C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

       Someone told me at the gym one time—many years ago; I haven’t been to a commercial gym on a regular basis since the ‘90s—that I had a lot of creative ideas.  I can’t remember the exact words that he used, but something to the extent of “innovative” or “unique.”  He had been reading my (almost) monthly articles in IronMan magazine at the time.  At this point, I had switched over from writing many “bodybuilding” pieces, and instead wrote a lot of strength-oriented articles with ideas I had stolen from (primarily) Bill Starr and various Russian strength coaches such as Zatsiorsky.  That’s right, stolen .  I proceeded to tell him that, although I might concede to being creative, I was most definitely not (and still am not) innovative or unique.  I simply borrowed, and still borrow, ideas from a lot of great writers, strength coaches, bodybuilders, powerlifters, and other strength athletes that have come before me.      Here’s the thing, though: if you’re going to be successful at y

How You Feel is a Lie A.K.A.: No Matter What, Just Do the Workout, and Other Crap I learned from Hard-as-Heck Training Programs C.S. pulls 500 pounds at 40 years old using the methods - or madness- contained herein. I first heard this saying probably a little over 20 years ago.  (I think it was the lifting coach John Broz that made the statement.)  At first, I probably thought something similar to what a lot of people think when they first see/read/hear it: “Well, that’s stupid.  Shouldn’t I go by how I feel?  How the heck am I gonna make progress if I don’t go by the way I feel every day.”  And so on and so forth, making an internal list of not just how stupid this saying is, but how downright weird and odd that a lifter would even think such a thing.   Right? Not so fast!  I think this is actually one of the truest maxims ever uttered when it comes to strength training and muscle building.  Let me explain. I discovered firsthand the truth of this statement almost 20 years ago when