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, 6 Jun 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 :

NB : I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do the +1 thing, leave a comment beneath the article itself, and share your views with the fantastic strength-training community. Cheers.


Video : Squatting : A Loaded ‘Happy Baby

Very interesting indeed.


Twitterchat 121 – Fat Loss

There are many approaches to fat loss; combining nutrition and exercise in various ways.
This week we’re taking a look at the high-protein approach, how it works and why it’s effective in many cases. Helping us explore this fascinating topic is none other than Food & Fitness‘ Anthony Paradis (@foodnfitness). Fantastic.


Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Fat Loss
When : Wed Jun 8, 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.

Quick update on last week’s twitterchat : Thanks once again to everyone who took part in the discussion on Exercise Variations. Some superb ideas in there.
For those who missed out on the conversation, here’s a brief summary. Was a great one.

Tip of the Week: 8 Glasses of Water Per Day?

Each week we publish a number of tips and techniques via twitter, facebook, the forums, the blog; and now the newsletter. Wherever you are, there’s always a way to improve what you’re doing.
This tip comes to us via Straight to the Bar‘s own Scott Andrew Bird, and looks at the origins of the guidelines surrounding water consumption. Enjoy.


WaterMost people are aware that the drinking of plenty of water is advisable, and anecdotal evidence suggests that more = better (up to a point). However, where did the current guideline of ‘8 cups per day‘ come from?


According to Valtin (i) the origin is probably the 1945 recommendation made by the Food and Nutrition Board of the US National Research Council. This stated :

A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 liters daily in most instances. An ordinary standard for diverse persons is 1 milliliter for each calorie of food. Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods.

Think ‘ml per calorie‘, rather than a fixed amount. After all, everyone’s different.
NB : The 2.5 litres was changed to 8 x 8 fluid ounce cups in later recommendations, but is otherwise unchanged.

Checking Out : Old Sports & Strength Videos

I love these.
Whilst researching the various strength feats of Thomas Topham I stumbled across a collection of sporting and strength videos from the early 20th century. Everything from films which include a strongman show to movies of sports events from the period.


Right now I’m watching several of the boxing trailers and newsreels, featuring the incredible Jack ‘The Manassa Mauler‘ Dempsey (pictured).You’ll find all of these – absolutely free – over at archive.org. Dive in.

Quick update on Explode Your Deadlift : A few weeks ago we mentioned Explode Your Deadlift, Andy Bolton‘s much anticipated ebook on deadlift training.
As I’m more than a little partial to the deadlift, I’m a big fan. What do you think – has Explode Your Deadlift helped you in your own quest?
A great read.

Exercise of the Week : Kettlebell Hot Potato

If you’re looking for a bit of variety, give this one a go. Great fun.
The Kettlebell Hot Potato is really just an advanced version of the childrens’ game, using a moderately heavy kettlebell. The ‘bell is passed from hand to hand, with both speed and the gap determined by your own comfort level.
Here’s a demonstration to show you the basic form of the exercise :

Not feeling it? Looking for a challenge? Move your hands slightly further apart, and toss the kettlebell rather than passing it. You can also perform these sitting or lying down; more like a Russian Twist.
And keep in mind Adam‘s excellent advice from his brilliant series The Investments :

If you have tried this in the past and didn’t feel the effects on your arms, I will tell you how to fix it. As my little brother would say “put some stank on it” – you need to throw it higher with more leg drive, and decelerate the bell in the heel of the palm with it stuck to the rib cage.

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

10 Essential Conditioning ToolsAs 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.

Time for Some New Gear? Here’s What to Get, and How to Use It

Straight to the Bar GuidesThanks to everyone who’s sent in feedback (via email, Facebook and Twitter) about the Straight to the Bar Guides – it’s greatly appreciated.
For everyone who hasn’t seen them yet, the Guides will help you decide what to get (and where), and how to train with it. There’s some great information in there.