The More the Better I’m about to get my fourth higher education degree. With two Bachelor of Science degrees and one Master of Science degree virtually under my belt, I’m on to the next frontier into "Doctorhood." Recently, I’ve spent some time reminiscing about what I’ve learned from my collegiate training.

There’s nothing more frustrating than committing to a training program that doesn’t pan out. This is equally true for an athlete who might work hard yet still falls short of his expectations and the strength coach whose biggest satisfaction comes from the great strides his athletes make.

Ten bucks doesn't buy much nowadays. You could pick up a day pass at some commercial gym, or pull off the co-pay on a visit to the chiropractor. If you're lucky, you might even be able to swing a mediocre Russian mail order bride.

Okay, I’m feeling kind of Tuesdays With Morrie-ish today, so here’s my attempt at being sappy and wise at the same time:

If you’re like 99.99999% of the rest of the weight lifters in the world, you're not always 100% "on" in the gym. Most of us follow a pattern similar to this: we adopt a hardcore training program for several weeks, then, mentally and physically exhausted, we half-ass train for the next month until we feel up to tackling another big mass cycle. During these "off" times, we also loosen up our diets and slack off on taking our supplements.

Discipline. Motivation. Willpower. Drive. Without these qualities, the best laid diet plans and toughest workouts don't mean a damn thing. In this new T-Nation column, Chris Shugart, former psychology teacher and lifetime iron addict, tackles any and all issues dealing with the mental side of getting fit and performing at your best.

As part of an agreement with Testosterone Magazine, excerpts from my new book will be published in the coming months. These excerpts detail the use of performance enhancing drugs by elite athletes as well as those in non-athletic populations. The book looks at these drugs individually in a scientific manner, something not done to date by popular books on the subject or those less read books published for members of the scientific community.

In your quest for developing legs that are bigger, stronger, and more powerful, chances are you've already read dozens of articles on the basic exercises. Any decent strength training routine will put emphasis on the big lifts like squats and deadlifts. While I'm not saying these exercises aren't important, a lot of times people forget about how crucial it is to develop balance between legs.

The presumptive heir apparent to HBO?s Sopranos series is Deadwood, the story of a South Dakota wild-west town of the same name.  The town—if you can even call it that—is a collection of hastily constructed ramshackle shops and business establishments, 90% of which are whore houses and saloons.

After reading Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3 , you've probably come to grips with the fact that you have a greater resemblance to Cro-Magnon man than you previously thought. Now, what are you going to do about it?

Sure, the corner pharmacy holds a great deal of potent drugs. Sure, some of these drugs hold great interest for many people seeking health, performance and physique-enhancement. But we didn't evolve depending on such things. For the 40,000-100,000 years we've been on this planet (depending upon one's interpretation), our genes have been selected to interact with the forest as our pharmacy. And only recently are we fully coming to grips with the full power of this interaction. Perhaps it's time we reconsider the advantages of living "down on the farm".

I met Dr. Lonnie Lowery for the first time in person at a weight-training symposium in Canada. Three things were very apparent: 1) This guy was scary smart. 2) Unlike many other scary smart guys, he could communicate . He could deliver a complicated message in an entertaining and understandable manner. 3) He walked the walk.

A while back here at T-Nation, I released a series on what I called Pendulum Training . This is basically a training system that has you switching from structural training to functional training every week. Changing the training stimulus frequently helps you avoid neural and physical overtraining while placing a maximal adaptive stress on your body. It also works great at preventing boredom.

Reader Mail Fan mail, hate mail, junk mail... It's probably no surprise to you that we literally get hundreds, if not thousands, of e-mails every week. And even though we make every effort to answer all of them, we don't always get around to answering each one right away . Here's how it works: • E-mail sent to "Reader Mail" will either be reprinted here or answered personally within about a week of being received. • E...

Kary B. Mullis, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1993, once said that a woman's the most desirable when she's 10,000 days old. For those of us on planet earth who measure age in the conventional way, that's equivalent to about 27 years. Mullis argued that women of that age are at the apex of their sexual appeal.

Garcinia VS. Krispy Kreme Q: I read that Garcinia Cambogia works pretty well as an appetite suppressant. Is that true? A Krispy Kreme just opened up across the street from me and I need all the help I can get!

Garcinia VS. Krispy Kreme Q: I read that Garcinia Cambogia works pretty well as an appetite suppressant. Is that true? A Krispy Kreme just opened up across the street from me and I need all the help I can get!

At T-Nation, the citizens play a big role in shaping the community. Your opinions count! Recently, I made a post asking readers what they wanted my next article to be about. I got a deluge of responses, but the topic of General Physical Preparedness (GPP) kept coming up.

In 1924, a slim, leather-bound book?really not much more than a glorified pamphlet?found its way to bookstore shelves. It was written by a scientist named J.B.S. Haldane and it had the high-falutin? title of Daedalus, or Science and the Future .

Is Bitter Orange a Sweet Deal? Q: There are a lot of fat loss products on the market these days containing Bitter Orange. Does this stuff work?