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 April 2010

On the Forums

Hope you had a great Easter.
As you can see, the forums aren’t available just at the moment (I’m upgrading the software), but should be back to normal shortly.
In the meantime, here are a couple of items from the archives that are well worth another look :

A Little Yoke Work : 10 Exercises for a Bigger Neck
Scott Bird
Traps maketh the man.
Grip Training – Lifting the Inch Replica Dumbbell (part II,
III,
IV
and V)
“Jedd ‘Napalm‘ Johnson
Brilliant series.

NB : if you like what you see, show the authors your appreciation by voting (click on the ‘tweet‘ image above each article). Cheers.

Video – Steve Maxwell: The Spartacus Log Lift

This lift was seen many years ago in the film Spartacus, and is essentially a Turkish Get-Up with a log.
Fantastic.

Stocking the Home Gym : Bars, Plates, Hooks & Collars

Used Plates.

Work in the home gym continues.
This week we’re taking another look at a few staple ingredients, specifically Bars, Plates, Hooks and Collars.
Enjoy.

Coming Events

Leisl.

Twitterchat 60 – The Importance of Mental Strength When Training : It’s incredible how much of an impact your state-of-mind has on your training. A little mental toughness goes a long, long way.
This week we’re diving into the world of Mental Strength, and its Impact on Training – what it is, why it’s essential, and how to get it. Everything you’ll need to keep those PRs coming regularly.
Helping us to navigate this fascinating area is Strong Body, Stronger Mind‘s Leisl (@missleisl). Fantastic.

Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : The Importance of Mental Strength When Training
When : Wed Apr 7, 9pm EST (1am UTC)
How : include #sbgym in your tweets.
See you there.
Got an event that you’d like to add? Let me know.

Watching : Grip ‘n’ Rip DVD

‘Unbreakable‘ Adam T Glass.

This is absolutely superb. If you’ve ever wondered what the Bio-Feedback approach is all about, grab this.
The Grip ‘n’ Rip DVD.
Brilliant.

Exercise of the Week : Neider Press

This is a fantastic exercise.
I first saw a particularly creative variation (with a weighted bar held vertically) over on Ross Enamait‘s site, and it’s since become a firm favourite.
Possibly named after strong-shouldered Bill Nieder, the Neider Press is a simple matter of moving a heavy object (typically a bar, but it could be anything) to arms’ length and back. Repeatedly.
Here’s a quick clip to give you an idea of what I mean.

NB : there are many, many ways to vary this exercise – changing the angle, weight, time etc. Experiment.