C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Re-Thinking “Light” Day Training and the Need for “Play” in Your Workouts      In my last essay on Spring Training , I mentioned briefly that summertime is, from a training perspective, the time for “play.”  This is not the essay for summer training—we’ll save that, you know, come summertime—but I do want to discuss the need for lifting sessions that are play no matter the season or how it is that you train.  That’s right.  All year-long, you should do at least some “play” workouts where you experiment with new things, try out some “odd” lifts or set/rep sequences, and, perhaps above all, just have some fun .      One of the best times for play is during your “light” day sessions, whether you follow a structured program such as Bill Starr’s heavy-light-medium system or if you are just more intuitive about it and throw in a light workout when you feel as if your body could need or use it.  Play is essential for cont...

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...