C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  One-Exercise-Per-Workout for Strength, Power, AND Muscle Mass Anthony Ditillo wrote several programs that are similar to the one-lift-a-day program presented here.      The best programs are often both hard and simple.  They’re also—if articles and YouTube videos are to be believed—not very popular.  Which probably has a lot to do with the fact that, well, they’re hard and simple.  Hard and simple doesn’t usually sell magazines, or make for a popular “fitness” influencer,  or imbue a blogger with too many readers.  Oh, well.  It doesn’t make it any less true.  So I’m here to once again preach a hard and simple workout program.      I have been lifting weights, in various forms, since the late ‘80s.  I have been a bodybuilder, powerlifter, and competitive martial artist, changing programs to produce desired goals.  I have also written about a variety of programs since I first started wor...

                       Set/Rep Variations for Strength and Power Part Two The DYNAMIC EFFORT Method The great Jim Williams bench pressing in his heyday.      A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an essay on some of the set/rep variations that are the best if your goals are strength and power, as opposed to just gaining muscle mass.  I wrote about 5x5 training, ramp training, and variations that use multiple sets of low reps.  Here I would like to explore some SPEED work set/rep combos that are ideal for the powerlifter or anyone that wants to boost their squat, bench press, or deadlift. Multiple Sets/Low Reps for Speed      This form of training is often referred to as “dynamic effort” training.  It became popular as a mode of training within Westside Barbell.  For Westside, this form of training was of utmost importance due to the fact that the Westside lifter al...

  A “Nothing to Do, Nowhere to Go” Practice for Contemporary Budoka      In my last “Budo Zen” article on hard work, I mentioned at the end how a lot of practitioners don’t like—or, at the very least, don’t know what to make of—the goalless practice in Zen of “nothing to do and nowhere to go.”  If there is nothing to do and nowhere to go then what is the point? This is a common enough refrain, and it’s what I would like to explore a little further here.      Goals are needed in life.  That’s the first thing that needs to be understood.  You are not going to achieve much (in many aspects of your life) if you don’t have a clear goal, and a means to get there.  Often, when it comes to lifting, I discuss on this blog how too many lifters—bodybuilders, strength athletes, and, yes, martial artists, too—will often allow the means to justify the ends .  This is the wrong approach.  If you allow the “means” (...