C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

In 2004, at a bodyweight of 172 pounds, CS pulled 585 lbs.  He did so using the same kind of training outlined in this article. Lately, I have received a few messages from readers who wish my site was "easier to navigate," or of a similar view. I agree. I've had this blog, in a couple of different incarnations, since 2009, and there is a LOT of material here. So I am currently working on a "new and improved" website/blog that will make it easier to find posts you may be interested in by organizing them according to categories. Until then, however, I thought I would - every Thursday for the foreseeable future - put some older posts/articles/essays that I consider my "best of", and title these posts " Thursday Throwbacks ." Unless otherwise noted, all posts will be just the way I originally wrote them. For our first "Thursday Throwback", I have decided on an article I wrote for IronMan magazine in the early '00s, and publish

  How Squats Can Change Your Life! “Happiness is different from pleasure.  Happiness has something to do with struggling, enduring, accomplishing.”   -Dr. George Sheehan I have been reading a lot lately.  Not that I haven’t always read a lot, mind you, so I guess it would be more appropriate to say that I have been reading a lot more lately.  Which you can strike up a little bit to the slightly increased free time I have on my hands.  You see, I have been doing some really hard martial arts training a few days a week, including a session or two of sparring every week, which always takes its toll on you (at my age and with my injuries), and I simply haven’t been able to lift weights as frequently, nor even as intensely, as usual.  Which means (long story short) that I have had more time to read on my hands. As I was perusing one of the local online “marketplaces”, I came across a book with a most interesting title: How Squats Can Change Your Life!   At first, I thought, well, that’s an

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 most.  A lot of his training influ

One of the Greatest There Ever Was... and Ever Will Be May His Memory be Eternal (a.k.a. "Bill Starr-style Advanced Squat Training")      I've been away from the internet, and lifting in general, for too long over the last couple of months.  Generally, of course, lack of internet-perusing is, decidedly, not a bad thing.  But in this case, I failed to read the news that Bill Starr died about two months ago.      If you haven't read much of my material, then you may not know that one of my greatest influences in lifting has always been Bill Starr.      There was no one like him.  No one.  Period.      This is what I had to say in a post a few years ago:       For those of you who don't know—and most of you who have read my training articles  do  know—my primary inspiration in training and writing has always been Bill Starr.  Perhaps nowadays people—powerlifters, strength athletes, readers of the major bodybuilding magazines—think that Starr is too &quo

High Frequency Training for Strength and Power, Part Three Building the Squat      A few months ago, I began to write a series of articles on high-frequency training specifically aimed at building strength and power.  It really began even before that, with a post I did on Anthony Ditillo-inspired training, and then before that a post written by Ditillo himself (from an old issue of the once great Iron Man magazine from the ‘70s).  Before you continue reading this article, it would probably behoove you to read the first two posts on HFT for strength and power, and the posts on Ditillo training.      And, now, on with this post:      Squat training lends itself specifically well to high-frequency training.  Or, as the Russians would say (or, perhaps, this is just a quote from someone who was fond of Russian-style training): “If you want to squat more, you have to squat more!”  Unlike some of the other lifts—bench presses somewhat, deadlifts decidedly more pointedly—you can