C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Some “Secrets” to Heavy Training and Continued Progress      There are a lot of pithy sayings out there for lifters, strength athletes, and just casual gym-goers.  Almost everyone, even folks who have never picked up a barbell a single day in their lives, has heard (or read) the phrase “no pain, no gain.”  When I started training in the ‘80s, and I’m pretty sure it became even more popular in the ‘90s, a common saying was to “go heavy or go home.”  There’s some truth in these, and other sayings, but also some misinformation.  Pain isn’t always good, for example.  Heck, that phrase—no pain, no gain—has probably caused just as much harm as help.   Maybe not to the same degree, but you could argue that “go heavy or go home” has also caused the derailment of more than a few workouts and routines.      Context is important.  Pain can be good, but it can also be decidedly bad.  You should never train t...

  Some Training Ideas for Outdoor Fall Lifting Using Loaded Carries and Odd Lifts      I have written before that my favorite time of the year to train is the Fall season.  In fact, last year, around this exact same time, I wrote a piece on Fall training that was mainly centered around sandbag workouts.  In this essay, I want to do something a little different by giving you some different and varied training ideas for outdoor lifting using loaded carries and other “odd” lifts.      For the first time this year, it’s starting to get a little cool here in central Alabama where I live.  And when coolness sets in, I like to take some training implements and objects from my garage to the yard, where I can lift, carry, drag, flip, or push them in assorted ways.      Last night, after completing a full-body workout consisting of front squats, kettlebell cleans, bench presses, chins, and barbell cur...

  A.K.A “Simple Workouts + Heavy Training = Effective Results” C.S. dragging a sled on the cover of his book "Ultimate Strength."  Read on to discover why you MUST drag or carry different objects in order to maximize your results! I have written about it so many times that you wouldn’t think it needs repeating, but the truth is that it does!  I’m talking about getting “back-to-the-basics”, about our inability to stop making things so complicated, and just do simple, hard, basic, result-producing workouts.  And I also think that the truth is that we will always need to remind ourselves of this because it is in our nature to make things “complicated”, to always be searching for some more complex but somehow “better” program that will produce results even quicker for us.  Even though we really “should” know better, and even though we do know better, we tend to always make this mistake. And this goes for myself, as well.  Maybe not so much with barbell train...