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

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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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, 17 August 2009

On the Forums

I’m constantly amazed at just how much my training is influenced by the people on this site. Whether you’re looking for a new piece of equipment, an unusual exercise variation or just a training routine or two, head over to the forums :

Kettlebell Training?
‘Unbreakable‘ Adam Glass
If you’ve ever wonder ‘what can kettlebell training do for me?‘ here’s your answer. Nice one.
Mental Toughness
Frank DiMeo
What does it take to keep going no matter what? A bit of Mental Toughness. Frank explains.

NB : Ready to add your own workout log or training article? 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 – Explosive bench pushups

Another great variation from the Wild Man – Johnny Grube. Good stuff.

Coming Events

Twitterchat : What do Formula One drivers, rugby players and many combat athletes have in common? Incredible neck strength. To help explain how to get it, Old-Time Strongman Mike ‘The Machine‘ Bruce will be joining us for this week’s Twitterchat.
If you’re keen to do a little neck work yourself, or you’ve got a neck-related question for Mike, the twitterchat’s the ideal place. See you there.
Kettlebell Juggling Contest : how’s your kettlebell juggling? For details, head over here. Good stuff.
Card Tearing Contest : or a spot of card tearing perhaps? Now this one will be fun. Find out why.
Grip Contests : There are also several grip contests coming up shortly, including :

USHS Nationals
USGS Nationals
Finnish Open Grip Strength Championships

For details, swing by the Grip Contest Calendar.

Exercise of the Week

The Hopper Dip. One of several brilliant Dip Variations.
Joe Hashey demonstrates the Hopper Dip (and several other dip varieties) in this clip. It’s a plyometric version of the bodyweight standard; and much harder than in looks. Give it a shot.

The Ultimate Sandbag.

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

Beautiful thing.

Outlaw 120.

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

Perfect.

The Bending eBook.

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

Superb.