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, 10 Sep 2012

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 :

Over to you. I’d love to hear what you think : leave your comments on the above articles, and share them with your friends/colleagues/clients and so on.


NB : If you’d like to submit your own piece for Straight to the Bar, here’s how.


Video : R & P (Ring and Pinkie) Hub Lifting

Love it.


Gymchat 184 – Mental Preparation for Bodybuilding Contests (with Maik Wiedenbach)

This week sees the beginning of the Video Gymchats – simply a video version of the discussions we’ve been holding for more than 3 years now. Same time, same topics.
One notable change : as my own bandwidth here’s a little ordinary at best, these Video Gymchats will be held by Personal Trainer Kirk Fontaine. If you’ve joined us for the previous Gymchats, you’ll appreciate just how incredible this is. Please make him feel welcome.


For the first of the Video Gymchats, Kirk will be interviewing Olympic Athlete / Bodybuilder / Personal Trainer Maik Wiedenbach; discussing the mental side of preparing for a bodybuilding competition. The what, how and why.
Looking forward to it.
NB : I’ll post detailed instructions on the blog regarding ‘how to watch live, how to ask questions, where to find the video later‘ and so on; in the meantime, just follow either Kirk or myself on Google+. We’ll be starting at the usual time, 9pm EST on Wednesday.


Details –
Who : Olympic Athlete / Bodybuilder / Personal Trainer Maik Wiedenbach
Topic : Mental Preparation for Bodybuilding Contests
When : Wed Sep 12, 9pm EST (here’s how to find out when that is in your timezone)
How : Google+ Hangout. Follow either Kirk or Scott for details on the live feed.
See you there.

Tip of the Week: Getting Back Into It

Each week we publish a number of tips and techniques via twitter, Google+, the forums, the blog; and now the newsletter. Wherever you are, there’s always a way to improve what you’re doing.


Returning to Heavy Training After a Break

Returning to Heavy Training After a Break

If you’ve been away from the iron for a while, how do you get back into it?


Vic takes a thorough look at this in the Returning to Heavy Training After a Break‘ ebook. For a brief overview though, check out the discussion we held on that very same topic.


In Gymchat 136 – Heavy Training after a Break, Vic noted :

I lost a LOT of strength on some lifts. It was surprising. That’s why that initial 3 weeks of lighter work was important to me – it was smart to underestimate my strength at first.

And

It’s important to consciously do less those first few weeks. I was off for almost 2 years – as a rule I did not put any more than 135lbs on the bar the first week. I did not push any sets to failure the next two weeks while still staying at 5 reps or less for most sets.

Good stuff.

Checking Out : Martial Arts Stance Training (DVD)

This looks superb.
Paul Zaichik takes a look at a key component of almost every Martial Art or Yoga form; the stances. Not simply ‘how to do them‘, but a detailed examination of the essentials behind performing them flawlessly.


From the main page :

There are three components to stances, which most people lack. These are:

  • Flexibility or Depth
  • Strength and Endurance
  • Balance and Stability

In addition common requests had to do with muscle and joint pain while performing the stances. If you are reading this, there must be a part of your stances that you want to improve. What you may not know, is that all the factors mentioned above are very interdependent. Take balance for instance. If you try to go deeper than you flexibility allows, you will fall off balance. If your joints begin to hurt, you will get out of stance or will find yourself off balance as well. The same would happen if you lack strength or endurance, you are bound to fall in one direction or another. Now that you know the above, you may be surprised to find that your strength maybe lacking due to your lack of flexibility. Your joints may hurt due to poor strength, balance or flexibility as well.

Fantastic.


Quick update on the StrongerGrip Modular Grip System (MGS) we mentioned recently – absolutely fantastic.
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the video. Warning : you will want one.



Beautiful.

Exercise of the Week : Reverse Burpees

Love your burpees? Here’s a variation you don’t see every day – the Reverse Burpee. Over to Nina.



Good stuff. Oh, and if you’re looking for more weird and wonderful Burpee variations, have a go at these.


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

Kettlebell Exercise Demonstrations & Tutorials

Pavel Tsatsouline with Flamebell

We’ve looked at a lot of kettlebell exercises and variations over the years – in the form of tips, tutorials and demonstrations.
Where do you find them all? Right here – a complete list of Kettlebell Exercise Demonstrations & Tutorials.
Enjoy.

Free Downloads from the Strength Kit

Returning to Heavy Training After a Break

I recently added a number of resources to the Straight to the Bar Strength Kit, and as a Strength & Fitness Newsletter subscriber you’re more than welcome to download as many of them as you like. Several great eBooks, podcasts and videos – all absolutely free.
Just head over here, save them to your hard-drive, and dive in.
Good stuff.


NB : This is an ever-changing list. If you’d like to put your own work in front of a fantastic strength-focussed audience, let me know.