C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Welcome to the World of High-Intensity, High-Volume Workouts-Of-The-Day! First things first: read Part One of this series from September 15th of last month if you haven't already done so.  If you have, then we can move on... Let's keep things as simple as possible for the sake of "ease of workouts".  The workouts themselves will be hard enough without overcomplicating the program. Start off by training each of the core lifts - squats, bench presses, and deadlifts - on one day per week.  I like to train during the week when on this program - or when training someone on this program - and then take the weekends off for rest, relaxation, drinking cocktails, throwing down the gauntlet at an arm-wrestling tournament; ya' know, whatever it is you like to do with your weekends without having to think about also performing a hard-ass training session. So the split would look like this: Monday: Squats - pick any of the WOD below Wednesday: Bench Presses - pick any of the...

The 30 Rep Workout      A few weeks ago, I was sitting on the couch watching television.   (I don’t usually sit on the couch and watch television.   Typically, I sit on the couch and either read a book or write in one of my notebooks—or if I have enough free time, I spend it in meditation, prayer, or a bit of lectio divina.   But my workout partner, Jason, was about to show up for a workout, and so I wanted something trivial to pass the time.)   Anyway, I turned it to ESPN, only to see that the Women’s Crossfit World Championships (did I even say that right?; not a big Crossfit fan, so anyone feel free to correct me if I need correcting) was on the tube.   The women were engaging in a competition that involved nothing more than doing 30 snatches—apparently they can either do power snatches or full snatches; whatever it takes to get the bar up—as fast as possible.   I think they were using 90 pounds, maybe 110, I can’t really reme...

The One-Exercise-Per-Muscle Group Manifesto      God only knows how many different training routines are out there in today’s bodybuilding world.   The magazine in your hands alone probably has at least a half dozen of them.   All this eclecticism can get a bit confusing for many bodybuilders and strength athletes.   Especially for those guys and gals of you that are just starting out.   So, what is the best way to train?      One reason that so many different programs exist is because all of them are effective (to a certain extent), and lifters and ‘builders all respond differently to different programs based on their body types.   I’m here to tell you, however, that one method of training seems to stand above all the others.   And this method is the one-exercise-per-bodypart philosophy.   Of course, many different workouts exist within one-exercise-per-muscle group training, so this article will at...

I talked to my Uncle Kirk tonight. He lives in Texas. He stands about an inch taller than me—he's 5'7". He weighs about 10 pounds heavier than I do—he's 200 lbs or so. He's also 58 years old, and built like the proverbial brick shit-house. He also trains in a barn—squat rack, a bench press, a few barbells, lots of dumbbells, and a whole crap-load of weights—with a few guys who are probably 30 years younger than him. He's been training since his teens, can bench press in the mid-300s, and can deadlift around 500 pounds—not as strong as he once was, but all-in-all still a pretty strong S.O.B. He calls me to talk training, and we just like to keep each other updated as to the kind of progress we're making and the kind of workouts we're performing. "What'd you do tonight?" I asked. "A 10 sets workout," he replied. I know that my Uncle doesn't use a "split" routine—never has—so I was ...