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The Way of the Samurai: Selections and Commentaries from the Hagakure - Part One, Everything is in the Present Moment

  The Way of the Samurai Selections and Commentaries from Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure , the Classic Exposition on Zen and the Japanese Warrior Code of Bushido Portrait of Yamamoto Tsunetomo I. Everything is in the Present Moment "There is nothing outside of the present moment.  Life is nothing but a series of moments following one after another.  If one becomes aware of this fact, there is no reason to be in a hurry and no reason to be searching around for anything.  All one has to do is hold to the present moment and get on with life.  Yet everyone lets the moment slip from their grasp, believing that there is something else over and above the present moment and hunting all around for it, losing their awareness of the here and now.  It takes a lot of practice to learn to hold continually to the present moment and to not let it slip.  However, once one has found this realm, even if one cannot remain in it constantly, it is already the real thing.  If one has truly understood

It Came from the '90s: The Warrior Diet

 A.K.A.: Intermittent Fasting: A Personal History Hugh Jackman used intermittent fasting to get shredded  for the X-Men movie "Days of Future Past" (seen here in this scene from the film). I'm going to go ahead and say it (or write it, in this case), even if there's an ever so slight possibility that I might be wrong: I was one of the first serious lifters in this country to experiment with intermittent fasting for competition.  How can I make such a bold statement, especially considering the fact that every single athlete, bodybuilder, lifter, etc. on planet friggin' Earth  has at least heard  of intermittent fasting, and knows something about what it is even if they don't practice it/utilize it?  I say it with some degree  of confidence because I did it in the '90s, while getting ready for a powerlifting meet, and, I'll add, I had no clue whatsoever that what I was doing would go on to be called "intermittent fasting".  And that's becau

Becoming a Mass Monster

 In February of this year, I published a post entitled "Winter Bulk Building" where I outlined the program that my son Matthew started on Thanksgiving of last year in order to gain a lot of mass.  In a few months, he went from around 210 pounds to just over 250 pounds - I believe it was 251, to be precise.  That was the point when I wrote the bulk-building piece. Fast forward to Thanksgiving of this year, and I thought I would give an update on my son's training, and how he went from being "bulky" to being an outright natural  mass monster.  Now he is a little over 260 pounds, but he didn't just gain 10 pounds of muscle since my last post on his training, he also reduced his bodyfat, and there is a noticeable difference in his "look" now as opposed to then.  Here are a couple of pics that I took of him yesterday while he was training arms in my garage gym: Matthew Sloan performs dumbbell triceps extensions with a pair of 80s for sets of 12 to 15 re

How Squats Can Change Your Life

  How Squats Can Change Your Life! “Happiness is different from pleasure.  Happiness has something to do with struggling, enduring, accomplishing.”   -Dr. George Sheehan I have been reading a lot lately.  Not that I haven’t always read a lot, mind you, so I guess it would be more appropriate to say that I have been reading a lot more lately.  Which you can strike up a little bit to the slightly increased free time I have on my hands.  You see, I have been doing some really hard martial arts training a few days a week, including a session or two of sparring every week, which always takes its toll on you (at my age and with my injuries), and I simply haven’t been able to lift weights as frequently, nor even as intensely, as usual.  Which means (long story short) that I have had more time to read on my hands. As I was perusing one of the local online “marketplaces”, I came across a book with a most interesting title: How Squats Can Change Your Life!   At first, I thought, well, that’s an

John McCallum on Hard Work

  If you've never read any McCallum, you're in for a treat.  I didn't read McCallum myself until after  I had already become a successful lifter - not to mention a successful writer.  But I wish I had  read McCallum when I first began weight training.  It would have saved me a lot  of confusion, not to mention prevent me from following a lot of the foolhardy training programs I did follow, if I would have just read - and then put into practice - the great McCallum's advice on getting big. But here's the thing: McCallum ("Mac" as he was known) didn't JUST know how to get one big and strong.  He also knew how to get someone lean and looking good .  And he was light years  ahead of his time.  For instance, here's the diet he recommended about 15 to 20 years before Atkins (this article was written in 1965): “The Definition Diet, like most good things, is simple. It’s tasty, nutritious, easy to figure, easy to follow and the ideal adjunct for the hardco

Fundamentals: Keep it Simple

Reg Park - seen here in his 50s - built ALL of his muscle by keeping it simple! What follows might be slightly rambling (hey, it’s my blog so I can ramble however much I want).  So… I sat down at my computer this morning to crank out - or at least attempt to crank out - my second installment on “Sets and Reps”, a follow-up to my “Frequency” Fundamentals post from a few months ago, when I said to myself, “ya’ know, CS” (I always talk to myself in my mind in the third person for some damn reason) “I think you jumped the gun a little bit.  Maybe you need to just tell everyone to keep it simple, and stop trying to be so complex, before you get into the varying nuances of sets and reps .” Now, why did I tell myself this?  A couple of reasons. First, it started with a co-worker of mine who wanted to know about “sets and reps” himself.  He has been going to the gym for several months, and, of course, not making the best progress because he has been attempting to “go it alone” instead of liste