C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Q: Hey, Sloan.  In your last essay on “the rule of 3,” you showed the current 3-way split that you are using.  Why do you train chest, back, and shoulders on one of the days and biceps and triceps alone on another?  Why not use a push/pull/legs split or chest/back on one day and shoulders/bis/tris on another?  It just seems like an odd choice, but I guess you have your reasons? A: Yes, I do have my reasons.  For one, and this would only apply to anyone else in my “predicament,” I have a well-developed chest, a large back, and good shoulders but my arms have always been my biggest weak area.  I have long, ape-like arms with a very wide and broad back.  I could stop training entirely and my back would still be big.  So, for me, it makes sense.  My lats will even grow from training my chest.  For instance, when I was a kid and was training in martial arts before I ever picked up a barbell, we would do a lot of push-ups to begin class—regula...

Musings on “Good” Workouts and Effective Training Strategies      I’m sure that you’ve heard of “the rule of 3.”  Actually, just kidding.  I’m sure that you haven’t because, well, I made it up.  Like right now.  This moment.  But it should be a rule, and once I hit “post” on this essay, it will forever be on the internet, so it, you know, will be a rule.  Forever and ever.  Or until the internet collapses in an apocalyptic, cataclysmic downfall.  But maybe then it will be rediscovered by Max and all those grimy kids when they go in search of Tomorrow-morrow Land, and find a copy of it that one of you printed off the internet.  Anyway, rule or not, it is a good way to look at your training.      Now, there are various “rules of 3.”  After writing that first paragraph, I did a cursory search and Google spat out a handful of different “rules.”  The only one I was familiar with, I mus...

A High-Frequency, Mass-from-the-Past Training Program for Stupendous Size and Peak Conditioning Ross as he appeared in a Weider publication in the '50s      Clarence “Clancy” Ross was one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time yet has been almost forgotten in our day-and-age.  You hear or read more about some of his fellow “Silver Age” bodybuilders, such as Bill Pearl , Steve Reeves, or Marvin Eder, than you do Ross—heck, I’ve written more about his fellow world-renowned lifters.  But back in the early-1950s, Muscle Power and Your Physique magazines, a couple of early Weider publications, dubbed him “King of the Bodybuilders.”  That’s right.  King.  He ruled over those other guys.  He received the moniker because he had won the Mr. America, Mr. USA, Mr. North America, and Pro Mr. America, along with virtually any other title in existence.  Keep in mind that the Mr. Olympia didn’t come along until 1965, and at that time it ...