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, 5 October 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 :

Fight Geek’s Training Log
It’s always great to see how other people train. Here’s how Fight Geek does things.
Mike F’s Training Log
More training goodness. Here’s what Mike‘s getting up to.

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 – Weightlifting, Step 1

Considering giving Weightlifting a shot? Watch this – fantastic.

Coming Events

[](http://twitter.com/sandysommer)Twitterchats : A couple of weeks ago, RKC [Sandy Sommer](http://twitter.com/sandysommer) helped us [get started on the road to kettlebell training](http://www.straighttothebar.com/v2/showthread.php?t=3166). This time he’s joining us to discuss some of the advanced training techniques to really crank your kettlebell training up a notch.
Whether it’s a complex exercise, an integration with other tools, a challenge or a strength feat; if you love pushing yourself to the limit with a humble kettlebell, this is the place to be. Should be fantastic.
Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : [Advanced Kettlebell Training](http://www.straighttothebar.com/v2/showthread.php?t=3499)
When : Wed Oct 7, 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.
**NB** : if you’d like to be a guest on an upcoming chat, get in touch. It’s always great to discover how other people are training.
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 :

Finnish Open Grip Strength Championships
Super Gym – Rolling Thunder and CoC

For details – and to add an event – swing by the Grip Contest Calendar.

Exercise of the Week : The Inman Mile

Mike Johnston. Photo via EFS. The Inman Mile is a great exercise; effectively a supersized version of a Farmers’ Walk. Although there are several variations (see below), the most common versions are :

1.5 x bodyweight, barbell across shoulders : This is the version recognised by the USAWA, and occasionally appears at USAWA sanctioned events. Their definition is :

The lifter will have loaded onto his/her shoulders a weight equal to 150% of bodyweight. The lifter will then carry the weight a distance of one mile. Gait is optional. Resting is allowed, but neither the lifter nor the weight may be supported. Records will be kept in both pounds and time. Should the weight be touched by any aide once the lift has begun, the event is terminated. The lifter may be handed refreshments during the lift.

For obvious reasons, this is usually performed outdoors.