C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

A 10-Week Mass Building Regimen for Lifters Struggling to Pack on Size      I don’t like the term “hardgainer.”  I don’t mean to imply that some lifters don’t find it harder to pack on muscle size than others.  Some certainly do.  It’s just that when a lifter is labelled a “hardgainer” he (or she) often resorts to the kind of training that may not necessarily be what they really need.  I won’t go into all of the details here for why I find that to be the case.  If you want more information on that , then read my essay from last year “ The Myth of the Hardgainer .”      The gist of my theory, however, is that many lifters struggle to pack on muscle size because they do standard high-volume workouts, only to find that sort of training doesn’t work for them.  After that, they proceed to low-frequency, “high-intensity” workouts, but those don’t work, either.  It’s at that point that the lifter, or his lif...

A Strong-as-You-Look Bill Starr-Influenced, Old-School Strongman-Inspired Program for the Natural Bodybuilder/Lifter      Modern bodybuilding is certainly capable of producing hypertrophy.  The problem with it is that it often doesn’t produce the kind of muscle size that is as strong as it looks.  This program takes care of that problem.  If you want to build muscle that is also strong and powerful, then look no further.  This one is as good as they come.      This program combines, in one routine, many of my favorite methods. It utilizes heavy/light/medium training a la Bill Starr.  It uses load-cycling, where several training weeks move from lighter to heavier, then back off again.  And it also utilizes an old-school weight ladder method inspired by the legendary strongman Hermann Goerner that I have grown more fond of the more I use it.  Goerner called them “chains” where—unlike “rep ladders” in whi...

A HIgh-Frequency Muscle-Building Routine So Simple That It Seems Almost Too Good to Be True      A few years ago, after suffering from some herniated discs that were causing me pain, I experimented with a program so simple that I wasn’t sure it would work.  I should have known better.  After utilizing it, and getting good results, I thought it was even too simple to write about.  Readers might think I had gone off the deep end.  But I didn’t.  And I haven’t.  I’m currently using the program right now, after taking a week-long layoff in order to prepare myself for a “bigger” program a few weeks down the road.      Before using this program, I had already had a lot of success with easy strength methods.  I write about them quite a bit, so, unless this is your first time reading one of my articles, you’re already well-aware of the methodology.  With easy strength, you, typically, do no more than 10 r...