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, 7 Feb 2011

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 :

Health & Fitness Research
Various authors
There has been some fantastic research posted recently, both on the forums and the Facebook page. Dive in.
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‘ button beneath each post). Cheers.

Video : Band-Resisted Knee-Ins

Nice and simple – a little band work.
Good stuff.

Twitterchat 104 – Training with Grippers

Nice and close. Photo by ‘Mighty Joe‘ Musselwhite.

We’ve talked a lot about grip training over the past couple of years (yes, this is the second anniversary of the twitterchats); everything from DIY Grip Tools to Pinch Grip Training. Love it.

This week we’re returning to the world of hand strength, taking a detailed look at Training with Grippers. What to get, what to do, recovery techniques and so on. All the good stuff.
Helping us explore this fascinating topic is none other than the enigmatic Matt (@njstrongman32). Fantastic.

Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Training with Grippers
When : Wed Feb 9, 9pm EDT (1am UTC)
How : Include #sbgym in your tweets.
If you’ve never been to one of these twitterchats before, here’s how to join in the fun. Simple, quick to set up and free.
And to see when it’s on in your timezone, head over to the twitterchat calendar.
See you there.

Loadable Blob.

Quick update on last week’s twitterchat : Thanks once again to everyone who took part in the discussion on Pinch Grip, Blobs and the U-GO Handles. Some superb ideas in there.
For those who missed out on the conversation, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Plates, blobs, bars – what do you like to lift?
NB : The winner of the superb StrongerGrip Loadable Blob was @njstrongman32 – congratulations. And cheers Ryan, greatly appreciated.

Checking Out : Hyper Wear SteelBells

Hyper Wear SteelBells.

These look great.
If you’ve ever played with the SandBells (great for things like Grip Grabs), you know just how versatile they are. Use them in place of the occasional kettlebell or medicine ball workout.
SteelBells are essentially just the heavy-duty variety. As the name implies, they’re filled with steel shot; which makes them far more dense, and even more difficult to hold. The weight shifts about a lot more.
If you’re after a new way to challenge your grip – and get a little strength-conditioning in at the same time – give the SteelBells a run. Beautiful.

Exercise of the Week : Sledgehammer Throwing

When Anna Paij recently announced that she was planning to buy a sledgehammer, I must admit that the first exercise I thought of was the humble Sledgehammer Throw.
It’s a simple as it sounds (and a great deal of fun) – find an open space, and throw a sledgehammer as far as you can. Walk over to it, and repeat.
Here it is in action :

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.

Free eBooks from Straight to the Bar

As a Strength & Fitness Newsletter subscriber you get several great eBooks, absolutely free. Just head over here, save them to your hard-drive, and dive in.
Good stuff.
NB : This is an ever-changing list of books. If you’d like to put your own work in front of a fantastic strength-focussed audience, let me know.