C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Build Massive Muscles and Monstrous Strength with Heavy, Old-School Dumbbell Training      I don’t know when it happened, or how it happened, but when it comes to strength and power training, we think of barbells and little else.  I’m guilty of this myself.  I’ve written before about using the “ two barbell workout .”  It’s a sound theory, don’t get me wrong.  Basically, if you start your workout session, any workout session, with 2 big, compound barbell lifts—say, front squats and power cleans—you can then do whatever else you want for the rest of the workout and you will get great results.  Or, heck, you can just do 2 compound barbell lifts and nothing else at each workout.  But there was a time not that long ago, when the largest, most massive, muscular, and strongest lifters on the planet—the so-called “Bronze era” of the late 19th century, early 20th century—when strongmen did most of their training with dumbbells and not b...

  Winter is the Time for Bulk Building      A couple of occurrences precipitated this essay.  First, my last article on the legendary powerlifter Hugh Cassidy.  His training is just the kind of program anyone seeking bulk should follow.  And not just his style of training, but most certainly his “method” of eating.  You know, if you can call scarfing down every calorie-laden, protein-packed, carb-loaded thing in sight a method.  Second, and most obvious, the cold.  Much of our country, as I type these words on my laptop, snug against the warmth of my fireplace, is in the grip of a bone-chilling freeze.  Even in the Deep South of Alabama where I live, work, and train (outdoors), we have been told by the wintry weather prognosticators that it will only get slightly above freezing as the high for the week.      I have long believed that we should do “seasonal” training.  Too many lifters, train a...