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, 13 Dec 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 :

Fitness Goals for 2011
Various athletes
Mine are primarily strength related – how about yours? Got any meets/competitions/contests/gatherings lined up? And how do you determine your goals – are they things you’ve never tried, or improvements (such as lifting a heavier weight, or completing the course in less time) to the things you already do?
Training Logs
Various athletes
There are many, many ways to train. Here are just a few.

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 and Retweet icons above & below each post). Cheers.

Video : Olympic Lifting Techniques – Positions and Speeds

From Glenn Pendlay‘s Olympic Lifting Techniques DVD – a discussion on the importance of both position and speed. Good stuff.

Twitterchat 96 – Last Minute Fitness Gifts

Adam Stoffa of Stretch Exercise Eat.

With the holiday season in full swing (around here at least) it’s time once again to take a look at just what’s out there. What exactly do you buy for the fitness person in your life? If they’re setting up a home gym (ready for the new year), what are the kinds of things they’ll need? How about gifts for someone you care about that you’d love to see become fit, but that currently isn’t?
This week we’re discussing the many forms of Last Minute Fitness Gifts available. Things you can buy now, and – in most cases – get delivered and set up in time for Christmas Day itself. Helping us explore this fascinating topic is none other than SEE‘s Adam Stoffa (@SEEAdamTrain). Fantastic.

Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Last Minute Fitness Gifts
When : Wed Dec 15, 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.

Derek ‘Body By D-Rock‘ Peruo.

Quick update on last week’s twitterchat : Thanks once again to everyone who took part in the discussion on Hormones and Diet. Some superb ideas in there.
For those who missed out on the conversation, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What’s your current diet like – Primal? Vegetarian? Anything goes?

Checking Out : Industrial Strength Grip

Industrial Strength Grip.

This looks fantastic.
Tomorrow (Tue Dec 14, 2010) the incredible (and Unbreakable) Adam Glass will be releasing Industrial Strength Grip; a superb package for anyone new to the wonderful world of grip. To get a taste of what’s on offer, here’s a brief video demonstrating a simple grip-training routine using equipment you probably already have.
(a dumbbell, a towel and a couple of plates).
Good stuff.

Exercise of the Week : Jaw Lifting

I got a couple of emails during the week on this superb strength feat.
For the uninitiated, here’s a brief demonstration from StrongerGrip’s Ryan Pitts. Good stuff.

And if you’re looking for more info on exactly what this feat entails, the equipment needed and the training required, swing by the superb Jaw Lifting : What, Why and How. Love it.

Incidentally, if you’d like to get in touch regarding this or any other aspect of strength, you can send me an email here. Look forward to hearing from you.