Gem From The Vault : Addressing Weaknesses in The Squat
Rick Walker
Find and fix your weak points.
Looking At : Sep 24, 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 : Blood Pressure And Heart Rate Variability Explained (Andrew Steele & Dr Rohin Francis)
Great explanations.
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.
Previously : In Gymchat 241 we discussed Advanced Fat Loss : Losing the Last 10lb with Online Fitness Coach Vic Magary, 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/2014/03/27/video_for_gymchat_241_-_advanced_fat_loss_losing_the_last_10lb_vic_magary/ .
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 : Ring One (Smart Ring)
Looking forward to it.
We’ve looked at several Smart Rings over the years, and the Ring One is certainly a promising one.
To give you an idea of the various features these rings typically have, here’s a spot of video :
The Ring One.
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 : Training for Unusual Feats
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.
When Jeff Wilson was training for the Soda Can Crush (video below), he quickly realised that his usual training approach wouldn’t work. For one thing, you can’t progressively crush a can of soda.
In the article Unusual Goals Require Unusual Measures, he explains exactly how to tackle something like this. Here’s a snippet to give you the basic idea :
I knew that without actually being able to accomplish the feat that my training would have to take a drastic turn from what I had become accustomed to over the years. The seemingly supplemental exercises of my workouts would now become my core movements.
I scoured my repertoire (as well as the training logs of top gripsters world-wide) for hand, wrist and grip exercises to find those that closely mimicked the movement I would use for the crush – and I came to the conclusion that the final crush of an unbraced bend was strikingly similar. With some alterations to my particular style of bending I knew I could get huge carryover to the soda crush. I upped my bending frequency a bit and focused on generating as much power as possible through the final crush down as I could with each piece of steel I attempted. During my bending sessions I used high volume, isometrics and pre-kinking steel that was a little out of my league, but I didn’t want to bend too often because going too overboard with unbraced bending can potentially set you up for some pretty nasty injuries. I knew that I also needed movements that I could safely perform on a very regular basis that would have big carry over to the can crush, while having very little risk of injury in order to accomplish my goal in a timely manner.
And the feat itself? Over to Jeff :
Love it.
Exercise Of The Week : Shoulder Squatting
Just when I thought I’d seen all of the squat varieties, All around strength has a new one – resting the bar on one shoulder. Definitely one to try.
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 : ‘QUARTERLY ESSAY 91 : Lifeboat – Disability, Humanity and the NDIS’ (by Micheline Lee)
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.
‘QUARTERLY ESSAY 91 : Lifeboat – Disability, Humanity and the NDIS‘ is a great look at Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) – what it is, how it came to be and how things could be improved even further.
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.