C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Are You on a Training Program or Are You Just Working Out? Programming and the Importance of Routine Vince Gironda, poolside in the 1950s, the inspiration for this post. The title of this blog post comes from a quote from the legendary "Iron Guru" Vince Gironda, who would often extol, "Are you on a training program or just working out?"  Gironda knew that one of the most important facets of training - maybe the most important factor - was consistency, and the only way to be consistent is to be on a program. Programs.  Routines.  Schedules. The three words are thrown around almost interchangeably when it comes to workout programs, since we often refer to them as workout "routines" or workout "schedules," as well.  When it comes to "programming" - I mean exactly this usage.  When it comes to "routine" I mean it here as your daily schedule , the daily routine of your life  that is necessary for the program you are using to proper

Can One Be Both a Martial Artist and a Bodybuilder?      Both of my sons have recently taken more of an interest in martial arts—or, perhaps, I should say, just "fighting" in general.  My oldest son, Matthew, who writes regularly enough here, has gotten pretty serious about his martial arts training, with plenty of bag work, sparring, and conditioning, with a fairly high workload to boot.  (If you are going to take anything serious, then your work load should  be high, by the way.  As in the above caption from the great Masutatsu Oyama—one must "train more than one sleeps".  That is Mas Oyama in the picture.)      Yesterday, as we were finishing a sparring session, he remarked, "I just don't think I can do it."  And he seemed rather frustrated when he said it.      "What can't you do?" I asked.  I generally don't like comments that are in the "negative" from my offspring.      "I can't train in both martial a

     In past articles/posts, I have discussed the benefits of bodyweight-only – and bodyweight-primary – strength training.  Since I first started blogging about bodyweight training few years ago, I have received many emails from readers who are interested in this stuff.  The readers usually want one of two things.  One, they just want to tell me how much they have been enjoying bodyweight strength training, and they want to offer their two cents on how effective/ enjoyable this kind of training has been for them.  (I love reading these kind of e-mails because, first, it inspires me, and, second, it means I don’t have to reply to some of the odd-ball questions I occasionally get asked.)  Two, they want to know exactly what kind of program they should be following.  It is to this second set of questioners that this post is addressed – well, sort of .  You see, I think it’s important for people to learn to think for themselves.  When you learn to think for yourself in regards to train