C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Tips and Routines for Monstrous Pulling Power Here I am pulling over 500lbs in competition.  In the background (in the red singlet) is my Uncle Kirk, yelling encouragement, who made an appearance in my last "Deep South Mass and Power Chronicles."  This meet was around the same time as that essay's setting.      I received an email this morning from a reader curious about deadlift training after reading my last "Deep South Mass & Power Chronicles" on just that very thing.  The reader wanted to know if I could write an article that detailed out an "exact" training program as opposed to all of the "tips" that I sprinkled throughout the (only slightly) fictional conversation between me and my cousins.  At first, I thought, "sure, I can do that," but then I realized that I have already written some articles on this very thing.  And since I haven't done a "Thursday Throwback" as of late, I thought this would be a perfe...

  Welcome to the World of High-Intensity, High-Volume Workouts-Of-The-Day! First things first: read Part One of this series from September 15th of last month if you haven't already done so.  If you have, then we can move on... Let's keep things as simple as possible for the sake of "ease of workouts".  The workouts themselves will be hard enough without overcomplicating the program. Start off by training each of the core lifts - squats, bench presses, and deadlifts - on one day per week.  I like to train during the week when on this program - or when training someone on this program - and then take the weekends off for rest, relaxation, drinking cocktails, throwing down the gauntlet at an arm-wrestling tournament; ya' know, whatever it is you like to do with your weekends without having to think about also performing a hard-ass training session. So the split would look like this: Monday: Squats - pick any of the WOD below Wednesday: Bench Presses - pick any of the...

Slovenian powerlifter Erni Gregorčič at Worlds 2014 in Sydney, Australia The other day, I received an email from a reader who wanted to know if I still felt the same way about strength training - specifically Russian strength training, for some reason - as I did years ago.  He asked this, he said, because I hadn't published very much on the subject in the last couple of years.  I replied that, of course, I still feel the same way about the efficacy of strength and power programs that I recommended 10 years ago as I do today. There really is nothing new under the strength and power building sun. With that being said, for those of you new to Russian-style training, here are the "rules" of Russian-style training as recommended by strength guru Pavel Tsatsouline*: 1. You must lift heavy. 2. You must limit your reps to five. 3. You must avoid muscular failure. 4. You must cycle your loads. 5. You must stay tight.  Tension is power. 6. You must treat your strength as a ski...

Pat Casey: King of all Powerlifters The massive Pat Casey performing shoulder presses. When I first fell in love with powerlifting - and power training in general - in the mid '90s, I immediately had a few heroes.  Some of the early 19th century strongmen such as George Hackenschmidt, Arthur Saxon, and Louis Cyr were all fascinating to me.  As was my favorite power bodybuilder of all time, Marvin Eder ,and then, of course, there were guys like Bill Kazmaier, Don Reinhoudt, and Bruce Wilhelm.  But, once I discovered him, Pat Casey might have - just might have - been my favorite. Several different things fascinated me about Casey.  First, was his strength (obviously).  He was ahead of his time when it came to the bench press and the squat.  Second, was his physique.  He looked as if he could - at any time - strip some fat and step onto the bodybuilding stage. And third was his training.  And it was this 3rd thing that I think I loved the...

To truly be a lifter, lifting must get into your bones, it must live in the marrow of your being, and it must enter into the depths of your soul . I think it's safe to say that Doyle Kennedy was a real  lifter. Lifting is an art—and it's this way with any artist.  One can paint without being an artist, but that doesn't make the man a painter.  One can write without being an artist, but that doesn't make the man a writer.  One can practice religion without being an artist, but that doesn't make one a religious .  And so it is with lifting.  One can always lift without being an artist—many do that very thing—but those who do so will never truly be lifters. At one time, I practiced bodybuilding.  I enjoyed it to no ends—I still do when it's good.  I enjoyed the love, perhaps even the art, of "chasing the pump."  At the time, I would have even called myself a bodybuilder.  But then, it happened.  I discovered lifting, real ...

Journal of Strength Wednesday, November 12, 2014      My current workout program is a bit haphazard.   But it’s also enjoyable and effective for my current goals.      It’s haphazard in the fact that I pretty much do whatever I feel like on whatever days I feel like training.   Of course, to be honest, that’s not entirely the case, but it’s close to it.   There is some structure—I always begin each workout with high-set singles of one exercise.   I rotate between a few different exercises.   Deadlifts, power cleans, power snatches, full snatches, clean and presses, or one-arm dumbbell presses are the typical exercises, although occasionally I will do flat bench presses or squats.   Also, I sometimes do two exercises for high-set singles instead of just one, and I always finish the workout with two or three additional exercises of whatever I feel as if I should do, for two or three sets each ...

     As of late, I have—for multitudinous reasons—found it hard to write very much.   (Please forgive me, in fact, if I have yet to respond to anyone’s email questions—I will as soon as possible.)   Not that writing itself, per se, is hard.   Once I sit down to my computer, open up Word, or once I sit down on my couch, notebook in hand, I find writing to be—while not the easiest thing—not much of a chore.   No, I have been busy with so many other things that, unfortunately, I just haven’t found the time to write much on my blog.   And when I have found the time, I have attempted to work on some articles, or some other stuff that actually makes me money writing—or, at least, has the potential to make money.      Despite my inability to write as much as I need to, I would really like to write on this blog more, despite the fact that I don’t know if I always have something very important to write about. ...

     For some reason, one of my most popular posts of the past year was my recent short rambling on literature, beer, and the joy of heavy squats .  Quite surprisingly to me, I received more emails asking about some of my favorite books, authors, and beers than I usually get from other posts asking how to bring up numbers in the major lifts or how to gain more muscle mass.  And since I enjoy writing about things that I love, I thought I would write what it is that you are now reading.      I’ll try not to ramble too much, but I’m not promising anything. On Beer      My favorite kinds of beers are stouts and porters.  I say “kinds” because, if I’m not erroneous here, I’m pretty sure they are much the same thing.  I wasn’t entirely sure, however, so I had to look it up, and here’s what Wikipedia [1] has to say about my favorite kinds of beers:     “Porter is a dark style of beer ...