C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

       It’s quite possible that, at one time or another, I’ve already written about this subject because, I swear, I remember doing so, but when I looked around on my blog—and in the myriad of word documents that I have stored on my computer—I couldn’t find it.  I also have a sense of deja vu, as the reason I started thinking about this subject was because I received an email from a reader who was confused over the different variations within 5x5 training that he had come across.  And I, once again, could have swore I received this same email—or one unabashedly like it—awhile back.  And I thought I had written an essay in response to said email because I figured that there are other readers out there who are probably looking for similar information.  Hence, the deja vu.      Oh, well, I reasoned, even if I have written about 5x5 variations before, I write a lot of articles that often revolve around a similar theme or subject, and I write about some stuff a lot —such as what I call the

A 6-Week HFT Program for Fixing Muscle Imbalances, Getting Stronger, and Feeling Your Best      Sometimes, the more a lifter trains, the worse he looks.  I say “he” for a reason.  You just don’t see this problem so much in women, but we’ll get around to that in just a little bit.  The problem, to put it quite simply, is imbalance.  If you spend the majority of your training time blasting your pecs and “bombing and blitzing” your biceps, you may, indeed, develop large, muscular, and even downright strong, pecs and biceps muscles, but at an expense.  Because if a lifter keeps this up, he will end up looking more like an ape than the well-developed towering mass of muscle that he wants.  Doubly so if he’s eating everything in sight.  His gut grows along with his chest and biceps, turning him into a mountain gorilla minus the strong back, traps, shoulders, and legs that I’m pretty sure all mountain gorillas probably have.  But it’s not just about not looking good.  Oh, he may look imbalan