C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

A couple years ago, I had a few "around the web" posts where I re-posted or linked to articles that I thought readers of my stuff would find interesting. From now on, I'm going to routinely do this again (I'm thinking that about once every 2 weeks would be good to shoot for), as long as I can find enough articles that I think browsers of this article would enjoy. I've come across several good articles, so here they are in no uncertain order: The first one is from Dan John, entitled Even Easier Strength .  And you thought his 40-Day Program was simple?  This breaks it down for those of you who may have a hard time doing stuff like simple comprehension. Over at T-Nation, despite the fact that they now publish a whole bunch of crap, there are still the occasional good articles, such as this one from Mark Rippetoe.  It's always nice when Rippetoe "goes off."  Oh, and just to make you realize how much you want to read this piece, here's a go

      I have long been enamored of ancient Greek philosophy – but of Stoicism in particular.  The truth is, I have long been a Stoic, even when I didn’t realize what exactly that word meant.  Its philosophical thought rings ever true in my ears.  It is, in many ways, so similar to the Buddhist and Taoist philosophy that I have practiced – to both greater and lesser degrees – throughout much of my life (and it is, also in many ways, a bridge that helped me to crossover from eastern philosophy to Orthodoxy).      But Stoicism – despite what many modern “stoics” say in various books or in places on the internet – is not “Buddhism in Greek garb.”  The truth is that the Stoics were very theistic, as is evidenced by this wonderful, always delightful (and forever ringing with the sounds of Truth) essay by the great Stoic philosopher Seneca.      Seneca is best known for his work “Letters to a Stoic”, but, personally, I enjoy his moral epistles and his essays much better.  This is also my

     In part one of this series, we discussed some of the basics for building a lot of strength and power using high-frequency training (HFT).  In summation, here are the main points from the previous post: ·          “Train as frequently as possible while being as fresh as possible.”  For most people, this means 5 days per week, sometimes 6.  Take off at least one day each week.  When you first begin, however, 4 days per week should suffice. ·          For the most part, use progressively heavier sets. ·          Train with 2 or, at the most, 3 exercises each day.  Pick a squatting movement, a pulling movement, and a pushing movement when using 3 exercises, or 2 combinations thereof when using 2. ·          The majority of reps should be done in the 2 to 5 range. ·          For most lifters, 5 to 7 progressively heavier sets are enough. ·          The more reps that are utilized, the less total sets should be used.  In other words, if you are doing progressively heavier s

In the latest issue of Planet Muscle (July, 2013), I have an article that deals with what is commonly called the "Bulgarian method" of high-frequency training.  To be honest, it's probably one of the most "non-bodybuilding" pieces I've ever written for any of the major muscle magazines.  I'm glad Jeff Everson actually printed it (I had my doubts when I sent it to him.) To whet your appetite, here's a portion of the article where I discuss the three factors of frequency, intensity and volume:      "Any well-designed program must take into account three important variables: frequency, intensity, and volume.   Programs that fail are ones that don’t properly manipulate and control these variables.   For instance, if you were to perform a program for lots of sets, lots of reps, and lots of intensity multiple times per week, you would be setting yourself up to fail – and would surely do so.   If any two of the variables are high, then the oth

High Frequency Training for Strength and Power Part One: The Basics      This is the first of what will be a multi-part series on “high frequency training” geared specifically for building strength and power.   High frequency training – training not just multiple times per week, but training each muscle group multiple times per week – has become more popular in recent years.   I’ve been touting its benefits for almost a decade, but so have other strength trainers/writers such as Pavel Tsatsouline and Dan John.      High frequency training (henceforth just “HFT”), however, is nothing recent nor is it particularly innovative.   If you read my last couple articles on the training of Anthony Ditillo you should know that.   Before Ditillo there was “Big” Jim Williams.   (My first post on this blog a few years ago was related to Jim Williams training.   If you haven’t done so, please read it.)   And before either Ditillo or Williams, there were the original “old-timers” – men su

      I’ve always enjoyed activities that had a sparse, Zen-like quality to them.   My first love of this kind was martial arts.   I was nine or ten when my father agreed to let me take Karate – Okinawan karate-do to be precise (Isshin-Ryu, Shorin-Ryu, Goju-Ryu). [1]   At first, I think he was reluctant.   This was probably on account of the fact that I had quit other “sport” activities that I was involved in.   I could hit a baseball hard, and had a good arm, but I hated the monotony of America’s pastime.   I played football some, but didn’t care much for it either.   But when I encountered martial arts, I encountered something entirely different.   Although I trained with others, and fought with others, the only real competition was with myself.   Okinawan karate-do focuses on very basic movements, but they must be done with precision, perfect technique, and impeccable timing.   And the only way to achieve that is with a lot of practice.   And the practice allows you to enter in

     After yesterday’s post – Anthony Ditillo on Adaptability – I received an email from a reader.  The reader – new to this idea of frequent, intense [1] training – wanted to know what a program would actually look like if he were to follow Ditillo’s advice.  At first, I thought, “Well, I would rather not give a more detailed plan.  Part of what makes someone a successful lifter is actually learning how to lift.”  But then I thought better of it, and decided to write this post.      What follows is some advice and a week of sample training.  Keep in mind that this is just an example program.  If you are going to become a skilled lifter – and lifting, bulk-building, power training are skills – then you need to practice, you need to experiment, and you don’t need everything laid out for you in complete detail – hence, my initial reluctance at wring this piece.      First off, I recommend 5 days per week of training.  You can train 5 days straight, then take a couple of days