C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

A Method for Developing a Work Capacity That Can Handle High-Volume, High-Frequency Workouts      I often preach the benefits of high-frequency training along with full-body workouts.  I think they are two of the best ways to build a lot of muscle and strength, especially for the natural lifter.  Another central component for the natural lifter is to develop a strong work capacity , or the ability to do a lot of work and then recover from it quickly.  Read that last sentence again if you have to and let it sink in.  There are, I would guess, a lot of lifters who are capable of doing a lot of work in the gym, but very few of them can then recover from it quickly.  You can blame that on modern training, I suppose, more than anything else, since we live in some sort of upside down, topsy turvy training world where bodybuilders “blast” their muscles with endless sets and then give those muscles a week—hell, sometimes even more—before train...

Some Thoughts and Tips on How to Design a High-Frequency, High-Volume Workout Program      I believe some of the best training programs available are ones that utilize high-frequency training (HFT).  I think that many lifters, bodybuilders, and just casual trainees believe that they are so-called hardgainers for one simple reason: they’ve used low-frequency programs (whether they were high-volume workouts, high-intensity routines or a combination of both) and could never get good results.  Many of these same lifters, if they were to engage in HFT, may discover that being a “hardgainer” becomes a thing of the past.      The one issue, however, that I have found with HFT is this: lifters often find it hard to properly program.  And because of this lack of understanding, they either use it improperly and then give up on it too soon or they never give it a chance in the first place.  In this essay, I want to show you how ...

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...