C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Years ago, when I was a regular columnist for Ironman Magazine , I wrote an article in which I said, "bodybuilding has ruined strength training in America."  I'm pretty sure that I got more hate mail from that ONE article than all my others put together, and I wrote a LOT  of articles for Ironman  in the '90s and the early years of this century, so that's saying something.  But I stand by that statement.  Now, you may ask yourself, why am I beginning an article on strength training for martial artists  with an anecdote I wrote for a bodybuilding magazine that most martial artists are never going to read?  And the reason is simple: bodybuilding has also ruined martial arts strength training  in America.  Why?  Most martial artists who take up weight training in this country are greatly influenced by bodybuilding-style training , whether they know it or not, the kind of training that relies on multiple sets of multiple reps in order...

  Essays and Thoughts on  The Dokkodo Part Seven Do Not Regret What Has Been Done Woodblock print by the artist Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi of a man holding a mirror to Musashi in order to get a better look at the swordsman.  Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital. id. jpd 01793) Often, regret is nothing more than a way of "holding on," of our inability to truly let go .  In this way, you can see how this maxim relates to our previous one of being "detached from the desire" for worldly things.  Our regret, when looked at from this perspective, is something that we are actually attached to .  We don't want  to let go of our past.  And so we don't! Our regrets - as with many other things - are nothing more than our attachment to the past.  We think, we ruminate, we worry about what we might have done different.  And so we stay stuck in a past that only exists in our mind, or in our thoughts , to be a little more precise.  For we could...