C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

How to Make More Mass-Building Gains and Continued Progress Over Months and Years      In this essay, I want to go into detail over a subject that I’ve touched upon in other articles and essays over the years.  By using the methods that I will propose, you will make more muscle gains and continuous gains for weeks, months, and years to come.  This is one of the ways to ensure that you progress continuously with little in the way of ruts or plateaus.      We are often shortsighted, not just as bodybuilders but as humans.  Although it is important to focus on the present moment and the current workout that you are doing, you need to have a long-term vision regarding your training that will ensure that you make continued progress.  Many lifters start on a basic, muscle-building program and make good gains.  Maybe a lifter starts his training journey with a full-body routine or, at the least, a limited split routine ...

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...