C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

       I had an email from a reader this morning who asked a question I don’t usually get, although I’m sorta surprised I don’t get it.  Odd as it might be, come to think of it, I don’t remember a time that I’ve ever received this question.  The question was: “Should I specialize on a lift or a bodypart sometimes or should I just follow a basic, overall mass-building program?”  Although the reader was solely interested in hypertrophy, the same question could be asked by strength athletes.      My answer was, “well, it depends.”  But, on the whole, yes, you should specialize.  And then you shouldn’t.      If you’re new to training, or if you haven’t built any appreciable strength or muscle mass (depending on your goals) then, no, you shouldn’t specialize.  Specialization should occur when you have a weak point, whether it’s a “cosmetic” weak point for a bodybuilder or a strength weak point for a lifter.  If you’re after both strength and muscle mass, then you may need to specialize at

Make Fantastic Gains by Using the 3 to 5 Method to Specialize on the Bodypart of your Choosing! Here I am finishing off an old-school garage gym workout with some good ol' farmers walks. For those of you unfamiliar with the "3 to 5 Method" of training that I have touted more than a few times on Integral Strength, the gist of it is this: Train 3 to 5 days per week Utilize 3 to 5 exercises at each workout Perform 3 to 5 sets of each exercise Perform 3 to 5 reps on each set The 3 to 5 method of training is typically used along with a full-body workout.  As anyone who has done a fair amount of reading on this blog probably could have guessed, I would recommend using the "Big 4" while employing 3 to 5 training: Squat something heavy every week Press something heavy overhead every week Pull something heavy off the ground every week Drag or carry something heavy for either time or distance every week It all adds up to a week of workouts that might look something such a