Gem From The Vault : Kipping Pull-upsAl Kavadlo
Cheating or just for a different purpose?
Looking At : Mar 20, 2022Scott 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 to Work Out Every Day for Maximum Results (Mind Pump Show)
I was chatting to someone over the weekend about my own workouts, which are of the ‘short & frequent‘ (daily, in my case) variety. As for the thinking behind that – this video explains the logic perfectly.
Out of curiosity, how frequent are your own workouts? Love hearing about everyone’s own approaches to training.
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 147 we discussed Long-Term Paleo with the incredible Jeremy Loo, interviewed by Personal Trainer Kirk Fontaine. 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 : D-BOX VIBE Chair (haptic-laden seat)
Interesting.
Although the D-BOX VIBE Chair is clearly aimed the home entertainment market (for now), I’d love to see a variant for the home gym. For indoor cycling that feels as though you’re on a gravel path, or a rowing machine that feels as if you’re part of a team, on a river.
Wonderful.
As for the current offering, although it doesn’t have these features (yet), you may well love the features it includes. A little video :
The D-BOX VIBE Chair.
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 : Steel Bending Benefits – Increased Neural Strength
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.
This tip comes to us from ‘Unbreakable‘ Adam Glass‘ superb article Why Bend Steel?; and looks at just one of the great benefits of a regular dose of steel bending. Increased Neural Strength.
Over to Adam :
First benefit is to your neural strength: Steel bending is an exceptional way to build your single unit application of tension. What I mean is this – you have to tense and load every muscle in your body, take out all “leakages”, brace everything together and direct it through you hands with a sniper’s precise angle. If you get sloppy punching on the nails ends, you will hurt yourself. You could possibly punch yourself in the face, roll your hands out of the groove, stab yourself, or any other combination of less desirable outcomes. This activity will turn your wrist to stone. Your ability to direct power will be significantly increased. This will directly carry over to any other strength-skill you currently have. The way I load up to bend a Huge Stainless Steel Bastard is exactly the same feeling as when I load up to pull a max dead, to press a 48kg bell, or to slam an axe through a log. It adds a critical power appliance to your “strength skill tool box”.
This increase in strength and power naturally will carry over to an increase in your endurance. Anyone who has bent a nail will tell you the first time they bent it was so tiring. I have watched people sweat bullets bending their first respectable nail. As time goes on you gain huge reserves of power. A personal testament to this level of power for me was October 2007 when I bent 150 60D nails in one hour using the double under (DU) grip. That represented a massive improvement from Jan 2007, when bending 10-15 nails left my hands extremely fatigued.
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 : Overhead Support
A great supplementary exercise for the Jerk – the Overhead Support.
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 For The Week : Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ (by Giulia Enders, Jill Enders, Katy Sobey)
It’ll come as no surprise that we discuss a lot of fitness-related books; on this site as well as the various networks noted in the sidebar.
I somehow missed this one when it first appeared, but noticed it recently in Audible’s ‘Plus‘ collection (free books for members). And it’s a wonderful read.
Incidentally, I’ve got an evergrowing list of ‘books to read‘, and I’m always looking to add to it. Suggestions welcome.
There’s also a list of our all-time fitness suggestions over there. Dive on in.