Coming Soon...

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 2 decades!

In future posts, I will discuss my health problems, and how my practice of kan-geiko helped me immensely as a supplement to the medicine and therapy I received from a great neurological team, but for the sake of this post, I want to focus on what is to come.

The past is done.  If I would have known before what I know now, there is no doubt that I wouldn't have suffered for as long as I did.  But there is no need to even think about the past, much less dwell upon it.  Use the past to teach you lessons for the future.  Nothing more.

So I will look ahead to the future.

Soon you will be able to read the topic you want at Integral Strength by clicking on the "header" for that particular subject.

I will be writing on 5 separate, but interrelated, topics.  At first, you may not even see how they are all related, but it will become clear if you choose to read all my posts.  But you don't have to.  For instance, if you love powerlifting or bodybuilding but could care less about Greek Philosophy or Zen Combat (something I don't personally recommend, since both aid the lifter immensely, but it's not my choice, and, besides, if you are not ready to hear, you will be incapable of listening) then all you have to do is click on the "Lifting" header, and you can read as much old-fashioned, classic lifting as your heart so desires.

In no certain order, my future posts will be on the following subjects:

• Lifting.  This will include old-school approaches to powerlifting and bodybuilding for the modern lifter.
• Zen Combat.  Unless you have read and understood a book written by Jay Gluck in 1963, then you will not understand (yet) what is meant by Zen Combat.  Obviously it has something to do with both Zen and the martial arts, but that is not to understand it.  It is about the "jutsu" of training - even if that training is powerlifting - and how you, the practitioner, must discover the do for yourself.  Clear as mud?  Cool.  You'll get it - or you won't - in the future.
• Ancient Philosophy.  This will primarily deal with ancient Greek philosophy.  If you want to read the Asian stuff, then most of that will be under the "Zen Combat" heading, but it's the ancient philosophy of the Greeks that has affected me more than anything.  Its also the philosophy that I can believe best help the modern man.
• Asian Cinema.  The one thing that I have loved in my life as long as I have loved lifting and martial arts is Asian cinema.  From the time my father first made me watch The Seven Samurai as a child, through the '80s and my love of Shaw Brothers kung-fu flicks, and on through this decade and my newfound love of Thai and South Korean cinema, I have never stopped loving Asian Cinema.  On this topic, I will primarily write movie reviews, but I will also write some essays on the influence of different genres of Asian cinema in both my life and the greater world.
• Fiction.  And, lastly, I will include some of my fiction writing.  At one point in my life, I stopped writing non-fiction (bodybuilding) articles altogether in an attempt to become a serious novelist.  It was pretty much a bust because - although I was published - I just couldn't make enough money as I could in non-fiction, even after I had my first novel published.  Originally I wrote under the name Christopher Sloan when publishing my novels and short stories, but I prefer to write under the name (and be called) C.S. so, from now on, C.S. Sloan will be the name under which I pen all of my work. Most of my fiction is "military" in nature, so you will find the obvious influences from my martial arts training and my lifting in my works.

In short, Integral Strength is about to become truly integral.