C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Tips and Advice for Tailoring Your Training Routine Part 2: Selecting a Program      In post-modern philosophy, there is a term that is important to understand.  I’m not a post-modernist myself—I am, if anything, an integralist , one who integrates different philosophies, East and West, into a singular whole—but I feel this concept is important.  It’s called “the myth of the given.”  The “myth” is when we take our given perception of things to be how they actually are.  We do this more often than we think.  It’s easy to understand this concept when it comes to simple objects, but less so when it comes to ideas.  We may not like how something tastes—raw oysters,for example—so we think oysters are simply bad.  Others, however, may love raw oysters—I could eat them by the bucket.  In this instance, it’s easy to see the myth of the given at work.  Even though you may find oysters personally unsettling, and it befuddles yo...

  Read On and Discover the 5 “Musts” of All Good Training Programs      If you want to make gains in training—be it mass gains, getting as strong as humanly possible, or you simply want to look good in a pair of swimming trunks or a bikini—then there are several universal features to a training program that all lifters should be doing.  If you include these elements in your training then you will get good results no matter your goals.      It doesn’t matter if you train with high-intensity and low volume or vice versa, whether you train every day of the week or can only make it to the gym a couple times per week, whether you train with high reps, low reps, or something in between, every successful training program should include the following elements.  Here are the 5 musts of all good workout programs: #1: You MUST Squat      I wrote this in a separate essay over 10 years ago:   ...