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 : Odd Object Training
  Kevin ‘Sgt Sweaty’ Miller
  Use what you’ve got.
  

• Looking At : Apr 7, 2024 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 : How Many Days Before You Can Train a Muscle Again? (Flow High Performance

I was chatting to someone about this yesterday, and this is the video I pointed them to. Nice and thorough.

Gymchat 278 – TBA

We’re still finalising the details for this week’s discussion. I’ll post them on the blog (and X, 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 277 we discussed Barefoot Running – Believe the Hype! with Xero Shoes’ Steven Sashen, and Personal Trainer (and Strength Athlete) Josh Hewett. Great conversation.
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 : Cmate (Health Monitor)

Interesting idea. The Cmate is a fairly comprehensive Health Monitor. A standalone device, paired with a smartphone app for exercise & nutrition suggestions. A spot of video to show you what I mean :
The Cmate.

Tip of the Week : Making (and Using) a Fat Bar

Each week we publish a number of tips and techniques via X (Formerly `Twitter`), the blog; and the newsletter. Wherever you are, there’s always a way to improve what you’re doing. This tip comes to us from the obscenely strong Max Shank, in the form of a video from the article The Fat Bar. Take a look.

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This video shows the bar in action. To read how it helps, and how to make one; head over to the article The Fat Bar. Nice one. Over to Max :

Good stuff.

Unlock Your Hips, Unlock Your Squat

I get a lot of questions regarding the impact of ‘unlocking your hips‘ on heavy squatting. Rick Kaselj goes into it in plenty of detail in the ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors‘ program; and I’ve also posted a brief video below which demonstrates/explains some of the exercises.
Both (working with Ryan, and Rick’s program) are highly recommended. And as always, we love hearing your feedback – if you sample any of the above exercises or the ‘Unlock Your Hip Flexors‘ program, we’d love to hear about it.

Exercise Of The Week : Band Resisted Chin-Ups

I noticed this exercise (well, the pull-up version) featured as the ‘Exercise of the week‘ in the current EliteFTS newsletter. The first couple of reps was enough to ensure I was hooked.
Bands and chin-ups On the rare occasions bands make their way onto the chin-up stage it’s usual to have them helping out in some way. Whether looped around the bar or simply helping to offset your bodyweight, they’re usually somewhere near the top of the rack/chinning bar. Switching things around – affixing them to the rack’s base or low pins – feels quite strange at first, as your path is suddenly controlled. I’ve never learnt to be an acrobat, but I imagine it’s a similar feeling stepping into the training harness for the first time. Where do you put the bands? After a bit of experimentation I ended up with the combination shown in the picture. This involved two bands (Iron Woody blue bands in this case) which were looped around low pins in the rack. The other end of each band was looped over a weight belt, which held things in place nice and firmly. This provided around 12″-14″ of motion; easily adjusted by moving the pins to a higher or lower setting. Further thoughts Surprisingly, this is reasonably fast to set up. It’s certainly simpler than repeatedly donning a chin/dip belt, as there isn’t much tension in the bands in the bottom position. For the first session I kept things to the recent pattern of heavy triples; I’ll adjust this once I see how things feel tomorrow. A similar setup would probably work just as well for hanging leg and hanging knee raises. They’re up next.

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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 : ‘Sleep Sound with Pallavi Sharda’ (by Audible Sleep)

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. We’ve noted several sleep-focused audiobooks & podcasts over the years, taking a variety of forms. Guided meditations, soothing sounds & so on. ‘Sleep Sound with Pallavi Sharda’ takes the form of a relaxing story; an Indian take on Sleeping Beauty. Nice and calming. 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.