C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

       Before we get things started here, I haven’t been able to write quite as much as I want to on the blog.  I have been busy, as with a great many of you, in all likelihood, with various holiday functions and I have been trying to put the finishing touches on a book I have been working on for almost two years—and should have had finished by now—on Miyamoto Musashi’s “The Dokkodo.”  However, I will try to post at least one more essay/article—possibly two—to round out 2024.      With that little aside out of the way, let’s get down to business. I had a question from a reader who wanted to know if I knew of any training program that was capable of both building muscle and burning bodyfat at the same time.  If you’re unaware, it’s widely considered damn-near impossible to achieve that feat.  Even guys on anabolics have a problem with doing such a thing, although the introduction of steroids, and other perfor...

  Some Thoughts on How and When to Follow Specialization Programs Whether You’re Trying to Improve the Size of a Bodypart or Increase the Strength on a Specific Lift      This morning, I sat down with the intention of cranking out an article I had in mind for strength-specialization on a certain lift.  But, as I was working on it, I started to think that perhaps I should just write a “general” essay regarding my thoughts on when and how to go about setting up a specialization program.  The result is what you’re now staring at—I’ll save the other article I had in mind for another day.  (Hopefully, at least.  I forget more articles, unfortunately, than I actually write.)      First things first, for the most part you shouldn’t follow specialization programs the majority of the training year.  Specialization programs are needed when one of your lifts is falling behind the others—or if you’ve never really focus...

An 8-Week Program for Monstrous Mass and Power Gains      Over the years, I have often received the following question from a reader (though it comes in various guises): “If you could only do one exercise for the rest of your life, what would it be?”  I understand the question.  Or, at least, I understand where the question comes from.  Readers simply want to know what exercise I deem the best.      The truth is that I never really answer that question.  Mainly because I just don’t understand it. On what planet would I live where I could only do one exercise?  But as said, I do understand the rationale for the question in the first place.  And the answer I usually give is something along the lines of this: “Well, I don’t know about one exercise, but if I could only do a handful, they would be these (fill-in-the-blank).”  And the truth is, if I’m being quite honest, that I don’t always give the same ex...