C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Build More Mass and Power with Hybrid Lifts and the Workouts That Utilize Them      The best lifts for building size and strength are “big” compound movements.  If you want to build as much mass and power as your body is capable of, then you need to do heavy squats, heavy pulls (whether it’s deadlifts or one of the quick lifts), plenty of heavy presses (benches and overhead movements), along with some heavy curls.  The more muscles that you utilize in a lift then the better the lift.  This is the reason that squats, deadlifts, and the quick lifts—power cleans, snatches, and high pulls—reign supreme.      Based on this, you could also argue that even better are “hybrid lifts” that combine two (or even three) movements in one lift.  A classic example of this is the “full clean” done by weightlifters.  As you clean the barbell, you drop into a front squat before standing up with the weight.  The full clean, al...

Some Tips and Suggestions for Programming High-Frequency Workouts      High-frequency training (HFT) is one of the best “styles” of training that a lifter can utilize.  I think this is especially true for natural lifters, those of us who don’t use any kind of performance-enhancement drug(s).  Even though I don’t think the drug-free trainee can find a better program, HFT is just about the least used method among most gym-goers, perhaps almost unknown, even, among the casual trainee.  Most lifters focus on routines with varying degrees of either volume or intensity, with frequency as more of an afterthought.  I would say that, by and large, lifters use a high, medium, or low volume program coupled with some “level” of intensity to balance with the volume, and then frequency is the last factor that is considered.  Whatever the program, the general “plan” is that the lifter trains again whenever they are no longer sore from a prior sessi...