C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

The Magic of High-Volume but Minimalistic Training      As I have pointed out more often than I can count, there are many ways and multiple paths to achieve your physical goals, whether it’s strength, power, more muscle mass, less bodyfat, or a combination of several of those goals all at once.  The key to achieving your goals, whatever they may be, lies in the proper balance of volume, frequency, and intensity, but some training plans are decidedly better than others, depending on your genetics, training history, and whatnot.  In my last essay on balance, I briefly mentioned that if I absolutely had to select one training methodology over anything else, it would be the “sub-maximal effort” method.  With strength and power roots in Eastern European countries, mostly countries from the former Soviet-bloc, this method basically involves doing multiple sets of low reps with weights that are not quite maximal—hence the name.  Almost completely ...

Minimal Equipment, Maximum Results Tips and Suggestions for Designing and Implementing a Home Gym Workout with Nothing but a Barbell      You really don’t need much equipment to get great results from training.  In fact, sometimes the more equipment you have—an array of barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, benches, racks, and other implements—the worse your results.  Why?  Too many choices.  After all, you can go to almost any big, corporate gym anywhere in America—gyms with all of the machines and weights you can imagine—and see that most trainees aren’t getting good results.  So, yeah, I often think this is because lifters have too many choices.      You could cancel your gym membership today, head to your local sports store and buy nothing but an Olympic barbell set with no more than 300 pounds, and get great results with only that barbell.  Oh, you’d also save a lot of money in the long run, too.  Yo...

Various Tips and Thoughts on Developing Proportionate Strength, a Well-Rounded Physique, and Bringing Up Your Weak Points       “Achieving a high level of strength fitness is a constant, everchanging challenge.  The program that enabled you to reach one level may no longer be as effective when you try to move up another notch.  To some this is quite frustrating, for change is bothersome and requires you to adapt by learning new exercises, alternating the order of exercises or even switching the sets and reps sequence.  To me, however, this is what makes strength training so intriguing.  It’s also one of the main reasons that there aren’t many genuinely strong people in this country.” ~Bill Starr      The great strength and conditioning coach Bill Starr, in the same article where I discovered the quote above, wrote that one could count on two fingers the number of truly strong lifters in the average American gym. ...