C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

The 6 Primary Reasons Why You’re Not Achieving Your Goals      I think it’s safe to say that a whole lot of gym-goers aren’t making the gains that they want, aren’t reaching their goals, or aren’t making the progress that they thought they would when they first started lifting.  Maybe they made progress at first, but after those initial “newbie gains,” it just stopped.  When you first pick up a barbell, pretty much anything that you do will work.  But after those first 8 weeks or so, the gains come grinding to a halt and many a lifter is left bewildered and confused as to what to do next or what to do to get those gains moving again.  In this essay, I’ll look at some of the most common culprits for why you’re not making gains.  This list isn’t extensive, perhaps, but if you heed my advice, the gains will start coming again.  So, without any further preamble, let’s get started.  Here are 6 reasons that you’re not making gains. ...

An “Everything Moderate” Approach to Heavy Singles, Full-Body Training, and Continued Progress      As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat.  I’m unsure where this idiom originated from—as an avowed animal lover I can’t imagine skinning any sentient being—but it does contain a certain truth.  If one method fails at something you are trying to achieve, you should find another.  Training is no different.      In my last article , I presented a Bill Starr-inspired method of implementing heavy singles into a full-body routine using Starr’s heavy/light/medium system.  When training with full-body workouts—singles or otherwise—you basically have two options that are the most effective for the majority of lifters.  You can cycle your training loads with the H-L-M method—or something similar, but load-cycling is the point—or you can follow an “everything moderate” approach, where, essentially, all ...