Strength & Fitness Newsletter

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

DragonDoor Workshops

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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, 12 April 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 :

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 beneath each article). Cheers.

Video – Dave Johnson : Steel bending World Record

At the 4th Leg of Britain’s Strongest Hands, Dave Johnson bent an incredible 10 x 30″, 5/8″ HRS bars in 60 secs.
Fantastic.

Reading : 20 Strength, Fitness and Health Sites

Thumbs up

Thumbs up.

Back in 2006 I noted some of my favourite strength-training sites (20, to be exact); many of which are still on my daily reading list.
Of course, over the past 4 years we’ve noted many, many other great resources – both online and offline. Blogs, books, newsletters and seminars. Fantastic.
Time to pull them together. As I’m currently updating the original list, do you have a site or two that should be added? Which is your favourite strength, fitness or health site on the web?
Whether it’s your own site or a personal favourite, tweet me the URL. Alternately – if 140 characters just isn’t enough – post the details on the forums. Should be a great collection.

Coming Events

Derek Peruo

Derek Peruo.

Twitterchat 61 – Supplements for Strength Athletes : A little dietary fine-tuning can have a big impact.
This week we’re diving into the world of Supplements for Strength Athletes – vitamins & minerals, protein shakes, amino acids and so on. The many things that are taken, the benefits they offer and the ways to measure their effectiveness. Everything you’ll need to keep training hard & heavy, frequently.
Helping us to navigate this fascinating area is Body by D-Rock‘s Derek Peruo – (@bodybydrock). Fantastic.


Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Supplements for Strength Athletes
When : Wed Apr 14, 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.
See you there.
NB : If you’d like to be a guest on a future twitterchat, let me know. It’s great to hear how other people are training.

Learning From : The Grip Authority

The Grip Authority

The Grip Authority.

As many of you already know, I’m a huge fan of grip training.
Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to work with – and learn from – several freakishly strong gripsters, including the massively talented Adam Glass, Aaron Corcorran and Ryan Pitts.
And, of course, Jedd ‘Napalm‘ Johnson.
Not only is Jedd insanely strong, he’s an incredible teacher. To give you an idea, here are just a few of the superb series he’s shared over the years :

  • Straight to the Grip Contest (part I, II, III, IV, V, VI)
  • Hammering Strength into the Wrists (part I, II)
  • Hub Lifting (part I, II)

Want more? If you’re keen to learn the skills necessary to remain at the top of this extremely competitive game, head over to The Grip Authority. A wealth of instructional videos, articles and discussions to help you become obscenely strong.
If you’re serious about your grip strength, it’s the best investment you can make.

Exercise of the Week : The Kettlebell Hot Potato

This exercise is about as simple as they come. Love it.
There are several variations of the Hot Potato available (for the most common variety, watch the video) – with some of them incorporating more of a throw than a pass.
Still, the basic idea is the same – the ‘bell is moved from hand to hand. Repeatedly.
A quick video demonstration of this wonderful exercise :

NB : for more on this wonderful exercise, Jeff Martone explains it well on the H2H Kettlebell Drills DVD.