C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

A Bill Starr-Inspired Method for Making Consistent Progress      When many lifters think of Bill Starr (assuming they even know who he was), they often think of his 5x5 heavy-light-medium system , a system of training that I have used at times, and have often touted, over almost the entirety of my lifting and writing career.  You can probably do a brief, cursory search right now on “Bill Starr training program” or something similar, and you will, in all likelihood, find more than a few training plans, and almost all of them—or so I would bet a hefty sum—will outline a week or two of training using 5 sets of 5 reps.  But if you take the time to read a lot of the training articles that Starr actually wrote—he penned hundreds, if not thousands, of articles for almost all of the major bodybuilding magazines and training journals during his lifetime—you would find that there was a lot more to his system of training than what he is typically known for....

  A "Both/And" Approach to Training      We often live in a world of dichotomies, juxtapositions, and sometimes the downright oxymoronic.  Despite the obviousness, however, of the “yin/yang” of our world, we, as people, tend to take an “either/or” approach to life.  This is especially so in the worlds of bodybuilding, strength training, and, really, just general fitness and health.  It’s either high-volume with a lot of sets and reps or “high-intensity” with brief, incredibly hard workouts.  Or it’s Carnivore and other high-fat, animal-forward diets versus vegan and high-carb, incredibly low-fat diets.  To paraphrase Kipling, East is East and West is West, and never shall the ‘twain meet.  But the problem is that’s simply not the way of things .      Good religions, philosophies, and theologies always take a “both/and” approach to things.  I once asked a priest what he thought defined a “heresy” as...

Bradley Steiner's "Rugged Size and Strength Program" Version 2.0 A.K.A.: The New, Improved, Totally Bad-Ass Rugged Size and Strength Program for 21st Century Mass and Power! Bradley Steiner flexing his well-developed arms.  This picture was taken sometime in the '70s.   Anyone who has read my blog with more than passing interest knows that one of my inspirations has always been Bradley Steiner (sometimes his name would appear as Bradly J.  Steiner).  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Steiner, he wrote a LOT of really good articles for the old IronMan  magazine in the '70s and '80s, and he wrote a monthly column for them for decades, into the 21st century. Steiner was the  voice of basic, sensible, but tough  programs using full-body workouts.  In turn, he inspired a lot of other writers (Stuart McRobert probably was the most well-known) who wrote for IronMan  starting in the '80s, and continuing to this day.  And his training prog...