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, 29 March 2010

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 an idea of how others approach things, head over to the forums :

Jumping Rope for Conditioning
Al Kavadlo
Al takes a look at a great conditioning exercise – Jumping Rope. Good fun.
Building a More Complete Chest
Rob Sinnott
Another great day in the gym.

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.

NB : if you like what you see, show the authors your appreciation by voting (using the icons for Digg, StumbleUpon etc above each article). Cheers.

Video – San Angelo Tire Throw Games

What do you do after your outdoor workouts? A spot of tyre-throwing of course.
Good fun.

Stocking the Home Gym : The Power Rack

Power Rack.

A friend of mine is in the process of setting up a home gym, and is currently looking around for the perfect rack.
Although he isn’t competing, he certainly enjoys throwing heavy objects around. The rack will be at the gym’s core.
I pointed him in the direction of this article, which outlines a few things to consider when buying a rack. I’m curious though, what sort of rack are you using right now? What would you buy if you were starting from scratch, and why?
Looking forward to your comments. Love seeing which equipment people are actually using.

Coming Events

Twitterchat 59 – Eating Paleo, Training Hard : Whenever the idea of a Paleo or Primal Diet is brought up, it’s common to hear names such as CrossFit in the same sentence. Why exactly is that?
This week we’re diving into the world of Eating Paleo and Training Hardhow this type of diet can aid your recovery, reduce illnesses and generally enable you to spend more time hoisting obscenely heavy objects. Helping us to navigate this fascinating area is Primal Chat‘s, own @PrimalChat. Fantastic.

Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Eating Paleo, Training Hard
When : Wed Mar 31, 9pm EST (1am UTC)
How : include #sbpc in your tweets
To see when it’s on in your timezone, head over to the twitterchat calendar.
See you there.
Got an event that you’d like to add? Let me know.

Watching : Bio-Feedback Bonus

‘Unbreakable‘ Adam T Glass.

With the Grip ‘n’ Rip DVD coming out next week, it’s a great time to see what the Bio-Feedback approach is all about.
Here’s a brief sample. Brilliant.

Exercise of the Week : Kettlebell Halo

I love the Halo – perfect for loosening up the shoulders.
Although it can be performed using any heavy object (plates, clubs, block weights), it’s most commonly seen with a fairly modest kettlebell. To see how it’s performed, it’s over to Marcus Martinez :

NB : for more on this wonderful exercise, Steve Maxwell explains it well on the 300 Kettlebell Challenge Instructional DVD (disc 1).