C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Director Ke Zhou’s second directorial effort (the first being “The Master”) is more stylish than it is good, but it has enough drama and decent martial arts action to please aficionados, while the casual viewer would probably be best suited watching something else. I can remember the joy as a kid - and already a martial arts practitioner at the age of 9 - when I first saw Hong Kong kung-fu films.  There was something so different about them, and I’m not just talking culturally, I’m talking about the martial arts themselves.  It wasn’t until I was older that I realized just what that “something” was: the martial arts moves were fast .  This was in stark contrast to the martial arts films of Jean Claude Van Damme or even earlier ones starring Chuck Norris.  (And they were even more of a far cry from watching “Kung-Fu” as a kid, with the non-martial artist, non-Asian David Carradine!)  In American-made martial arts actioners - what few there were - the action was purposely slowed d

    Lately, my life has been pretty awful, and yet pretty awesome at the same time.  And, although most of the awfulness in this case is because of my own stupid choices, I think most of our lives are like this most of the time.  But that doesn’t mean that my life is just a mixed “blob” of these two ways of living - in other words, I truly mean that it’s both awful and awesome at the same time.     Many years ago, and in much better - not to mention cleaner - prose than I could ever hope (in the first case) or want (in the second case) to ever write, the pretty-much awesome writer of great Catholic apologetics, GK Chesterton, wrote that Christianity loves red, and it loves white, but it has a healthy hatred of the pink.  You see, good, healthy religion - and I think this can apply to Zen as well as Christianity, although Christianity at its finest is the best example - is never a blending together of opposites.  Nor is it a rejection of one pole in favor of the other. (Thi

If you haven't noticed, the blog has a new look.  You may have also noticed a new Header, with a subheading that explains the fact that this blog will now focus on essays - as opposed to traditional articles - on a wide range of subjects. I thought it fitting, then, that the first essay with this new focus would actually concentrate, in some way, on all of the topics that I will be writing about. *** "Damon of Athens said, 'when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.'  Artists cultivate our culture.  Politicians can write as many laws as they wish, but they will never change the heart of the culture.  This belongs to the artists - we do battle for the soul of society."   -Jonathan Jackson in The Mystery of Art: Becoming an Artist in the Image of God The above quote by the Nashville actor Jonathan Jackson covers fundamentally what I'm going to cover in this essay, only with more detail.  But if you underst

Shortly, you will see a big change at Integral Strength. First off, I'm back to writing with a volume that I haven't attempted in many years, which means a lot more posts.  But Integral Strength is also going to change in a large way. For the last several years, my health has sucked , to the point at which I even thought I may only live a few more years.  This has severely limited the amount of training I could do (in lifting or martial arts), and it has hindered the amount of writing I have done, whether it was articles for magazines or posts on my blog.  But I am now feeling like my old self for the last several weeks.  And I'm not just talking about feeling a little better, I'm talking about feeling better than I have felt in about a decade (when I was at my peak strength and conditioning in my mid 30s).  I'm currently lifting (or performing bodyweight workouts) 3 days per week, in addition to regular martial art workouts such as I haven't done in almost

A.K.A: Roscoe and His Backwoods Alabama Arm Power Program Part ONE       I told myself, when I first began writing this piece, that I would no longer do any multi-part series on this blog.  The main reason being that I never seem to get around to writing the 2nd or 3rd (or even 4th) parts.  However, this piece was going to be SO long that I had to go back on my original intention.      I hope you enjoy.      A few years ago, I took up the last sport I will compete in.  Unless my health improves, I seriously doubt competitive events are in my future, especially the kind that I have competed in over the years.  (Towards the end of this post, I will even tell you about my only—and final—competition in the particular sport concerned with here.)  Barring help from the Triune Absolute, I just don't see full-contact martial arts, bodybuilding, powerlifting, or arm wrestling in my future.      But enough whining from me.  Here's a little snippet of what I learned about build

This may be a bit of an odd post.  It's basically whatever is simply swirling around in my head at the moment.  I will try my best to make sense of it.  Not for me.  It makes sense for me, however abstract it might be.  But for you. I've often felt that what makes us good, makes us bad, as well.  Let me explain... A Saint Who Wasn't When I was accepted into the Orthodox Church (or, as the Orthodox refer to it, the One Holy, Catholic, and Orthodox Church), baptized, and then chrismated, I took Saint Christopher as my patron Saint.  It made sense to me, since my parents had given me the name Christopher (after the very same saint, Christopher the Christ-Bearer).  (They also gave me two other middle names, one of them being Stuart, for those of you who actually give a damn.  Hence, the name C.S.)  But Christopher is not the saint I would have originally chosen.  No, that honor would have gone to Saint David, or the Prophet David, to be precise.  (Unlike the Roman Catho

Pat Casey: King of all Powerlifters The massive Pat Casey performing shoulder presses. When I first fell in love with powerlifting - and power training in general - in the mid '90s, I immediately had a few heroes.  Some of the early 19th century strongmen such as George Hackenschmidt, Arthur Saxon, and Louis Cyr were all fascinating to me.  As was my favorite power bodybuilder of all time, Marvin Eder ,and then, of course, there were guys like Bill Kazmaier, Don Reinhoudt, and Bruce Wilhelm.  But, once I discovered him, Pat Casey might have - just might have - been my favorite. Several different things fascinated me about Casey.  First, was his strength (obviously).  He was ahead of his time when it came to the bench press and the squat.  Second, was his physique.  He looked as if he could - at any time - strip some fat and step onto the bodybuilding stage. And third was his training.  And it was this 3rd thing that I think I loved the most.  A lot of his training influ