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 :
Gem From The Vault : 29 Things to do with a Barbell in the Corner
Jason Kirby
It’s incredible just how much you can do with a humble barbell.
Looking At : Nov 24, 2013
Scott Andrew Bird
What’s been going on this week? Quite a lot actually.
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 : Human Flag Tutorial
Nice one.
Gymchat 226 – Advances in Strength & Power Development (Craig Bongelli)
A deceptively simple question : How do you go from the ‘strongest person in the gym‘ to ‘strongest in the area‘? In short, how do you become seriously powerful?
Tackling this – from both a strength athletics and a power-hungry gym rat perspective – is competitive Strongman and Strength Coach Craig Bongelli, joined by Strongman and Personal Trainer Josh Hewett. If you’ve got questions for Craig or Josh, just swing by the event page for this Gymchat (during the discussion itself). Details below.
Details –
Who : Competitive Strongman and Strength Coach Craig Bongelli, joined by Strongman and Personal Trainer Josh Hewett
Topic : Advances in Strength & Power Development
When : Wednesday Nov 27, 9pm EDT (the Event page shows what time that is in your local timezone)
How : Watch the live stream, and ask questions, directly on the Event page. We’ll also post the full video shortly after the Gymchat.
See you there.
Previously : Last week we held Gymchat 225 – How to Master the Inner Game (with Personal Trainers (and Strength Athletes) Jen Mulhall and Josh Hewett). Great discussion.
If you missed the live stream (or just want to go over a particular point again), you can watch the entire video here.
Coming Up : we’ve got several fantastic discussions lined up for the next few months – featuring Mike ‘The Machine‘ Bruce, Ben McLaughlin and many, many more. Details shortly.
And if you’d like to suggest a future topic or take part in one of the upcoming Gymchats, just drop Josh a line. We’d love to hear from you.
Movember 2013
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Josh’s moustache-growing prowess for Movember 2013. And if you’d like to support him (well, prostate cancer research actually) in this quest, head over to his donation page :
http://ca.movember.com/mospace/7377745
btw, if you’re unfamiliar with Movember and just want to see what it’s all about, Josh has a brief intro video here :
http://straighttothebar.com/movember2013/
cheers.
Tip of the Week: License Plate Tearing Technique
Each week we publish a number of tips and techniques via Twitter, Google+, 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 from performing Strongman Chris Rider, and is from his superb article Tearing A License Plate. Enjoy.
Following a thorough description of the safety requirements for performing this feat (and it really can be a dangerous one, so proceed carefully), comes the basic technique involved. Over to Chris :
Now that we have ourselves protected, it’s time to grab the plate. I personally like to tear plates at chest level, and that is the method I am going to discuss. As a dry run without a plate, place your dominant hand in a hammer style grip. Place the pinky side of that hand just above the bottom of the sternum. Now place the other fist in the same manner below the dominant one so you have the thumb side of the non-dominant and the pinky side of the dominant meeting. Squeeze as hard as you can and push your hands in opposite directions with the top hand going slightly upward and the bottom hand going slightly downward. If you push straight through, the potential for being cut dramatically increases.
Want more? No problem. Head over to the original article, and watch the video below to see it in action. Beautiful.
Checking Out : Bret Contreras’ Hip Thruster
These look great.
And as we mentioned recently, they’re now available in the UK (cheers Matt – great site); we’ll be reviewing one shortly. In the meantime, here’s a bit of video to give you an idea of what the Hip Thruster is :
Good stuff. Thanks Bret, looks like a great piece of gear.
Quick update on the Lift the Blob package we mentioned recently – fantastic collection.
I’d love to hear how you go with it; when it comes to tackling this challenging feat you really can’t go past Lift the Blob. Superb.
Exercise of the Week : Standing Back Bridge
There’s a great exercise in this clip – the Standing Back Bridge. Much more challenging than it looks. Good stuff.
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
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.
A Daily Dose
Love this stuff? Same here. If you’re looking for a daily dose of strength-training goodness, grab the Straight to the Bar Daily.
Absolutely free.
Free Downloads from the Strength Kit
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.