C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

How to Design a “Hybrid” Easy Strength Program      If you have read even an inkling of my writings—especially over the last 20 years—you know that I’m a fan of high-frequency training (HFT).   Now, I must admit that this wasn’t always the case.   If you read my early articles for IronMan magazine—from, say, 1994 to the end of that decade/century—I often recommended infrequent training done for relatively “high-intensity” and (fairly) low volume.   But my views on training frequency, volume, and intensity shifted when I started powerlifting seriously in the late ‘90s and began to use the more frequent training regimens from (predominately) Eastern Europe and the heavy/light/medium system of Bill Starr.   Before trying these regimens, I often had trouble gaining muscle and just weight in general.   While using these methods, however, I had trouble not gaining weight even when I didn’t want to!      Not everyone will...

  Heavy/Light/Medium Training Part 7: How to Design a Powerlifting Program Using the H/L/M System      At the beginning of February, I started this series on H/L/M training using the methods of the late, great, and, hell, legendary Bill Starr.   For now, I believe this will be the last in the series, although I will still probably do a few more here and there when there is interest or when I think of a subject.   Also, April 7 th was the 10-year anniversary of his death, and I have the intention of using this series—along with other articles and essays that I’ve done in the past—to publish a book on Starr sometime later this month in honor of him.      Since this is—as the subtitle above indicates—the 7 th part of this series, you might do well to familiarize yourself with the previous installments.   At the very least, read parts 1 through 4, as those cover similar concepts as this article, and it will allow you to se...

      I apologize for the delay in posts this month.  I just returned from a vacation to my home state of Texas and simply wasn't able to get the writing done out there that I had PLANNED on doing.  Anyway, I hope to post more frequently for the remainder of the month.  Also, be on the lookout for a new book (hopefully this week🤞) on heavy-light-medium training!  With that out of the way... Grip Work for More Mass, Strength, and Power If You Want to Get REALLY Big and Strong, Throw Away the Straps and Embrace HARD Grip Work        “When I made the decision to forego the use of straps and persevere until I could handle heavy weights without them, I surpassed previous bests.   In fact, the entire exercise (deadlifts) became much more intense and my overall gains in strength and muscular size were quite unexpected.   Perhaps my level of concentration was higher because I was so intent on maintaining my grip on the...

  Thoughts on Fasting, Training, Self-Sacrifice, and the Intersection of Religious Practice and Lifting     I am an Orthodox Christian.   I was baptized and chrismated in a “Slavic” Orthodox Church before Easter 2011.   I write that at the outset so that you will understand the next part, which is the fact that usually the date of Pascha (Easter) in the Christian East—Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, along with, I suppose, whatever remnants of Nestorian Christianity still remain—and Easter in the Christian West (Catholicism and Protestantism) fall on different dates.   (This is not the place to discuss why they are on different dates, but if you want to read more, here is an article last year from The Greek Reporter: “ Why Orthodox and Catholic Easterare on Different Dates .”)   But this year they fall on the same date later this month (April 20 th ), which means that all Christians worldwide are in the middle of Lent as I write these words. ...