C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Musings on Lifting, Life, and the Reasons for Training (with a few workouts thrown in for good measure)      Why do you train?  It’s a question you must ask yourself and it’s a question that only you can answer.  To help you with the question, I can only tell you why I train.  But to do that, we have to go back to the past a little bit.  Why did I train?  What got me started in the first place?  What kept me going?  Why do I train now and why will I continue to train long into the future?      I started training when I was pretty young, around 13 years old.  It might have been 14.  I’m not really sure, though 13 sounds about right.  It would have been in ‘86 or ‘87, when my father bought me one of those cement-filled DP weight sets for either my birthday or Christmas.  I think it was my birthday, because I remember first training in the summer, and I was born in May.  My siste...

                     While doing research for my last article, I was re-reading Bradley Steiner’s original “Rugged Size and Strength” essay (from 1972) and came across this bit of advice: “Do not attempt to set up a pre-planned schedule of either sets or reps.”  That may not seem like much—it’s the kind of “basic” advice that’s easily overlooked—but there is wisdom in it, minimal as it may seem at first glance.      Depending on the workout program and the lifting population it’s aiming for, that quote could be either good or bad.  It’s not good advice for a beginner’s program, any beginner’s program.  It’s not good advice for intermediate or advanced lifters, either, who are attempting a new workout program or a new “style” of lifting that they haven’t utilized before.  For instance, if you’ve been training for the past decade on a bodybuilding workout consi...

       There are, I suppose, a few different “principles” involved in strength training.   You need to train with heavy weights to get strong.   You need to eat enough protein on a regular basis to gain muscle.   You need to follow a program instead of just “working out.”   I could go on and on.   So, what could possibly be the two most important principles of strength training?   Perhaps if you ask me again next week or next month or next year, I might give a different answer.   But I doubt it.   Anyway, the two principles of strength training are (drumroll, please): 1.       Everything works. 2.       Everything works… for about 6 to 8 weeks.      I am not the first trainer (or bodybuilder or powerlifter) to write this.   I won’t be the last.   Most lifters who take seriously their training discover it on their own without anyone tellin...