C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  A samurai and the love of his life had just gotten married, and were traveling by boat to their honeymoon, when a massive storm hit.*  The samurai's wife began to tremble in fear, for there was no shore in sight, and their boat was being tossed and turned in the massive waves that were sure to capsize it at any moment!  She ran to find her husband, a brave warrior who she thought would provide her comfort in their seemingly perilous situation.  But when she found him, he was peacefully looking out at the sea, as if the sun was out and the waves were calm. Lightning cracked across the sky.  Thunder rumbled from all directions.  The boat lurched forward violently. "How can you be so calm?!" the wife yelled, frantically clinging to her husband.  "We are about to die!  Do you not value your life?" When the samurai heard these words of his wife, he looked down upon her, pulled out his katana, and put it to his wife's neck.  She looked at him.  And laughed. &quo

  Jack LaLanne in his bodybuilding days.  LaLanne was the very epitome of Ageless Bodybuilding Ageless Bodybuilding Part One A Basic Outline I have, for quite some time now, wanted to write a series on “ageless bodybuilding.”  The seed was planted a couple of years ago when I was training with some “older” training partners, and we got some great results from following much of the advice I will outline in this series.  The difference is that this series will include some different and very varied workout programs that fall under the Ageless Bodybuilding template. This article is primarily for bodybuilders 50+ who want to still train and make gains , while also preventing injuries, and not only staying healthy but improving their health as time marches continually on.  This article, while geared toward bodybuilders who trained for a number of years before reaching 50, is also for bodybuilders who didn’t even start training until they were well over 50 years of age.  So whether you’

For this week's "Thursday Throwback," I have selected an article that I wrote ten years ago, when I was just about to turn 40.  In the ten years since I wrote this one, more and more lifters and bodybuilders, thankfully, use high-frequency training, which is really the gist of what this article is about. If you have tried both "conventional" bodybuilding training (fairly high volume, split workouts, going for the "pump") and "hardgainer" training (low volume, all-out "intensity", a couple days a week of training, full-body workouts), but haven't gotten good results from either kind of training, well, you might just be...  The Other Kind of Hardgainer [1] C.S. about ten years ago, when this article was originally written. I think the majority of lifters—even ones who have been training a long time and  should  know better—mistakenly believe that there are essentially two kinds of training, and two kinds of lifters: the "ea

Power Rack Training for Physical Development   Part Two: The Ultimate Mass-Gaining, Bulk-Building Power Rack Training Program  (Inspired by Joseph Curtis “J.C.” Hise and the writings of Peary Rader) J.C. Hise, the inspiration for this article, in a picture from the 1930s. About two weeks ago, I released Part One of (what I expect to be) a semi-regular, but perhaps sporadic series on training in the power rack.  As I mentioned in that first part, the rack is so much more than a good training area to do partials—which, unfortunately, I think that is about the only thing it’s used for these days.  I recommend that you read Part One first, though it’s not necessary but it would be helpful, since I don’t plan on rehashing all of the goodies the power rack has to offer.  In Part One, I created a “new” program, but one heavily influenced by Charles A. Smith, who in turn was quite influenced by J.C. Hise, and Hise’s mentor Mark Berry.  It’s a basic, full-body, 3-days-per-week program that wi