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, 20 Sep 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 :

Suspension Training 101
Derek ‘Body By D-Rock‘ Peruo
Derek takes a great look at the basics of suspension training; showing just how versatile it can be. Superb.
High-Volume Training
Various authors
There have been some interesting points raised in the forums (particularly here and here) regarding high-volume training. What are your thoughts?

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 : Thumb Pad Developer

‘Mighty Joe‘ builds some extremely creative grip tools. Check out his latest creation – the beautifully simple Thumb Pad Developer. Love it.

Coming Events

Scott Latella (left)

Twitterchat 84 – Training for Armwrestling II

Love your armwrestling? Same here.
This week we’re going back to the world of armwrestling, taking a look at the professional side of this wonderful sport. Training, recovery techniques, staying competitive and so on. Helping us explore this fascinating topic is none other than StrongerWrist‘s, Scott Latella (@wristball). Fantastic.

Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Training for Armwrestling II
When : Wed Sep 22, 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.

Tearing

Quick update on last week’s twitterchat : Thanks once again to everyone who took part in the discussion on Tearing. Some superb ideas in there.
For those who missed out on the conversation, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you tear cards, phonebooks or just your junk mail? Which technique do you feel more comfortable with?

Getting Ready For : Sports Biomechanics: The Basics: Optimizing Human Performance

Sports Biomechanics: The Basics.

This is the second edition of Anthony J Blazevich‘s superb book Sports Biomechanics: The Basics; available on Nov 15.
Covering everything from improving your swim stroke to optimizing running technique, this is a must have for any serious sports scientist. Superb.

Exercise of the Week : Wrist Rolling For Time

More forearm training goodness, this time in the form of the rack-mounted wrist roller. Beautiful thing.
If you’ve ever used a wrist roller (and if not, give one a shot – perfect bit of DIY equipment), chances are you’ve focused on the ‘lifting a fixed weight‘ method (as in the video above). Another variation you might like to try – and thanks to Jedd Johnson for this idea, it’s a great one – is to drag a heavy object (such as a weighted sled) over a fixed distance in the shortest time possible.
A great way to train, and to compete. Love it.