C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

I have a new article out in the latest issue of Planet Muscle magazine (March/April '10) entitled "Build a Big Bench and Get a Big Body: Training Methods for Bench Press Power and Upper Body Size." If you're into powerlifting—or just increasing your bench press—then you should find it interesting. It covers most of the current methods for increasing bench press strength—Westside, traditional powerlifting cycles, eastern bloc methods, plus a few more.

This afternoon, I came home from work, sat down to do some loving-kindness meditation, then decided to open up the book “Being Zen: Bringing Meditation to Life” by the modern day Zen master Ezra Bayda. Since I had just finished some loving-kindness meditation, I thought I would turn to the chapter entitled—simply enough—“Loving Kindness” and see what Bayda had to say. I was glad I did. As a Christian, the chapter touched me when Bayda discussed prayer, and so I thought I would share with you some of what he had to say: “We can also access and touch loving-kindness directly. The “Way of the Pilgrim” is the story of a simple pilgrim who walked across nineteenth-century Russia. He carried only dried bread and two books—the Bible, and an early Orthodox Christian text, the Philokalia—to sustain his body and his practice. With a genuine homesickness for God, his only aim was to learn to pray without ceasing. “Although we’re unlikely to ever be pilgrims in ...

I have a new article out in the March, '10 issue of Iron Man magazine. The article is entitled "Mass Insanity: Crazy Training for Insane Muscle Gaining." Catchy title if I do say so myself. Now, to be honest, the real reason to buy the magazine—besides my article—is because of Bill Starr's piece entitled "Make it Harder: There Are No Shortcuts on the Road to Building Strength." I love Starr, but this particular article—which tackles the health problem in America and how no one wants to train hard anymore—is the best training article I've read in I-can't-remember-when. Starr is at his curmudgeonly best, and the article is long, rambling (but in a good way), and pulls no punches. Bottom line: Go out and buy the March issue of Iron Man . Starr's article alone is worth the price of admission.

My friend—and fellow iron-pumper—Jared Smith (a big, hulking power-bodybuilder) sent me the following training "mini-article". Jared has some good advice in this piece. And most of you who read this blog for training advice might actually follow it. (Unlike a lot of the so-called bodybuilders who read most of the newsstand mags.) So... here it is: Commercial Manipulation and the REAL Key to Massive Arms Jared Smith I can't tell you how man times I've picked up a magazine that only glorifies abs and biceps and tells you that the key to bigger arms is simply to curl until your brain goes numb. Before I even get into the meat and potatoes of the program I'll outline, don't get the idea that I am anti-curl, but the curl aint gonna put size on those arms. What puts size on your arms are the same things that put size on the rest of you: COMPOUND MOVEMENTS. Benches, dips, deadlifts,chins, squats. Now before the vast majority of everyone who reads this get co...

Over the last few months, I've written a couple of articles for Mike Mahler that have appeared on his website—www.mikemahler.com—or in his "Aggressive Strength" magazine. In the past, I have enjoyed reading some of Mahler's articles on training—his stuff is not necessarily revolutionary but he is very good at assimilating ideas from great lifters both past and present. However, it was only recently—after reading a lot of his "Aggressive Strength Living" articles—that I came to appreciate just where Mahler's strength lies. Perhaps it's Mahler's background in Eastern philosophies—Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism—that causes me to like him so much, but I think it's more of the fact that he's not your typical "self-help", "positive thinking" sort of writer (as the article below will clearly show). I picked out the following article because it resonated with me, but I hope you will use it as a springboard to expl...

Mike Mahler—over at www.mikemahler.com—puts out an excellent on-line magazine called "Aggressive Strength Magazine". The magazine always has plenty of great information, and best of all... it's free. (Mike, by the way, also seems like a wonderful person. He's one of the few vegan strength coaches/athletes that you'll find. Read over his personal articles and you'll see that he has a very spiritual side to him—we need more guys like that in the business.) The latest issue of "Aggressive Strength" is out, and I have an article in it entitled "3 Keys to Monstrous Muscle and Strength Gains". Here's the link to Aggressive Strength Magazine, Issue 176 .

Training Entry #2: The One with the Bottom-Position Squats... and the Poundage... and Tapping into The Source Sunday, January 17th Since my last training entry, several things have happened to me. For one—and this is the most impacting—I severely pulled a pectoral muscle. A couple of years ago, I had a partial pec tear, so I've had to take it kind of easy while training my chest muscles. However, even training easy didn't help in this case. I haven't let the minor setback keep me from training heavy, however. I have—since my last entry—been training quite heavy on squats, deads (various kinds), overhead presses (I can overhead press without much discomfort), and various sorts of upper-body pulling movements (chins, for instance). The other is that I have been using the 5 to 7 Method of training. (Read the post a couple below this one for more info on that form of training.) Now, on with this entry.... For the past several weeks, I have been lif...