C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Slow and Steady Wins the Hypertrophy Race An “Easy” One-Exercise-Per-Bodypart Muscle-Building Program      Part of effective programming—whether you’re trying to build muscle, gain strength, or a combination of both—is learning how to balance volume, frequency, and intensity.  I often write that you must have two of the factors high —or one high and the other moderate—and the remaining factor must be low.  If you’re going to train with a lot of volume and intensity, then your frequency must be low (the standard method of training these days).  If you’re going to train using a high-frequency program—of which I am admittedly and unabashedly a fan—then you need to keep either your volume or your intensity low.  And so on and so forth.  But you can also do a program where all of the factors are moderate .  The program I want to present here takes this latter approach.      I have actually wanted to write about t...

If you are starting out in strength training, and interested in some sort of competitive strength sports, how do you know what strength sport?  Have you ever wondered why you're stronger than other guys your size?  Or why you can gain muscle, but have a very hard time building strength?  Then read on... this is YOUR article. Embrace Your Genetics...  And Gain Like Never Before! Part One   Many athletes, fighters, lifters, and bodybuilders don't succeed because they don't learn to embrace their genetics.  For a long time, I didn't embrace my genetics, and it cost me.  When I was a young man, for instance, I was very skilled at martial arts, but always small.  At some point, I decided that I wanted to look more like Arnold and less like Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was always the look I had "went" for when training, and this was actually smart if I would have been mature enough (I was only a teenager) to pay attention to my skills, and internal clues that w...

 For this latest installment of my semi-regular "Fundamentals" series (inspired by the great IronMan  writer of my youth, Bradley Steiner), I thought it would be a fitting time to discuss a few of the fundamental lessons  that I've learned from lifting, lessons I sure-as-hell wish I'd known when I was first starting out.  So here goes... Matthew Sloan builds his muscle mass through "consistent" training! Lesson #1: Consistency Trumps Everything      The first lesson here is the one that most people intuitively "know" to be correct.  If you want to gain plenty of muscle mass, get stronger, lose bodyfat, or whatever-your-goals, it's not going to happen without consistency.      In other words, showing up  isn't just "half" the battle; it's the foundation that underlies everything else.      Now, since this is the one lesson here that is naturally intuitive, how come folks don't have more success at, well, anything ...

 In February of this year, I published a post entitled "Winter Bulk Building" where I outlined the program that my son Matthew started on Thanksgiving of last year in order to gain a lot of mass.  In a few months, he went from around 210 pounds to just over 250 pounds - I believe it was 251, to be precise.  That was the point when I wrote the bulk-building piece. Fast forward to Thanksgiving of this year, and I thought I would give an update on my son's training, and how he went from being "bulky" to being an outright natural  mass monster.  Now he is a little over 260 pounds, but he didn't just gain 10 pounds of muscle since my last post on his training, he also reduced his bodyfat, and there is a noticeable difference in his "look" now as opposed to then.  Here are a couple of pics that I took of him yesterday while he was training arms in my garage gym: Matthew Sloan performs dumbbell triceps extensions with a pair of 80s for sets of 12 to 15 re...

My Dramatic Transformation Principle Experience by Jared Smith Jared demonstrates some of the mass he's built using the principles in this article. There are things in this world that can never be eclipsed. Upon the sands of a fallen empire—and in the ruins of rust-covered gyms around the world—they will forever be. The pyramids have been a symbol of power and mystique not just for the Pharaohs of old, but for every gym rat and serious bodybuilder to ever grasp a barbell. Though some things stand the test of time and cannot be replaced, they can be learned from and, thus, improved upon. Most bodybuilders who have trained for even a short period of time, have performed a standard pyramid. Starting with a higher number of reps and building up to an apex, the pyramid usually ends there. Unfortunately, this is short changing potential gains in hypertrophy. Once the apex is reached, the nervous system is primed and ready for intense muscular contraction. The he...

Build Muscle and Strength With This Basic 3x5 HFT Program! Matthew Sloan—at just 16 years of age—has built plenty of lean muscle and an aesthetic physique using HFT programs almost exclusively      After my last several posts on HFT, I thought it would be good—based on several emails that I have received, with readers pondering how to properly apply the HFT principles—if I did a few posts with specific methods of training.  These posts will take out more of the guesswork from planning, and then implementing, a HFT plan.      Keep in mind that these programs are just examples .  You may need to make your own adjustments based on genetics, past training history, etc.  But, for the average lifter, these programs—as examples—will be good on setting you on the correct path.  Some of you may need more training, and some may need to be less, but stick with the programs as I recommend them before deciding that you need to make personal c...

The Benefits of High-Frequency Training for Size and Strength Gains!       If you haven't done so, please read my previous post on High-Frequency Training (HFT) before reading the following.  It will be of more benefit—no pun intended—if you do so.      Now, on to building more muscle, strength and power... George Hackenshmidt—the "Russian Lion"—built a massive physique, with the massive strength to boot, using High-Frequency Training tactics in the early 1900's.      Different training strategies provide different benefits.  For instance—as an example of a training paradigm completely counter to HFT—if you were to follow a 2-days-per-week program of full-body workouts, focusing on the 3 powerlifting exercises, then you would reap the benefits of having more free time than usual during the week, and of being able to get good strength gains out of minimalistic training.      High-Frequency Training has...

C.S.'s note: The chest-training methods that Jared uses in this article are ones that he first laid out in his "Prime and Pump for Massive Muscle Growth" article a couple of posts back.  Do yourself a favor and read that one first, if you haven't yet done so, before proceeding to this new bodypart-centric piece.  If you read the article below without  having read the other one, you may be confused over some of the terminology Jared uses. Prime and Pump Training for a Silverback Set of Pecs and Animalistic Arms! by Jared Smith I’ve heard some say that a pump will limit one's ability to go heavy. This could not be further from the truth. Physics dictates that the more mass something has, the more power it will possess. I’m not saying to obliterate a muscle with insanely high reps before attempting to go heavy, but if you pump the muscles that support the lift, it will add “mass” via sarcoplasmic expansion which will lend itself to more strength. ...