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, 31 May 2010

This Week on Straight to the Bar

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, you’ll enjoy these :

Diesel Steel Bending Basics
Jedd ‘Napalm‘ Johnson
If you’ve ever seen someone bend a nail, bolt, or that wrench that should’ve been thrown away ages ago; you’ll appreciate just how impressive it can be.
Fortunately, it’s much easier to get started than you may realise. Here’s how.
Summer Freak Program – Deload Week
Rob Sinnott
The serious training continues.
Good stuff.

Ready to add your own opinion, workout log or training article? Just head over to the Forums, Training Logs, or swing by the Article Submissions page. They’re fantastic ways to share your ideas.

NB : if you enjoy the articles, show the authors your appreciation by voting (using the Like, Digg and Retweet icons). Cheers.

Video : TredSled Sprints

Sprints on a treadmill? Yep – it’s the TredSled.

Deal of the Week : %15 Discount on Ultimate Sandbag ‘Strength‘ Package

Ultimate Sandbags.

I love sandbag training.
If you’ve ever thought about giving it a run, here’s the perfect opportunity. Head over to buyultimatesandbag.com and grab one of the Ultimate Sandbag ‘Strength‘ packages (2 x 35lb filler bags, ‘Challenge Your Core‘ DVD, ‘Rapid Results‘ Wall Map, USB t-shirt and Trainer Community Membership), and enter the coupon code ‘bar‘ at checkout. The first 20 purchasers will receive a tasty %15 discount.
Seriously, if you’ve ever though about trying a little sandbag work, this is a fantastic way to get going.
NB : The discounted kits won’t exactly be hanging around. If you’re keen to save a dollar or three, get in early.

Coming Events

Suunto T3. Photo by glennji.

Twitterchat 68 – Fitness and Health Gadgets

I’m fascinated by fitness and health gadgets of all descriptions – they perfectly combine my strength-training and technology passions. Superb things.
This week we’re taking a look at the many kinds of Fitness and Health Gadgets available, and how to use them in your training – for tracking your workouts, measuring bodyfat, analysing your blood and so on. Everything for keeping you performing at your peak in the gym, on the mat and during the competition. Fantastic.
Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Fitness and Health Gadgets
When : Wed Jun 2, 9pm EDT (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.

Stocking up.

Quick update on last week’s twitterchat : Following the discussion on Protein there’s been a stack of information flowing on the various protein sources (including both foods and supplements), whey vs casein (and the various mixes), milk consumption and so on.
Everyone’s different, and your overall diet and training goals play enormous roles here. For everyone that asked though, my own approach is : ‘real‘ foods the vast majority of the time (I follow a slightly modified Paleo diet) and a protein shake immediately after workouts. That combination seems to work well, in my case at least.
How about you – what’s your own approach to protein consumption?
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.

Product Review : Ultimate Warrior Workouts – Fitness Secrets of the Martial Arts

Ultimate Warrior Workouts.

A few weeks ago I mentioned Martin Rooney’s latest offering, Ultimate Warrior Workouts. And as Fight Geek points out, it’s absolutely superb.
Read on.

Exercise of the Week : Sandbag Get Up

These are superb (and much harder than they look, incidentally – give ’em a shot) – the sandbag version of the Turkish Get-up. Love ’em.