Many have asked what my “secret” is for putting on lean muscle mass during the off-season. To make a long story short, it wasn’t until the year 2004 that I met long time professional trainer Ronnie Rowland out of Aiken, South Carolina. He introduced me to an unconventional approach to bodybuilding called the STS (Slingshot Training System). I thought I had heard it all, but he opened up my eyes to what bodybuiding could be and showed me how to cycle my workouts in conjunction with my diet-supplements in order to mimic the way chemically enhanced bodybuilders make their best gains. In 2004, I was an advanced competitive bodybuilder weighing in at 198 lbs during the off- season and my gains, had all, but stopped. I gained only one pound of muscle that whole year stepping on the stage at 170 lbs. As you can imagine I was getting a bit frustrated. Rowland convinced me to give his off-season training system a try during the 2005 off-season. To my surprise, I increased my body weight considerable and was able to maintain 8 pounds of pure muscle after I dieted down for my show. This allowed me to step on stage at a ripped 178 lbs. It wasn’t until getting my pro-card, that I fully realized just how far this training system had taken me. In 2006, I was about 221 lbs off season and a whopping 190 lbs on stage. That’s 12 more pounds of pure muscle in only a year’s time!!! It gets even better. I almost won my first pro show this past weekend by placing 2nd to Silvio Samuals in the Europe 210 lbs and under Division and came in 9th in the open. My experience with the STS is beyond measure — “literally”! After you read his soon to be released book called “The Slingshot Training System”, you will understand what“s needed to make a muscle grow at the fastest rate humanly possible and how I got my pro-card.
I have been asked repeatedly “What is the Slingshot Training System”? You’ll have to wait until the book is released to find out the details, but here’s a brief overview: The STS is about how to manipulate training volume and use enough legal anabolics (including the proper combinations of food) to stimulate the receptors so muscle and strength gains can be achieved while avoiding over-saturated receptors. Receptor down regulation, which is a decrease in the amount of a steroid being utilized by a cell, will begin to occur in about 6 weeks whether you are a natural or a drug enhanced bodybuilder. Remember, the body produces more of its own anabolic steroids under the right conditions. It’s very common for fast acting steroids to be used by the drug enhanced bodybuilders for 6 weeks at a time. After gaining mass-strength for 6 weeks they take 2 weeks off (prime the body for future growth) and begin another 6 week mass cycle of different steroids or more of the same. Top level bodybuilders do not run long steroid cycles and then come off the drugs for lengthy periods of time. Doing so would keep them in a viscous cycle of making gains then losing most of the gains they worked so hard to obtain. This is very important to understand because the same rule applies to natural bodybuilders using legal anabolic agents. Top level competitive bodybuilders who are chemically enhanced make much better gains and keep more of their gains by doing long drawn out cycles. In fact, most never go off all the drugs. Their base drugs usually consist of a slow acting testosterone and/or a slow acting anabolic. These top level competitors run these drugs as their base throughout the whole duration of the off-season. In order to free more testosterone during a 6 week mass phase they generally add a fast acting oral steroid and/or a fast acting ester of the injectable version and run it along with the base at a high dose. Some even opt to throw in a different slow acting ester than what’s used for the base. Upon completion of a 6 week mass cycle, they drop all the drugs for a 2 week period in exception to the base. This is done in order to prime the body so they can make additional gains by going back to the same drugs or changing over to different drugs altogether for another 6 weeks. You might ask “Why would they reduce their dosages for two weeks as opposed to continuing”? It’s because at that point their body will become desensitized to the powerful drugs and their receptors will be fully saturated. If steroid users stayed on fast acting drugs past the 6 week point and continued with the same protocol, they would be doing more harm than good because their SHGB levels will begin elevating and cortisol levels will increase-hence gains come to a screeching halt. Basically, these men do 8 week cycles with an emphasis on making gains during the final 6 weeks. Drugs like insulin are often added during a 6 week mass phase while growth hormone is usually run as a base throughout most of the year. You might ask? “What does this have to do with natural bodybuilding?” Everything!!! As you will soon find out in the book!!!
