C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Make Real Gains with Brief, Intense Workout Programs      For years now, high intensity training (commonly referred to as H.I.T.) has been one of the most controversial training methods in the bodybuilding world.   The proponents of H.I.T. seem to think that it’s the only method capable of truly transforming the “average”, drug-free bodybuilder.   On the other side you have proponents of volume workouts (one such proponent has been myself) that seem to think that H.I.T. training is the bane of bodybuilding existence.   So which one is correct?   Well, I believe that the answer is “both” and “neither.”   Confused?   Read on and I’m going to attempt to straighten everything out, and then I’m going to outline some brief, intense workouts that actually do produce real-world results. The Rise and Fall of H.I.T. Principles      In the beginning of the barbell, strength-training universe—we’re talking early twentieth century—almost all of the physiques and the strength gains w

As I get older (although I'm only 38, I have been a dedicated lifter for 20 years), certain things remain important to me, and—to be honest—many things do not.  For instance, I no longer want to have 20 inch arms, or be the biggest bloke alive (that's the kind of stuff I wanted 20 years ago), or be the strongest dude walking the planet at my bodyweight (that's what I wanted 10 years ago).  But I do want to be strong, and I don't mind being fairly big, and most of all I want to be healthy. And I want to keep learning. And I just love to train.  Period. So... as I get older, and as I learn more, the most important lessons are the ones that I have learned about myself.  It dawned on me—not that long ago, to tell the truth—that I train just to train.  I love  the feel of a tough, two-hour workout where I squat something, put something heavy over my head, pull something heavy off the floor, and tote something heavy across my lawn.  When you train just to train, when yo

If you haven't already, please do yourself a favor and go out and buy the July/August issue of Planet Muscle.  I have an article in it entitled "The Big 5 Exercises for Real Mass." I've written a lot of stuff over several years, and I feel pretty confident that this could be one of the best articles I've ever written.  I think it's definitely my personal favorite article.

I know, I know - it has been a long time since my last blog post.  I have been writing a good bit.  (In fact, I hope that those of you interested in my writing have been reading my regular articles in Planet Muscle magazine.) I am going to start writing plenty more articles for this site - so don't worry. Also, I have a new blog that I have started.  It's entitled "Blue Jean Theosis."  For those of you interested in contemplative spirituality, I hope that you will enjoy it. Here's the link: bluejeantheosis.blogspot.com

A friend of mine here in Tuscaloosa - Jared Smith - has a new blog. It looks like it'll be pretty cool (especially if you're into super-high-intensity training). Here's a link: http://buildingthebehemoth.blogspot.com/

First, I want to apologize for my long delay between blog posts. I have been more than a little busy as of late. Between work (I do have a regular “9 to 5” job), moving into a new house (and all that entails), and writing quite a bit of articles, my blog just took a back seat. (Speaking of writing articles, I now have an article in almost every issue of Planet Muscle, so that’s where you can find all of my latest stuff. And I now only write occasionally for Iron Man.) With that out of the way, let’s get on with this blog post: As regular readers of my material know, I believe that fairly high-volume, frequent training is the best (the quickest, the most result-producing) route to bigger, stronger, more (dare I say?) functional muscles. (It must be noted that this wasn’t always my opinion. If you read a lot of my early stuff in Iron Man – mid ‘90s to very early ‘00s – you’ll find that my training programs tended to be based around infrequent training. But all of that changed when I actu

Here are some collections of articles that I discovered on the web recently, thought I'd share them with you. Some are new; some aren't. But they're new to me, so they might be new to some of y'all, as well. If you haven't been to it, a great site is www.theironsamurai.com . It's an Olympic lifting site run by strength coach Nick Horton. I don't know the guy—never heard of him until I came across the site—but he has some great stuff for all lifters, not just Olympic lifters. (Oh, and he has a touch of Zen here and there, as well, which might also interest some of you.) Here's a really good post from his site: http://www.theironsamurai.com/2011/02/09/happy-birthday-to-me-reflections-on-lifting-coaching-and-the-pre-masters-class/ . It has his thoughts on lifting and coaching, including a good bit on Bulgarian style training. For those of you who are fans of high-volume training (or would like to give it a shot), Nick has some insights that can help