C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  Some Thoughts on Training and Eating      When it comes to “getting in shape,” the average gym-goer tends to go about it wrong.  Man.  Woman.  Doesn’t matter.  The problem typically made is that they train “tough” and they also eat “tough.”  By this, I mean that one usually starts doing a hard-as-hell, bust-your-ass workout plan combined with a dietary regimen of very little calories.  Oh, this works.  For the short term.  Until it stops working completely, not to mention the fact that it’s mind-numbingly painful.      You can forgive the “average” person, I suppose.  They probably watched too many episodes of that god-awful “Biggest Loser” show, where such tactics of pain-as-progress were put on the television for the world to see.      But when you train big and eat little , you’re doomed to fail.  Training a lot and eating a little is the primary reason...

       Someone told me at the gym one time—many years ago; I haven’t been to a commercial gym on a regular basis since the ‘90s—that I had a lot of creative ideas.  I can’t remember the exact words that he used, but something to the extent of “innovative” or “unique.”  He had been reading my (almost) monthly articles in IronMan magazine at the time.  At this point, I had switched over from writing many “bodybuilding” pieces, and instead wrote a lot of strength-oriented articles with ideas I had stolen from (primarily) Bill Starr and various Russian strength coaches such as Zatsiorsky.  That’s right, stolen .  I proceeded to tell him that, although I might concede to being creative, I was most definitely not (and still am not) innovative or unique.  I simply borrowed, and still borrow, ideas from a lot of great writers, strength coaches, bodybuilders, powerlifters, and other strength athletes that have come before me.  ...

      Three Power Programs for Building Muscular Might       “You can train long or you can train hard, but you can’t do both.” ~Arthur Jones, inventor of the Nautilus exercise machines      Arthur Jones was correct.  But what he incorrectly assumed is that you should choose hard over long.  I know that there are lifters who would disagree with me—and perhaps a whole cult of “HIT” enthusiasts who would want to crucify me over that statement—but I stand by it.  Twenty years ago, I wrote an article for T-Nation , in fact, that was called “Train Long,” partly to counter the belief that briefer is always better.      In addition, in an article for IronMan some years ago, I wrote this: “Everyone seems to immediately assume that the answer is to train hard.  Not many consider that training long might be the better option.  Bodybuilders from the past, however, understood this we...