C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

How to Select the Weights Used During Your Workouts      Bill Starr said one time that the most confusing aspect of setting up a strength program is selecting the poundages to be used for the various sets of an exercise.   A lot of lifters can’t decide the weight to start with or the weights to utilize for all the intermediate sets as they work their way up to a heavy set of 5 or a max triple, double, or single.   Starr even said that he spent more time giving advice on this than any other subject in lifting.      I personally receive more questions about other things—a lot of lifters need help with an assortment of training stuff before they even get around to deciding weight selection—but I have noticed that this confuses a lot of lifters compared to many subjects.   And it’s not just beginners, either.   A lot of advanced lifters get confused, especially when changing over to a new program.      Pe...

  How to Utilize Light Workouts for More Strength, Power, Mass, and All-Around Athleticism      When it comes to “things that confuse the average lifter,” I think it’s possible that the light-day concept takes the cake.   A lot of lifters either never train with light days or they don’t know how to properly utilize and implement them.   In this essay, I would like to explain the correct implementation of light days—this information can be used by a variety of lifters, whether you’re a powerlifter, a bodybuilder, a competitive athlete, a fighter, or just an all-around fitness enthusiast.   Most of the ideas that will be presented here are not my own, I must admit, but are culled from the wisdom of strength coaches or bodybuilding writers (from bygone eras) such as Bill Starr, Tommy Suggs, Bradley Steiner, and John McCallum.   (It must also be noted that there is a decided “Russian” influence on my lifting philosophy, as well—not just here bu...

“Attaining the way means attaining it completely with the whole body. With this awareness you should practice immovably.” ~Dogen Zenji      In this essay—as odd as it might seem at first—I want to use a couple of quotes from Dogen’s classic Zazen-Gi (which can be translated as “Principles of Zazen,” and is itself a book within his larger Shobogenzo or “The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye”) to look at how we might, from some practical perspectives, have the correct mind while practicing budo, and that this mind will lead us to fudoshin, or “immovable mind.” How do we cultivate this immovable mind so necessary for the practice of true budo?      To begin with, we need to have the correct attitude before we even start our training, and before every practice session that we undertake. Before you enter the dojo, dojang, or kwoon, you need to let go of the thoughts and worries of the day, and anything that is just bothering you generally in life. You may hav...

  Question: I compete in powerlifting.  I am interested in dropping down a weight class and want to try intermittent fasting to do so.  Will it be possible for me to keep my strength, or even get stronger, while fasting?  I can see how intermittent fasting would be good for getting in shape or losing weight easily, but I am concerned that it might not be good for strength athletes.  Can you really build mass and power while practicing intermittent fasting? (Question comes via email from Stuart)   Answer:  I have personally used fasting myself in order to drop a weight class for a powerlifting meet.   Over 20 years ago, when I competed regularly in powerlifting, I always lifted in the 181-pound class, but I wanted to get down to the 165-pound class as sort of an experiment to see how strong I would be at the reduced bodyweight.   To do that, I opted for the “Warrior Diet.”   This was in 2000.   No one knew anything about intermi...

  I have a brand new e-book available for purchase at Amazon.  If you would like to buy a copy, here's the link: Ultimate Mass and Power Essays: A Collection of Essays, Thoughts, and Ideas for Getting Incredibly Big and Massively Strong This book is a follow-up to my first book in this series, "Ultimate Mass and Power." That book is primarily a collection of different training programs to help you get incredibly strong and massively big. This book is concerned with the same topics - building massive amounts of strength, power, and hypertrophy - but is a collection of essays instead of programs. Oh, there are some programs thrown in here and there. But this is for anyone who wants to be informed and (hopefully) entertained with some of my thoughts and ideas when it comes to building the ULTIMATE in Mass and Power. If you enjoy reading the likes of "old school" writers such as Bill Starr, Bradley Steiner, and John McCallum, or modern day writers such as Dan John o...

  A.K.A. - How to Gain 40 Pounds of Bulk in 8 Weeks John McCallum’s High-Frequency, High-Volume Routine for Rapid Mass Gains      In the 1960s, John McCallum wrote arguably the greatest monthly column the bodybuilding world has ever known.  It was called “The Keys to Progress” and appeared in what was probably also the greatest muscle magazine of all time, Strength and Health .  His column is still fantastic to this day.  To be honest, it’s probably better today because of all the nonsense that you see, hear, or read about in the ultra-saturated world we all know and love called the internet.  I wonder what the hell McCallum would think about training and nutrition information these days?  I have a feeling he wouldn’t think highly of it at all.      I thought about McCallum this morning when I was “thumbing” through my new digital copy of “The Complete Keys to Progress.”  I have an older, slightly tatt...