C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

     When training with full-body workouts, a couple of options are best when designing your workout program.  First, you can use a "heavy-light-medium" system of training—a lot of the full-body workouts here at Integral Strength reflect this option.  Or, second, you can use a system of training where none of the workouts are "all-out"—rather, each workout is more of a "practice session" for the various exercises.  In this second option, the workout sessions aren't necessarily not  hard, but they are not "intense" either.  You stop each set a couple reps shy of failure, and you never do so much work that you can't  train the muscle group—or the lift—48 hours later. Bradley Steiner's Tips      Years ago in IronMan magazine , sandwiched between all of the glossy pictures of steroid-bloated bodybuilders and the various pics of semi-nude (though admittedly beautiful) women, there was real  training advice.  Bill Starr h...

One of the Greatest There Ever Was... and Ever Will Be May His Memory be Eternal (a.k.a. "Bill Starr-style Advanced Squat Training")      I've been away from the internet, and lifting in general, for too long over the last couple of months.  Generally, of course, lack of internet-perusing is, decidedly, not a bad thing.  But in this case, I failed to read the news that Bill Starr died about two months ago.      If you haven't read much of my material, then you may not know that one of my greatest influences in lifting has always been Bill Starr.      There was no one like him.  No one.  Period.      This is what I had to say in a post a few years ago:       For those of you who don't know—and most of you who have read my training articles  do  know—my primary inspiration in training and writing has always been Bill Starr.  Perhaps nowadays people—powerlifters, stre...

a.k.a.: The Squat Nemesis Training Journal: Part Two by Jared Smith       It is week two, and to say that my legs feel like they have gone through the meat grinder would be a huge understatement. I must say that there is something almost enjoyable about feeling this way. Perhaps it is the fact that I am testing myself, which gives me a sense of accomplishment. I know what some of you are probably thinking (and you are correct): You don’t have to be sore to know you’ve trained hard, but sometimes we need that painful little reminder that we killed it!          I must say that I am pretty happy with the gains I have made thus far. Going from hardly being able grind out a triple just to parallel with 315, to taking such a weight ass to grass with a pause in that position, before attempting to send it through the roof, makes me happier than a witch in a broom factory. I know that number is...

a.k.a.: The Squat Nemesis Training Journal: Part One by Jared Smith          For some time now, I have been a firm believer that overtraining a muscle is about as possible as winning the lottery a dozen times in a row or establishing peace in the Middle East.   While the nervous system is another issue in-and-of-itself, the muscles can withstand much more punishment than the vast majority of people are willing to dish out. I admit that, when my training was in its infancy, I too was under the impression that infrequent training for each muscle was optimal.   However, as my knowledge evolved, I learned that the more frequently you can stimulate a muscle, the more opportunities for growth you can experience.   After delving into all the information I could find on how to enhance recovery between sessions, I embarked on a mission of training muscles as often as possible while remaining as fresh as possible ....

If you read this blog regularly, then you know that I haven't posted anything in quite some time. There are a few reasons for this.  I've been extremely busy with work, training, and  writing some totally non-strength related material.  The lack of material here, however, is about to change. First, you'll notice that the blog has a new "look"—assuming enough readers like the new look, we'll keep it as is. I'm also proud to say that I've hooked up with a couple of people who are very important to me—my dear friend Jared Smith and my oldest son Matthew Sloan—who are going to do some regularly contributing to the blog.  Hopefully it will be enough so that, between the three of us, we can have two to three posts each week. Jared Smith Jared is a former workout partner of mine, and a man who I'm proud to have called my friend for the past decade or so.  He's also one incredibly massive S.O.B.  But don't take my word for it.  Here's...