C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

What it Takes to Actually Achieve Your New Year’s Resolution(s)       I rolled out of bed this morning, went to the coffee maker to brew my morning cup of Joe, and then put on the local morning news while I listened to the spewing and sputtering sounds made by my generic Keurig.  I don’t usually watch the news in the morning.  I typically get out of bed and, as my coffee is brewing, begin lacing up my shoes for a morning walk while my dog Kenji paces back and forth in anxious anticipation of our almost daily exercise.  But it was so cold this morning, and with slight snow flurries coming down, I thought it would be good to take the day off from my usual walk (much, it must be said, to my dog’s chagrin).  So I turned on the news to see what the weather had in store this week in my adopted home state of Alabama.      But, don’t worry, it’s not the weather in the Deep South that I want to discuss for this essay....

  Part One of a "How to Get Strong On (fill-in-the-blank)" Series      Based on a whole slew—or, well, at least a handful—of emails that I’ve received in recent weeks, I thought it might be a good idea to do a series dealing with how to get strong on various lifts and exercises.  I don’t know how long or short this series will be.  It depends on how many exercises I end up covering, and if there’s interest from readers for additional tips about exercises I don’t cover at first.  So, hell, this thing could just be two articles or it could be five or six.  We’ll just wait and see.      Questions I receive regarding getting stronger on certain exercises come in, generally, two forms.  Some readers will ask about specific powerlifts or quick lifts; stuff such as how to get stronger on the bench press, the squat, the deadlift, the overhead press, the power clean, or some variation of those seem to be the most c...