C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

The Classic Bodybuilding Approach to Cycling Workloads, Developing Work Capacity, and High-Frequency Training      I’ve been lifting since the mid ‘80s, when my father bought me one of those old, shaky DP weight sets for, I think, my 13th birthday.  If you are my age or older, you know well the kind of set I’m talking about, with weights made of plastic, gray in color, and filled with cement.  Many a young man got their start in iron from just such a set.  It was about all you could find down at the local Sears & Roebuck department store.  The bench was flimsy as all get-out, the weights not that long-lasting, but, honestly, it got the job done.  In many ways, it was all I (or others) needed.  You could do deadlifts and cleans, overhead presses and curls, not to mention all the bench pressing your pre-pubescent heart desired.  Like all other young teenagers, I wanted a big chest and biceps, so I did entirely too much benchi...

Thoughts on Lifting and Thoughts on Thoughts While Lifting      What do I think about when I think about lifting?  For one, just lifting in general.  I think about programs, workouts, regimens that work for me and work for others I’ve trained.  I think about the ones that didn’t work and why they didn’t work.  I suppose, more than anything else, I think about life.  I think about life when living and when lifting.  They’re inextricably bound for me, life and lifting.  My life, in many ways, is a life of lifting.      I suppose it would be different if I wasn’t a lifter.  There are those who lift.  Then there are those who are lifters.  The former do it for any myriad of reasons.  At least, I guess they do.  I’ve trained a lot of those who fit in that group.  I’ve trained with those that fit in it.  And I’d also surmise that a lot of folks who read my writing fall ...

George Turner’s Old-School Full-Body Program for Gaining 90 Pounds—that’s right, 90!—of Pure Muscle George Turner was in his 60s in this picture!      When it comes to old-school bodybuilders, George Turner remains one of my favorites.   Probably because of the fact that he was more than just a competitive bodybuilder.   He was a gym owner along with being a damn good writer of (damn good) training articles.   He was also a bit—how should it be said?—curmudgeonly.   But he was without a doubt curmudgeonly in the best possible way.   He was, in many ways, similar to Vince Gironda in that regard, just without the disdain for squats.   (That’s right, as much as I like Gironda, he wasn’t a fan of the barbell back squat.)   Myself, I love back squats.   As did Turner.      Anyway, that paragraphic preamble is just a way of writing that, as I was thumbing through an old IronMan magazine this morning, looking ...