C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

     The legendary Russian powerlifting coach Boris Sheiko once remarked, “he who trains more—lifts more.”  For the most part, I agree with that statement, as many of the articles on this blog attest to, but you also have to put things into the proper context in order to understand them.  Sheiko’s statement is quite a loaded thing for many lifters when they first hear/read it.  This is especially true if you’ve spent the majority of your time—either on the Internet or in the pages of a magazine—reading articles written by Western (particularly American) writers/trainers.  And it’s even more true if you’ve gotten great results from heavy, infrequent training using a lot of the Western methods.      First, let’s look at an overview of training in general, then I’ll discuss a little about my own personal success with programs such as Sheiko and similar “Russian-style” programs for those of you interested in actually usin...

     I am sorry that it has been so long since I last posted something here.  It has been a few weeks.  I will try my best to do better with more frequent postings.  That being said, I hope you enjoy my latest (slightly philosophical) rant...      There are a few things in life that I love.  I love studying philosophy.  I love the feel of a new book in my hands—along the same lines, I love discovering a new author, for it is a deep joy; and I worry deeply about people who do not understand the joy to be found in such a discovery.      But there are still greater things that I love even more.  I love God [1] .  I love cold beer [2] (and worry even more deeply about those who do not understand how great a thing a beer can be).  I love holding my wife in my arms.      Last—but certainly not least—I love the feel of deep squats with a heavy barbell on my back....

     What follows is the original, "uncut" version of an article of mine that was published a few months ago in Planet Muscle magazine.  This is a form of training that I enjoy occasionally doing.  If you're the kind of lifter that actually enjoys more Crossfit-style training—as opposed to the more conventional training I typically recommend—this should be right up your alley. Strongman Muscle Using Strongman-style Training for Maximum Muscle Gains      Watch the “World’s Strongest Man” competition and you’ll see some of the most massively muscled men on the planet.  And they didn’t get that way by training like your average bodybuilder.  They got big, strong, and muscular by training on core lifts (squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, etc.) and utilizing a lot of odd lifts such as the farmer’s walk, log presses, sand-bag carries, and the tire flip—to name just a few.      Most of you reading thi...

     Simplicity can be a virtuous thing.  For some reason, in our current age, we want to make things decidedly not simple.  Perhaps this is because our lives are not simple – we have made them more and more complex by a stream of never-ending texts, instant messages, YouTube videos, music streaming, and the general need to always feel as if we need to be doing something.  I might add, however, without us actually doing anything, since we are more slothful and gluttonous – not to mention pear-shaped; especially the younger generation – than ever before.      Life should not be that way.  We were built for simplicity – in fact, the only way to enter into the complexity of things is to purposefully simplify.  If for instance, you want to enter the depths of your consciousness, the very depths of your being , you don’t do so by anything so complex as various ascetic feats of standing on your head or other odd yogic poses, o...

Revisiting the 20-Rep Squat Program Your 2014 Mass Gaining Protocol! “Trust me, if you do an honest 20 rep program, at some point Jesus will talk to you. On the last day of the program, he asked if he could work in.”- Mark Rippetoe      For many of you, it’s time to get started on your New Year’s resolution. [1]   And it could be that—for some of you, at least—your resolution is a simple one: to get as big and strong as possible in the shortest amount of time.  If that’s the case, then this article is written solely for you.      In years past, there was one routine, and one routine only, that was seen as the holy grail of mass-building protocols: the 20-rep squat program.  I first read about this program more than 20 years ago in the pages of Iron Man magazine, and then in the pages of Randall Strossen’s book “Super Squats”, which I devoured in one sitting upon receiving it in the mail.  But the nucleus of the pr...

The Other Kind of Hardgainer [1]      I think a majority of lifters—even ones who have been training a long time and should know better—mistakenly believe that there are two kinds of training in the lifting world today.  First off, you have your “high volume” training.  It’s not necessarily that there’s anything wrong with this kind of training, or so the train of thought goes, but this kind of training—multiple sets per bodypart, multiple days per week of training, fairly high reps, and going for “the pump”—is for those lifters and bodybuilders who respond well to this kind of thing, usually thought to be “genetically elite” men.  The majority of lifters, or so the line of thought continues, would do well with more infrequent training, but an infrequent training that is combined with minimalist training performed all-out!   In the bodybuilding world, the second line of thought was most espoused by Mike Mentzer and the rest of his ill-beg...