purchase.) Here's the description: Are you looking for massive muscles? Monstrous strength gains? How about a combination of both? There seems to be quite a bit of confusion out there—whether it’s on the internet or at the gym—about how to train for BOTH hypertrophy and serious strength gains. The first problem seems to be that some folks just don’t know how to do either. Guys go to the gym to “get big” but then spend most of their time attempting to max out on a lift. Or, conversely, a guy wants to be massively strong but spends too much of his time training for a pump or doing a lot of repetitions. The training programs contained in this book will clear up this confusion. Herein you will find 16 different articles—each article replete with different program...

  Tips and Routines for Monstrous Pulling Power Here I am pulling over 500lbs in competition.  In the background (in the red singlet) is my Uncle Kirk, yelling encouragement, who made an appearance in my last "Deep South Mass and Power Chronicles."  This meet was around the same time as that essay's setting.      I received an email this morning from a reader curious about deadlift training after reading my last "Deep South Mass & Power Chronicles" on just that very thing.  The reader wanted to know if I could write an article that detailed out an "exact" training program as opposed to all of the "tips" that I sprinkled throughout the (only slightly) fictional conversation between me and my cousins.  At first, I thought, "sure, I can do that," but then I realized that I have already written some articles on this very thing.  And since I haven't done a "Thursday Throwback" as of late, I thought this would be a perfe...

  Manipulating the Three Variables to Achieve Your Physique Goals Herman Goerner used the form of "high-frequency, high-intensity" programs outlined below in order to perform a one-hand deadlift with 730-pounds! If you are not properly manipulating the three variables of volume, frequency, and intensity, you are not going to see results from your training.  I don't care if you are trying to win a powerlifting contest or a figure competition, whether you are trying to get as massive as possible, or lose as much body fat as you possibly can in a short amount of time; if you are not regulating and programming these 3 variables in your training, you will not  achieve your goals. I have remarked before, in paraphrasing the late, great "Iron Guru" Vince Gironda, "Are you on a training program or are you just working out?"  And to be on a training program proper  is to ensure that you are regulating your volume, frequency, and intensity in the appropriate man...

Forgotten or Never-Used Workouts for Muscle Size and Strength Several of the workouts below are just the sort that Bronze Era lifters, such as George Hackenschmidt, used to great success.      I've written a few articles or essays similar to this one in the past.  Years ago—as in the '90s —I wrote an article for IronMan magazine called "X-Factors" which was about workouts that were never  used by mainstream bodybuilders, rarer even than sightings of Bigfoot or other pseudo-scientific, supposedly-existing cryptids.  And about ten years ago, I wrote an article here on the blog entitled "The Best Leg Workout You've Never Tried."  I doubt many people have still  ever tried it.  (Hint: it involved bottom-position squats, deficit sumo deadlifts, and sled drags—combined together, which is brutally hard, so, yep, it probably still is the best leg workout you've never done.)      Which brings us around to  this  essay.  C...

 On Solitude and the Company of Others "Associate with the noblest people you can find; read the best books; live with the mighty.  But learn to be happy alone." ~William James Napoleon Hill, the early 20th century motivational speaker and writer who inspired the title of this post. The other day, while having a conversation with my oldest son on the importance of having a good workout partner (or not), I started to think about the importance of who—and even what—we surround ourselves with.  Not counting just life in general, this may be more important than you realize when it comes to building muscle and strength. The title of this essay comes from the early motivational speaker and writer Napoleon Hill.  In one of Hill's lectures, he said this, "The very moment I come into contact with any person who has a bad influence on me, I immediately disassociate myself from that person.  I don't care who it is.  It might even be my mother-in-law or a close relativ...

  THE ULTIMATE WORKOUT SPLIT? Full-body split workouts were actually a favorite for classic bodybuilders (such as Freddy Ortiz and Larry Scott).  My "bodybuilding" workout below was similar to what they used. I have, on multiple occasions, extolled the benefits of what I refer to as "full-body split workouts."  But I'm not sure if I have ever written an article dedicated exclusively to this concept.  So here goes nothing, or, well, something  to be more exact. So, first things first, what are  full-body split workouts?  Is this, if not completely oxymoronic, paradoxical to say the least?  Aren't full-body workouts, well, full-body workouts, and split workouts split workouts?  The short answer is no , but since that wouldn't make much of an article, this post will be the long answer. When most lifters, bodybuilders, and physique athletes think of full-body workouts, they think of workouts where you work your entire body in one session, and the...

For this week's "Thursday Throwback," I have selected an article that I wrote ten years ago, when I was just about to turn 40.  In the ten years since I wrote this one, more and more lifters and bodybuilders, thankfully, use high-frequency training, which is really the gist of what this article is about. If you have tried both "conventional" bodybuilding training (fairly high volume, split workouts, going for the "pump") and "hardgainer" training (low volume, all-out "intensity", a couple days a week of training, full-body workouts), but haven't gotten good results from either kind of training, well, you might just be...  The Other Kind of Hardgainer [1] C.S. about ten years ago, when this article was originally written. I think the majority of lifters—even ones who have been training a long time and  should  know better—mistakenly believe that there are essentially two kinds of training, and two kinds of lifters: the "ea...