C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

     “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to contemplate, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius      The Stoicism of Marcus Aurelius, of Seneca, of Musonius Rufus, and – yes – of Epictetus is a philosophy of life.  As William Wallace says in the movie Braveheart, “Every man dies, but not every man really lives.”  How many people do you know who waste their lives on things that have no purpose?  The truth is this: the vast majority of the people of this world waste their lives on trivial matters, on concerns with “fun”, on things outside of their own lives.  Let us not do this – let us return to Epictetus so that we may learn how to live, and how to imbue our training with philosophy itself, let our training be a place where we can apply philosophy so that it carries over into all of our life outside of training. Epictetus on the Importance of Training Our Minds:      When walking, you are careful not to step on a

The 30 Rep Workout      A few weeks ago, I was sitting on the couch watching television.   (I don’t usually sit on the couch and watch television.   Typically, I sit on the couch and either read a book or write in one of my notebooks—or if I have enough free time, I spend it in meditation, prayer, or a bit of lectio divina.   But my workout partner, Jason, was about to show up for a workout, and so I wanted something trivial to pass the time.)   Anyway, I turned it to ESPN, only to see that the Women’s Crossfit World Championships (did I even say that right?; not a big Crossfit fan, so anyone feel free to correct me if I need correcting) was on the tube.   The women were engaging in a competition that involved nothing more than doing 30 snatches—apparently they can either do power snatches or full snatches; whatever it takes to get the bar up—as fast as possible.   I think they were using 90 pounds, maybe 110, I can’t really remember.   The first competitor to reach 30 reps win

     In the beginning of the original “Conan the Barbarian” movie, the title character’s father is discussing what you can trust and what you can’t trust in life.  In one of my favorite lines in movie history, he quips, “You must learn its discipline.  For no one, no one in this world can you trust.  Not men, not women, not beasts” – and then he points to the sword he has just forged – “ this you can trust.”      I agree with Conan’s father in that I feel the same way about philosophy (and I feel the same way about lifting weights – the iron is always the same; it never lies).  To follow Epictetus’s way – and the way of the other Stoics – is to follow a path that can be trusted.  The ways of the world are folly, but the way of philosophy is a sure path – not to success, or power, or many of the other things that humankind too often puts its faith in – but to peace of mind.      Let us return again to Epictetus’ Enchiridion, and see what other wisdom we can gain from its pages.

Epictetus Pumps Iron, Part One Note:  This article series is – in many ways – a continuation of my earlier post “ Life Lessons Learned from Lifting .”  If you haven’t already, you may want to read that entry first before beginning this series.      One of my loves – outside of lifting weights – is philosophy.  When you hear/read the word philosophy, there is a good chance that another word – “boring” – springs to mind.  But I’m not talking about the dull, dry, armchair/academic variety of philosophy that is prevalent in modern Western society.  I’m talking about philosophy as it was originally intended to be: a way of life, a way of being .      In recent years, philosophy as life-practice is on more of an upswing, probably because of the rise in popularity – or at least the growing interest among Westerners – of Eastern philosophy: Buddhism and Taoism respectively.      But Western philosophy, once upon a time, was also a viable way of practicing life.  In fact, I would

 Bulk-Building Brutality H.I.T. Training Using the Big 5 System Mike Mentzer, the most well-known H.I.T. proponent      I'll  admit it: I’m not a big fan of high-intensity training. [1]   While a few people are neutral on the subject, most people either love or loathe high-intensity training principles.   I have, for the most part, been in the “loathe” category.   However, I do think it has its place, and I also think it’s been effective for a lot of lifters—when used properly, at least.      In the past, I have been critical of it for several reasons:   I think it breeds laziness.   I think that it doesn’t allow the lifter to build enough power and strength when performed for high repetitions.   I don’t think that it’s effective at increasing work capacity.   I think it’s for “whiners” and “complainers” who claim to be “hard-gainers”, but who in fact want an excuse to not train frequently.   (The “hardgainer” is one of those categories of lifters and bodybuil

Mass Made Easy (or at Least Simple)      I have been lifting weights hard now for over 20 years—the “training bug” hit me big right out of high school, back in ’92.   (I had been lifting even before that, during my last few years of high school, but that training was just to help my martial arts; I more or less just played around with weights during those years.)   I devoured every single article that I could come across during my first few years of training.   There was no such thing as the Internet at the time—yeah, I know, that’s hard for some of you young ‘uns to believe—so this meant reading every single bodybuilding and fitness magazine that hit the newsstands.   And it also meant reading every damn article in each one of those rags.   (Luckily I also had an uncle who had a lot of old Iron Man and Strength and Health magazines from the ‘70s and before—I devoured the hell out of those magazines too, and later much of that stuff would form many of my training theories and