C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Muscle-Building Resolutions:  Part One - Eating for Mass Garrett Sloan takes his muscle-building diet serious, and the results show.      It is, once again, the start of a new year, the time of year—the only time it seems—when the majority of people (at least here in America) make some “serious” resolutions, which usually involves either kicking a habit or getting in better shape.  Typically, “losing weight” is the New Year’s resolutions’ raison d’etre.  But “losing weight” is really no better of a resolution than “gaining weight” if you’re a bodybuilder or strength athlete.  In other words, it’s just too damn vague.      I thought this week and the next, I would post a few “resolutions” articles.  This one, quite obviously, is for those of you with the resolution to get big, or get jacked, or get massive, or, well, you get the point.  This one is all about building mass for the new year, with the emphasis on developing the proper eating habits for mass-gaining.  The second one that

  A.K.A.: The Pork Chop Diet vs the Steak and Beer Diet! Or How to Eat What You Want and STILL Build Muscle and Stay Lean (or Get Lean) and Some Other (Possibly) Slightly More Nonsensical Stuff Mariusz Pudzianowski was a strongman that ate TONS of highly processed food, and was still jacked. (photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)      Last month, I wrote a piece on nutrient timing/combining, and how this is a possible route to building muscle, burning body fat, and just staying in all-around good shape.  This is essentially just more of the same, with some of the thoughts flowing through my incessant mind stream—sometimes it seems more like a river—of different ideas and views on the subject, or similar subjects, as that post a month ago, most of it precipitated by a clip I saw from a Joe Rogan podcast.  (That’s one of the problems with being a writer.  Some people might think that being a writer is “nice” or something that they might want to do, but if you’re really a writer one of th

 In February of this year, I published a post entitled "Winter Bulk Building" where I outlined the program that my son Matthew started on Thanksgiving of last year in order to gain a lot of mass.  In a few months, he went from around 210 pounds to just over 250 pounds - I believe it was 251, to be precise.  That was the point when I wrote the bulk-building piece. Fast forward to Thanksgiving of this year, and I thought I would give an update on my son's training, and how he went from being "bulky" to being an outright natural  mass monster.  Now he is a little over 260 pounds, but he didn't just gain 10 pounds of muscle since my last post on his training, he also reduced his bodyfat, and there is a noticeable difference in his "look" now as opposed to then.  Here are a couple of pics that I took of him yesterday while he was training arms in my garage gym: Matthew Sloan performs dumbbell triceps extensions with a pair of 80s for sets of 12 to 15 re

Three Ways to Make Dieting Easy—and Even Increase Your Performance By Matthew Sloan author Matthew Sloan      Any form of dieting can be stressful on the body, the mind, and your emotions, and sometimes the idea of "just push through it" isn't enough. Sometimes we all need some extra motivation or special methods to get us through the day or week. So here are three methods I personally use to make dieting easier, and I think any serious bodybuilder, lifter, or strength athlete can use them to his or her advantage. The 3 Methods      The first method is to just simply switch up your training . This switch up should be something " fun" or "exciting" to give yourself something to look forward to (because dieting for weeks on end can get repetitive). For example, if you are following my “lean mass-made-simple program” from a few posts back, and are getting bored with the training, then try something new for a day, then get back on

"If You're Not Tracking, You're Simply Slacking" by Matthew Sloan   The author, Matthew Sloan      Many people assume that tracking your food is difficult and time consuming, and that's just plain wrong. Tracking your food can be very simple, easy, and beneficial. Here are the two main reasons why tracking what you eat is so important. 1. Breaking fat loss plateaus . Many people who begin "fat loss journeys", see progress in the beginning—they lose 5-10 lbs or so, but then it stops. The primary reason for this fat loss plateau is a problem with their diet (I will go into the exact detailed reasons for this in another article). People will try everything to break through this plateau—everything from crash diets to extreme amounts of cardio. But eventually these people will just give up, end up binge eating, and gaining all the weight they loss back—I know from experience; this is how it started for me on my fat-loss journey. However

Lean Mass Made Simple and Fast! The Ultimate 9-Week Program for Lean Muscle Growth By Matthew Sloan The author, Matthew Sloan, before  embarking on his 9-week program for Lean Muscle Mass Muscle growth.   We all want it.   And we want it fast!   Any serious lifter knows that there is a limit to how much muscle one can put on in a short period of time, but a well-designed program—combined with a nutritious diet and effective supplementation—can ensure optimal results. So before I get to the program, and why it’s effective, lets go over nutrition and supplementation. For nutrition, there are only a few "must-dos": -You must be in a caloric surplus. By this, I mean you must be consuming more calories than you are burning daily. In order for your muscles to grow, you need the extra calories, but since this program is about " lean muscle growth", I would recommend a caloric surplus of 300-500 calories. Example: If you are burning 2500 calo