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, 19 Jul 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 :

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 : Brad Pilon – 6 Meals per Day

No doubt you’ve heard the ‘6 Meals per Day‘ advice at some point. But just what qualifies as a meal? You may be surprised.
Over to Brad.


Deal of the Week : TRX Kettlebell – Iron Circuit Conditioning

TRX Kettlebell - Iron Circuit Conditioning

TRX Kettlebell – Iron Circuit Conditioning.

A blend of kettlebell and TRX goodness – fantastic.

Coming Events

Tim Hull

Tim Hull.

Twitterchat 75 – Incorporating Strongman Training

I’ve been a fan of Strongman training for as long as I can remember; the beautifully simple idea of ‘picking up something heavy, and putting it down somewhere else‘. Love it.
This week we’re taking a close look at the world of Strongman, specifically at how to integrate it with your existing training. No matter whether you’re a professional athlete or just someone who loves taking care of themselves.
Helping us explore this fascinating topic is none other than The Strength Doctor, Tim Hull (@THull); a man who’s been exploring the possibilities of Strongman work in his own training. Fantastic.


Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Incorporating Strongman Training
When : Wed Jul 21, 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.
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.

Robert DeCillis

Robert DeCillis.

Quick update on last week’s twitterchat : Thanks once again to Robert DeCillis (@CombatTrainer) and everyone else who took part in the discussion on Conditioning. Some superb ideas in there.
For those who missed out on the conversation, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What sort of conditioning do you favour, and in what form? How do you measure your progress?

Getting Ready For : Super Human Training

Super Human Training

Super Human Training.

Super Human Training is a series of interviews (one per week) with some of the strongest guys around.
Hosting the discussions is none other than Logan Christopher (certainly no slouch himself in the arena of Strongman). And to give you an idea of just how cool this is, here are a few of the guys you’ll be learning from :

And many more. Fantastic.

Exercise of the Week : Lever Side Bend

This is one of the many superb exercises detailed in Adam‘s brilliant Leverage Lifts article; definitely a keeper. Dive in, and enjoy.