C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

On Striving to do Fewer Things Better      In my recent Go Heavy or Go Home essay, I discussed Pavel Tsatsouline’s “7 rules of Russian training.”  The last of the rules is “You must strive to do fewer things better.”  In this essay, we will look at the importance of this rule and some various training strategies to accomplish it.      I often write about the different reasons that lifters don’t get the results out of their training that they’re looking for.  Not using the right movements, following so-called bro-split routines that are also coupled with too many machine and cable exercises, along with jumping from program-to-program are just a few of the workout ideas that I’m apt to rail against.  For these reasons and some others, there are a lot of average gym-goers—even ones who have been “training” for years on end—who don’t look like they lift.      The best programs often involve doing...

  One-Exercise-Per-Workout for Strength, Power, AND Muscle Mass Anthony Ditillo wrote several programs that are similar to the one-lift-a-day program presented here.      The best programs are often both hard and simple.  They’re also—if articles and YouTube videos are to be believed—not very popular.  Which probably has a lot to do with the fact that, well, they’re hard and simple.  Hard and simple doesn’t usually sell magazines, or make for a popular “fitness” influencer,  or imbue a blogger with too many readers.  Oh, well.  It doesn’t make it any less true.  So I’m here to once again preach a hard and simple workout program.      I have been lifting weights, in various forms, since the late ‘80s.  I have been a bodybuilder, powerlifter, and competitive martial artist, changing programs to produce desired goals.  I have also written about a variety of programs since I first started wor...