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, 16 Feb 2015

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’re keen to do a little fitness writing and would like to submit your own piece for Straight to the Bar, here’s how.


Video : Globe and Blob Lifting

A quick dose of grip work. Good stuff.


Gymchat 276 – NLP Skills for Fitness Professionals (Jen Mulhall)

Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Certainly an interesting – if somewhat controversial – form of psychotherapy. Perhaps more widely known in communications and personal development contexts.
This week we’ll be looking closely at these last two areas, identifying the specific skills which are most valuable in a strength-training environment. Particularly for those on the Fitness Professional side of the fence.
Tackling this one are are Personal Trainers (and Strength Athletes) Jen Mulhall and Josh Hewett. Fantastic.


NB : No matter where you stand on a subject like this, we’d love to hear your thoughts. If there’s a particular subject you’d like Jen and Josh to address, just swing by the event page for this Gymchat and leave a comment or jump in the Hangout and ask them directly.
And if you’d like to point your friends/colleagues to the discussion, just use the ‘share‘ button at the top of that page. The more the merrier.

Details –

Who : Personal Trainers (and Strength Athletes) Jen Mulhall and Personal Trainer (and Strength Athlete) Josh Hewett
Topic : NLP Skills for Fitness Professionals
When : Monday Jan 12, 8:00pm EDT (the Event page shows what time that is in your local timezone).
How : Watch the live stream, join the hangout (just add Top Form Fitness to one of your circles, and Josh’ll send out the URL when the Hangout starts), or jump in the Q&A on the Event page itself. We’ll also post the full video shortly after the Gymchat.

Coming Up : We’ve got several fantastic discussions coming up shortly – with Powerlifter Bill Piche, Strength & Conditioning Coach Matt Palfrey and many, many others. Of course, we’re always scheduling more; if you’d like to suggest either a topic or a person that should definitely be on the show, drop us a line. Cheers.

Tip of the Week: Checking Your Squat Depth

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 a thread on the VirtualMeet Forums, looking at a device called the Safety Squat. Very interesting idea.


Over to James Chochlinski :

The safety squat arrived yesterday. No instruction manual, just a picture. Tried some squats with it using just the bar. Seems to work similarly to the youtube video sensor. Placement just above the knee requires deeper squat to trigger the sensor; Not as deep when placed higher up on the thigh. It’s just a level sensor, so the difference is due to the shape of my thigh. Happy with the safety squat so far.

James was also kind enough to share some video of the device in action :

The obvious use is for powerlifters when training for a meet. However, on Google+, Raymond Ho shared an alternative way to put it to work :

The idea is actually good. I see people when they start loading up the bar (which is too heavy for them) they start to get higher out of the holes until it looks more like a partial rep. and if you squat by yourself then it stops you from cheating.

Sounds great.
I’m curious : has anyone here used a device like this, and what are your thoughts on the idea?

Revisiting : The Encyclopedia of Clubbell Training

Remember these?
Over the weekend I was chatting to a friend of mine about club training, and the excellent Encyclopedia of Clubbell Training came up. We first looked at it a while ago now (and we’ll be posting a few additional thoughts shortly); this is just a quick note to mention that it’s currently on sale on the RMAX site.
For a whopping 50% discount, just use the Coupon Code CBKB50 at Checkout. Good stuff.


Quick update on the Hip Thruster we mentioned recently – fantastic thing.
Rather than trying to explain how it works, here it is in action :

Good stuff Bret, looks great.

Exercise of the Week : Sots Press (Pistol style)




This is a great variation on the Sots Press – blending a Pistol Squat into the movement. Nice one.


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.

New Guide : The Straight to the Bar Guide to Fat Loss

We’ve received some fantastic feedback following Vic Magary‘s Gymchats on Fat Loss, cheers. Greatly appreciated.
If fat loss is one of your own fitness goals, and you haven’t yet watched the discussions, you’ll find them all here. I’ve also added several other fat loss resources we’ve noted over the years – all of them highly recommended. Dive in.


Straight to the Bar Strength Calendar

Taking part in, helping out with or going to watch an upcoming strength competition?
Tell us about it.

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.

A Daily Dose

Straight to the Bar Daily

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.

Giving

If you’ve been training for a while, gradually cleaning up your diet, no doubt you’ve experienced the amazing power of transformation. It’s a tremendous feeling.
If you’re ready to give someone else a hand to transform their own lives – through education, sharing equipment, financial help – take a look at the full list of organisations on the Giving page. Cheers.