C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

     While reading Nick Horton’s good blog “The Iron Samurai” the other day [1] , I came across this quote by the samurai Yamaoku Tesshu: “ In order to learn about the Way, forget about self and awaken to the truth… Exerting self is a mistake… We should not say “myself” — in truth there is no such thing… When there is no thought of self, true Bushido develops.” the samurai, and Zen master, Yamaoku Tesshu      The essence of Bushido is summed up in the last sentence.      When there is no thought of self, true Bushido develops .      Bushido—for those of you who are unaware—is often translated as “the way of the warrior” or, a more literal definition, “the samurai’s way.”   It is the way of one who practices Budo.   (Budo means “martial path”.)      I have often thought of lifting as a form of Budo, and my gym as the dojo.   (This is one reason that I enjoy lifting at home, in my garage dungeon gym.   It is not commercial, and, therefore, becomes more of a dojo tha

Over at the "Iron Samurai" (see my "links" section), Nick Horton has a post that I wish I would have written myself.  It's entitled "Overtraining Doesn't Exist." I imagine the title alone would enflame many of your H.I.T. pundits or others who may think that Mike Mentzer was actually on to something. Here's a portion of the article : I’m going to say something many people in the fitness industry will get pissed at me for. But I believe it to be true (within reason). OVERTRAINING DOESN’T EXIST That’s bullshit, of course. Overtraining is a medical syndrome that some people do get themselves into. But… it is EXTREMELY rare, and YOU have never had it. I want you to avoid ANY thought of overtraining. In all of the years I have been coaching, I have not EVER overtrained a single athlete. Ever. CNS fatigue is not overtraining. Feeling tired is not overtraining. A loss of appetite is not overtraining. Being massively sore is not ove

A couple years ago, I had a few "around the web" posts where I re-posted or linked to articles that I thought readers of my stuff would find interesting. From now on, I'm going to routinely do this again (I'm thinking that about once every 2 weeks would be good to shoot for), as long as I can find enough articles that I think browsers of this article would enjoy. I've come across several good articles, so here they are in no uncertain order: The first one is from Dan John, entitled Even Easier Strength .  And you thought his 40-Day Program was simple?  This breaks it down for those of you who may have a hard time doing stuff like simple comprehension. Over at T-Nation, despite the fact that they now publish a whole bunch of crap, there are still the occasional good articles, such as this one from Mark Rippetoe.  It's always nice when Rippetoe "goes off."  Oh, and just to make you realize how much you want to read this piece, here's a go