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, 14 September 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 :

More Pressing Thoughts
Dan Cenidoza
What’s the result of an increase in overhead pressing volume? Dan explains.
Fight Geek’s Training Log
It’s always great to see how other people train. Here’s how Fight Geek does things.

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 – Outdoor Training Ideas

There are “many, many great ways to train outdoors”:http://www.straighttothebar.com/2007/12/taking_advantage_of_your_locat.html – here are just a few. Nice one.

Coming Events

Twitterchat : This week we’ll be discussing something that impacts everyone who weight-trains, **the many forms of therapy that you can apply yourself**. Foam rollers, sticks, tennis balls and so on.
Helping us to navigate through this fascinating world is “The Strength Doctor”:https://paydotcom.com/r/89481/scottbird/25673259/, “Tim Hull”:http://www.twitter.com/THull. Whether you’re after some temporary pain relief or seeking to make the most of the work you’ve just done in the gym, Tim has a few suggestions. Looking forward to it.
**Details** –
**Who** : Strength-training fans
**Topic** : **Manual Therapy Methods**
**When** : Wed Sep 16, 9pm EST (1am UTC)
**How** : include #sbgym in your tweets
To see when it’s on in your timezone, head over to the “twitterchat calendar”:http://www.straighttothebar.com/v2/calendar.php?c=3.
See you there.
Kettlebell Juggling Contest : how’s your “kettlebell juggling”:http://straighttothebar.com/guidetokettlebelljuggling/? For details, head over here. Good stuff.
Card Tearing Contest : or a spot of “card tearing”:http://www.straighttothebar.com/cardtearingebook/ 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 Battling Ropes Pole Pull. If you haven’t yet experienced the brutal power of the “Battling Ropes”:http://www.straighttothebar.com/battlingropes/ (seriously, it’ll knock the wind out of you), take a look at the many varieties of **Pole Pull**. Brilliant exercise.