C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Some “Secrets” to Heavy Training and Continued Progress      There are a lot of pithy sayings out there for lifters, strength athletes, and just casual gym-goers.  Almost everyone, even folks who have never picked up a barbell a single day in their lives, has heard (or read) the phrase “no pain, no gain.”  When I started training in the ‘80s, and I’m pretty sure it became even more popular in the ‘90s, a common saying was to “go heavy or go home.”  There’s some truth in these, and other sayings, but also some misinformation.  Pain isn’t always good, for example.  Heck, that phrase—no pain, no gain—has probably caused just as much harm as help.   Maybe not to the same degree, but you could argue that “go heavy or go home” has also caused the derailment of more than a few workouts and routines.      Context is important.  Pain can be good, but it can also be decidedly bad.  You should never train t...

A 2-Way Split Training Regimen for Building Incredible Strength and Power with a Size-Building Side Effect An East-Meets-West Strength and Power Routine      In September of last year, I published a training program called The Pure Power Program .  It is a full-body routine that rotates between heavy workouts, light sessions, and “speed” workouts.  Feel free to read that original program if you wish—especially if you are looking for a full-body regimen—but in this article, I want to show how you can use it in a 2-way split program.  I will also review all of the “tenets” that comprises the program, so don’t feel as if you have to be familiar with my original article to continue here.      This is an “East meets West” program because it utilizes principles from “Eastern” countries (Russian extensively but also Bulgarian to some extent), primarily on the “heavy” training days, along with principles that are borrowed from b...