C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Are High-Frequency, High-Rep Programs Good for Building Muscle? READ ON AND FIND OUT!      With some of my recent writings—specifically, my article for DragonDoor on “ The 30-Rep Program ” and my “Powerlifting with the 3 to 5 Method” here on the blog—I have written quite a bit about what is generally referred to as easy strength methods of training.  For that reason, I suppose, I received an email from a reader today asking if I ever recommend, or have utilized, high-frequency training programs that also use high-repetition training.  He then asked me if I did use them, what would such programs look like?      This essay is my answer.      First off—and let’s just cover this briefly in case you’re not familiar with easy strength methods—easy strength refers to high-frequency training done with minimal sets and reps but with fairly high intensity .  Now, intensity is used here as it is by weightlifters and powerlifters.  It’s a percentage of your one-rep maximum .  The closer you

For this week's "Thursday Throwback," I came across an article of mine that I completely forgot that I wrote.  In fact, I was looking through articles on my computer, and when I came across this, I thought it must have been penned by my son Matthew or my friend Jared, who used to write quite a bit for my blog at one time, only to discover that, no, I  wrote it.  Despite my amnesia toward it, it's a VERY GOOD article.  And all of the suggestions are just as good as when I wrote this over ten years ago.  I hope you find it just as much interest in reading it as I did in rediscovering it... The 10 Most Common Mistakes When Building Strength, Power, and Muscle Mass       What follows are 10 of the most common mistakes that lifters make when trying to add muscle mass and build strength.    Fix these mistakes and your mass-building/strength-gaining plateaus will be a thing of the past.       In true countdown fashion, we’ll start with #10 before we make it down to  the  #1

For Fast Muscle-Building Results At first, I was going to write this as one "big-as-hell" article the same as my one from last week on old-school arm training.  However, I thought this might work best as a sort of semi-regular series on various "little known" or "secret" muscle-building tips and techniques for easy  mass-gaining.  Besides, it was getting kind of long as it is.  Introduction out of the way, I hope you enjoy... The "Iron Guru" Vince Gironda, seen here in his competitive days, was the inspiration for this article.  Gironda had more knowledge of "secret" muscle-building tips and tricks than just about any trainer before or since.   In many of my posts and articles, I often lament the fact that many lifters (and I use that word loosely here) seem to prefer over-complicated and easy instead of simple but hard  training programs.  I suppose nutrition would fit the bill, too.  But in the case of diets, I think more people are