C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

On Striving to do Fewer Things Better      In my recent Go Heavy or Go Home essay, I discussed Pavel Tsatsouline’s “7 rules of Russian training.”  The last of the rules is “You must strive to do fewer things better.”  In this essay, we will look at the importance of this rule and some various training strategies to accomplish it.      I often write about the different reasons that lifters don’t get the results out of their training that they’re looking for.  Not using the right movements, following so-called bro-split routines that are also coupled with too many machine and cable exercises, along with jumping from program-to-program are just a few of the workout ideas that I’m apt to rail against.  For these reasons and some others, there are a lot of average gym-goers—even ones who have been “training” for years on end—who don’t look like they lift.      The best programs often involve doing...

Old-School Workout Methods for Achieving Your Training Goals      I admit that I’m not up on anything new in the world of strength training and bodybuilding.  I couldn’t tell you a single thing about any modern bodybuilder or strength athlete or any new methods of training.  I guess that’s a bit of a personality fault on my part considering the subjects I write about.  However, it’s been my view for as long as I can remember that there really isn’t anything new under the mass-building sun.      To be honest, there isn’t anything new in, well, anything .  There is more stuff that is forgotten than is discovered.  And even when something new is “discovered,” it’s more often than not simply something that had been lost.      I take this view in almost any subject that I love, whether it’s strength training, martial arts, or even philosophy and theology.  I am a classical theist , after ...