C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Bodyweight Training and More for Upper Body Size and Strength      You don’t need much equipment to build a good physique.  A lot of trainees spend all their time at the gym doing endless bench press exercises with barbells and dumbbells along with an assorted array of machine movements for their chest, shoulders, and triceps.  Most gym-goers could get equally good results, and perhaps even better gains, with little other than dips and push-ups, however.  Push-ups seem so “basic” that many think there isn’t much use for them once one gets past the beginner stage or has access to “better” exercises.  But they still work as well as about anything.  And old-school bodybuilders and lifters from yesteryear often called dips the “upper body squat” for a reason.  Dips can produce big-time upper body gains.      Dips and push-ups have been around for a long time.  Well over a thousand years ago, Roman and Gre...

Approach Your Lifting as a Skill and Craft to be Honed      There is a certain science to lifting.  I won’t deny that.  But if we only approach training from a “science based” perspective, we won’t see the whole picture.  We’ll also miss out on what makes lifting one of life’s true joys.      Lifters who approach training as an art learn more than just how to build strength, power, and muscle mass.  A lifter whose art form is lifting itself learns about his body, particularly what kind of training works for him alone, but he also learns about life and all that lifting has to offer outside of just physical transformation.      How does one go about the art of training?  For the remainder of this essay, we will see what this might look like.      To start with, just as with any craft, you need a plan that focuses on the essence of the craft.  Begin with a bas...

Some Thoughts and Insights to Help You Adapt to High-Frequency Training      I extoll—more often than not—the benefits of high-frequency training (HFT) over other “systems” of training.  I put “system” in quotes because it’s not a system per se but more of an approach or a way of training.  Within HFT, you are capable of finding numerous, actual systems of training.      What qualifies as HFT?  When I use the term, it refers to any program where you train a muscle group (or a movement) at least 3 days per week.  Most modern workout programs are either low (once every 5 to 7 days) or moderate (twice per week) frequency regimens.  Please understand that I am not “opposed” to programs that use either low or moderate frequency.  If you scour this blog, you will find that I have written numerous programs that use both low and moderate frequency.  There are times when such programs can be very beneficia...