C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Q: Hey, Sloan.  In your last essay on “the rule of 3,” you showed the current 3-way split that you are using.  Why do you train chest, back, and shoulders on one of the days and biceps and triceps alone on another?  Why not use a push/pull/legs split or chest/back on one day and shoulders/bis/tris on another?  It just seems like an odd choice, but I guess you have your reasons? A: Yes, I do have my reasons.  For one, and this would only apply to anyone else in my “predicament,” I have a well-developed chest, a large back, and good shoulders but my arms have always been my biggest weak area.  I have long, ape-like arms with a very wide and broad back.  I could stop training entirely and my back would still be big.  So, for me, it makes sense.  My lats will even grow from training my chest.  For instance, when I was a kid and was training in martial arts before I ever picked up a barbell, we would do a lot of push-ups to begin class—regula...

A High-Frequency, Mass-from-the-Past Training Program for Stupendous Size and Peak Conditioning Ross as he appeared in a Weider publication in the '50s      Clarence “Clancy” Ross was one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time yet has been almost forgotten in our day-and-age.  You hear or read more about some of his fellow “Silver Age” bodybuilders, such as Bill Pearl , Steve Reeves, or Marvin Eder, than you do Ross—heck, I’ve written more about his fellow world-renowned lifters.  But back in the early-1950s, Muscle Power and Your Physique magazines, a couple of early Weider publications, dubbed him “King of the Bodybuilders.”  That’s right.  King.  He ruled over those other guys.  He received the moniker because he had won the Mr. America, Mr. USA, Mr. North America, and Pro Mr. America, along with virtually any other title in existence.  Keep in mind that the Mr. Olympia didn’t come along until 1965, and at that time it ...

Gene Mozee’s Classic Secret for Building a Large, Magnificent Chest      I’m not sure when I first decided that I wanted to look like a bodybuilder.  Probably in the mid to late ‘80s, when I was 15 or 16 years old and just couldn’t stop reading all the bodybuilding magazines that hit the newsstand each month.  But the seed had been planted earlier, I suppose.  When I was 7, my dad took me to the drive-in movie theater to see Conan the Barbarian . I was enamored by the physical specimen that was Arnold.  (I think it was also the first time I witnessed my parents argue.  My mother was aghast that my father had taken me to a violent, nudity-filled movie.)  And then there was Bruce Lee.  I started taking Karate when I was 9, and soon I wanted to have the physique of the star of my favorite kung-fu flick, Enter the Dragon .  But eventually, and before too long, it was Schwarzenegger's body that I aspired to attain rather than L...