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 on How/When to Use Back-Off Sets, Add Extra Work, and Increase the Total Workload of Your Training      The other day, I received an email from a reader who wanted to know my advice on back-off sets and how to use them.  His question was based on the fact that he was having a hard time increasing the weight on his “top-end” sets using a standard 5x5 training model.  This essay is partly an answer to that question but, in addition to that, I want to use it to discuss how (and when) you should not only do back-off sets but also when a lifter should add extra work, whether that additional training is at the end of a workout or in another workout altogether.  The goal of all of this being, of course, greater strength on the core lifts, whatever those core lifts might be, whether you’re a powerlifter attempting to increase the three powerlifts, an Olympic lifter looking to increase your quick lifts, or just an “all-around” strength...

      Matthew Sloan does real bodybuilding workouts at 16 years old, and it shows!      The other day I received an email from a reader who stumbled across my article on "Increasing Work Capacity."  Apparently, this particular gentleman had come across it while perusing some forum-or-another—in one of the many "hardcore bodybuilding forums"—that was discussing the article.  Basically, to sum it up, he took me to task for "daring" to suggest that drug-free bodybuilders could possibly perform such hard work as I suggested for the advanced lifters in my post.      I, politely as I could, explained my reasonings.  I explained how drug-free bodybuilders could certainly work up to the amount of work I suggested and, not only survive it, but actually thrive  on it.  When I was finished with my reply, I hit the "send" button, and then began to lament inwardly, thinking to myself, "Where have all the real bodybuilde...