C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Some Ideas for Training and Program Design Based on the Type of Lifter That You Are      The famous fantasy and science fiction author George R.R. Martin once said that he believed there are, basically, two kinds of writers in the world.  There are the architects.  And there are the gardeners.  Architects plan every point of their novel, memoir, essay, or article down to the finest details.  Like an architect building a house, they have a blueprint and know the layout of every room along with the wiring, piping, and whatnot of the building.  Gardeners plant a seed and then watch to see what grows.  They know to plant certain seeds—you don’t plant sunflower seeds if you’re attempting to grow tomatoes—but exactly what the shape of the plant will be, what the branches and flowers look like, is up to nature.  Of course, as Martin explained, rarely is anyone a pure type—an architect might have to change plans because the building i...

  Read On and Discover the 5 “Musts” of All Good Training Programs      If you want to make gains in training—be it mass gains, getting as strong as humanly possible, or you simply want to look good in a pair of swimming trunks or a bikini—then there are several universal features to a training program that all lifters should be doing.  If you include these elements in your training then you will get good results no matter your goals.      It doesn’t matter if you train with high-intensity and low volume or vice versa, whether you train every day of the week or can only make it to the gym a couple times per week, whether you train with high reps, low reps, or something in between, every successful training program should include the following elements.  Here are the 5 musts of all good workout programs: #1: You MUST Squat      I wrote this in a separate essay over 10 years ago:   ...

  Designing Your Own Workout Program Part One: Full-Body Workouts      I thought it would be a good idea to do a series on how to design your own workout program.  How much interest there is in this first piece will determine how many entries total that I do in the series.  We will start with full-body workouts, since that is where everyone needs to begin their training journey.  If you’ve been following any “pre-designed” workouts—even if it’s one of my own here on the blog—you should also start your own programming design with full-body workouts.  And they are, of course, a great way to get “back-to-the-basics” of training no matter how long you’ve been working out, so this essay is also a good read for any of you “bro split” folks out there who have been doing one-bodypart-a-day workouts (or something similar) for no telling how long.      Following a workout program is essential to attaining the goals and res...