C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  How Classic Bodybuilders Gained Mass, Sculpted Their Physiques, and Achieved Fantastic Condition!          Ever since I first picked up a muscle magazine in the 1980s, I have loved the old-school, classic bodybuilders from the decades that came before me.   I realize that I’m old enough that even my training heyday of the ‘90s is now considered “old-school,” which, if I’m being entirely honest, seems quite odd to me.   However, when I think of old-school, I think of the “silver era” of bodybuilding (roughly the ‘40s and ‘50s) along with the “golden age” of bodybuilding (‘60s and ‘70s).      I still love those eras.   I love writing about those eras.   I love reading about those eras.   I love the training from those eras.      I think that the training wisdom from those bygone days of bodybuilding glory has a lot to offer the modern bodybuilder, especially the drug-free o...

       I may give the impression at times that I’m not a fan of split workouts.  That’s not true, of course.  I have a lot of split programs here on the blog—in fact, I’ve probably written considerably more split workout programs than full-body ones over the course of my writing career.  But it’s also true that I do have a certain disdain, and don’t try to hide it, for “modern” workout splits.  Programs where you train only one bodypart at each session, and take off a week between training sessions for individual bodyparts, pretty much drives me crazy.  And, of course, yes, I’m obviously a fan of full-body workouts.  Not only are they highly effective, but they’re probably the  best form of training for the “average” gym-goer, allowing you to train your muscles frequently (always a plus in my book), while also minimizing the amount of time that you have to go to the gym each week.  You just can’t beat workouts like th...

  Part One: Arnold’s “Golden 6” Workout for Bulk-Building (Plus a Bulk-Building “Extra”)      I often wonder what my teenage life would be like if I was a teenager right now in this generation of text messaging, smart phones, Wikipedia (and therefore information at your fingertips), along with blogs, YouTube videos, and Instagram stories filled with an absolute plethora of mass-building, strength-gaining information.  But, the thing is, I’m glad that I was a teenager in the 1980s.  I think it’s the reason I have a vast, encyclopedic, almost kaleidoscopical knowledge of hypertrophy training and strength-building.  And I’m really not bragging about my bodybuilding “expertise.”  You see, I don’t think I’m different from anyone else.  Because anyone who read every single bodybuilding magazine that hit the newsstand month-after-month, year-after-year from cover-to-cover many times—and did so from the mid ‘80s all the way up to at least...