C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Journal of Strength Monday, November 17, 2014      Today I did something that—to some lifters, at least—might seem rather odd.   I performed a full-body workout of whatever I felt like doing, for relatively moderate to high reps.   I had no idea what I was going to do, with the lone exception of the first exercise, until I actually started training.      This might seem even more odd for those of you who read this blog regularly, which includes me often praising—rather highly, I might add—the benefits of high-frequency training for multiple sets of low reps.      And here’s the thing: I actually think the kind of workout I did today can be highly effective, for a certain segment of the lifting population, at least.      First, a little backtracking is in order.      Last week I mentioned that I have been training using a regular program of high-set singles for the past few weeks.   I also mentioned in a previous post that I have been having some pain and numbnes

Vegan Muscle Building      I spend about half of every year as a vegan.   In other words, for about half of the year I never eat meat or any form of dairy—milk, eggs, cheese, butter, etc.   I don’t do this because I necessarily feel it’s the healthiest way to eat—although I must admit that my blood pressure, cholesterol levels, triglycerides do improve while eating this way—or because I think it’s a good way to build muscle.   I do it for religious reasons.   A few years ago, I converted to Orthodox Christianity.   Part of being Orthodox is living an ascetical life, and that ascetical life includes “fasting”, i.e. abstaining from meat and dairy.   Orthodox do this on every Wednesday and Friday throughout the entire year as well as 40 days before Christmas (the Nativity fast, sometimes called Advent), 40 days before Easter (Lent), and there are a few other fasts of a few weeks duration scattered here and there throughout the liturgical calendar—Dormition fast, Apostles’ fast, t