Strength & Fitness Newsletter

What's This?

The Strength & Fitness Newsletter is a weekly email newsletter which summarises the things added to Straight to the Bar (as well as a few gems from the archives). Absolutely free.

btw, I’d love to hear your feedback – both on the individual items and the newsletters themselves. Drop a comment below the relevant issue, or swing by Twitter ( I’m @scottbird ).

 

cheers,

Scott

DragonDoor Workshops

Ready To Learn Even More?

I love learning new skills, and the many seminars & workshops available are a great way to do that. If you’re looking for a specific type of workshop nearby, check out the ones on Dragon Door. Great mix of kettlebell and calisthenics-based offerings.

Podcasts

I listen to an ever-changing pool of podcasts, discussing the many aspects of training and nutrition possible. Most recently :
FoundMyFitness (Dr Matthew Walker on Sleep)

Over to you. Any you’d recommend?

Strength Training on Instagram

It’s fair to say that we’ve checked out quite a few images over the years – on Flickr & Smugmug in particular.

A friend of mine just pointed me to Chris Stanciu ‘s Instagram feed, which contains a great mix of nutrition and workout images :

instagram.com/officialgainsthetics.

NB : if you’d like to share your own images, just add them to one of the sites noted above and send us a link.

Strength Training on Facebook

I suspect you love talking about strength training constantly (certainly the case here), and you’re always on the lookout for places to do that. Comments on various sites, forums as well as various in-person communities.

Online, I gravitate toward both Twitter and Facebook. In addition to the SttB offerings, here’s another one you may wish to check out :

Garage Gym Reviews (Cooper Mitchell’s page)

We’ve noted a few of his videos in the past, and they’re great for diving in deep on a particular type of equipment. Nice one.

Twitter Lists

I use Twitter for a number of things, as I’m sure everyone else here does. To talk about strength training, nutrition and many other topics. Works well.

To make this a little easier – and so people can dive right in to the topics that interest them – I use Twitter’s ‘List‘ functionality quite a bit. There’s a full list of them here :

https://twitter.com/scottbird/lists

Whatever you’re in to, it’s all there.

NB : the above lists are always being fine-tuned. If you know of someone who tweets regularly about a particular subject and should be on one of them, let me know.

Other (Daily) Newsletters You Might Like

Finally, for a daily dose of tangentially-related information – check out the following. All are compiled daily, and cover the following topics :

Aging & Longevity (living for a very, very long time)
Electric Cars in Australia (great way to help tackle air-pollution)
Better Sleep Nightly (my favourite form of recovery)

And yes, they’re absolutely free.

Bruce Lee : The Art of Expressing the Human Body (Bruce Lee & John Little)

If you’ve ever watched a Bruce Lee film and marveled at his strength, speed, agility, endurance, flexibility or muscularity, this book should take pride of place in your collection. Unlike many other writings covering everything from Lee’s training methods to nutrition, this book is based not on the recollections of people around him; but on Lee’s own notes. Brilliant.

Definitely worthy of a place on the fitness shelf.

Bruce Lee : The Art of Expressing the Human Body.

Monday, 13 July 2009

On the Forums

There are some superb articles as well as brief training tips scattered throughout the forums. Here’s one of each :

Ready to add yours? Just head over to the Articles & Logs page and log in, and click ‘Post to Your Blog‘. That’s all there is to it.

Video – Parkour Tutorial: Wall-Run

This is a superb look at a particularly fun element of Parkour – the Wall Run. Enjoy.

Coming Events

Twitterchat : In this week’s twitterchat we’ll be joining The Rotater‘s Chris Melton for a discussion on his life as a reformed gymrat and what his current training approach is.
See you there.
Grip Contests : There are several grip contests coming up shortly, including :

  • The Hybrid Competition
  • Backyard Bash 5
  • USHS Nationals
  • The Steel Slayer Showdown
  • Global Grip Challenge 2009

For details, swing by the Grip Contest Calendar.

Exercise of the Week

The Kettlebell Turkish Get-Up (TGU). I first came across this exercise via the On Sitting and Standing piece in July 2006, and it’s been a favourite ever since.
Pavel has a superb explanation on the Enter the Kettlebell! DVD, and Steve Cotter looks at an alternative technique in his brilliant Encyclopedia Of Kettlebell Lifting (Series 1). Regardless of your training goals, there’s likely a place for it in your routines. Fantastic exercise.

The Ultimate Sandbag

The Ultimate Sandbag.

I love sandbag training, and this is definitely the way to do it right.

Beautiful thing.


Outlaw 120 rope

Outlaw 120.

Rope training is fantastic, and this is my weapon of choice. Heavy, flexible and supremely strong.

Perfect.

The Bending eBook

The Bending eBook.

If you’re just beginning your bending journey, this is the perfect place to start.

Superb.