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 X/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 X/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 X/Twitter’s ‘List‘ functionality quite a bit. There’s a full list of them here :

https://x.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 posts 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, 11 Sep 2023

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 : Specific Training for the Transverse Abdominis: Belt It In
Kat ‘The Mighty Kat’ Ricker
Tighten your built-in belt.
Looking At : Sep 10, 2023
Scott Andrew Bird | follow @scottbird
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’re keen to do a little fitness writing and would like to submit your own piece for Straight to the Bar, get in touch.

Video : Why 90% of People Use This Performance Enhancing Drug (Dr Brad Stanfield)

And yes, I’m one of them.

Gymchat 278 – TBA

We’re still finalising the details for this week’s discussion. I’ll post them on the blog (and Twitter, Facebook etc) shortly.

In the meantime, take a look at some of the previous episodes of the show – (there’s an example below, and a full list here). And if you’ve got any questions or comments on the various topics discussed, we’d love to hear them. Just leave a note below the video.

Craig Bongelli.

Previously : In Gymchat 239 we discussed How to Get HUGE! with Strongman and Strength Coach Craig Bongelli, together with Personal Trainer (and Strength Athlete) Josh Hewett. Great conversation.

And if you missed it the first time (or just want to go over a particular point again), check out the full video :

https://straighttothebar.com/2014/03/13/video_for_gymchat_239_-_how_to_get_huge_craig_bongelli/ .

NB : If you’d like to take part in a future episode – either as an interviewee, or as a guest host – just drop us a line. Love hearing how everyone else trains.

Checking Out : Back Transformer (Posture Correction Wearable)

Interesting.

We’ve looked at several posture correction devices in the past, and the Back Transformer plays a similar role. Forcing the wearer to stand up/sit up straight; whenever desired.

The video below will show you what I mean :

The Back Transformer.

Ever Tried Kettlebells?

If you've seen people using them but never taken the plunge yourself, here are the ones I use personally. You can also pick up a book/DVD/course if you want to learn how to put them to work.

Tip of the Week : Rice Bucket Rehab

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

In the discussion on Recovery Work for the Hands we noted several superb recovery techniques, including the ever-popular Rice Digs.
If you’ve never tried doing these, the process is incredibly simple. From the post ‘Rice Digs (for Grip-Training Warmups)‘, a brief description :

The exercise is an extremely simple one; pour some uncooked rice into a bucket and repeatedly burrow your hands into it. Make fists, rotate your wrists and generally move your hands around whilst they’re surrounded by rice.
To make it more difficult, use sand or even lead shot instead of the rice. Nice and painful.

NB : All other things being equal, a finer material will feel more difficult. Things like lead shot have less give, and will quickly prove challenging. Rice is a good starting point.

And to make things a little clearer, have a look at the video below. Great exercise.

Exercise Of The Week : Heavy Step-Ups

Barbell step-ups – a great way to finish a squat workout.

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.

Fitness Reading/Listening For The Week : ‘The Pursuit of Healthiness’ Podcast (by Blake Griffin)

The Pursuit of Healthiness

It’ll come as no surprise that we discuss a lot of fitness-related books, courses & podcasts; on this site as well as the various networks noted in the sidebar.

‘The Pursuit of Healthiness‘ is certainly an interesting podcast. And as it’s been going for a while, I picked a random episode to listen to : Episode 1 from Season 2 – Malcolm Gladwell. A wonderul blend of health & fitness advice, and a smattering of current (at the time) events.

Dive in.

Incidentally, I’m always looking to add to the ‘books to read‘ list. If you’ve come across something which you’d love everyone else to check out, drop me a line.

There’s also a list of our all-time fitness suggestions over there. Dive on in.