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

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 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.

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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, 14 Feb 2011

This Week on Straight to the Bar

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 :

The Power of Negatives
Anthony Paradis
There’s a lot of superb info in the Beginners area of the forums, including deceptively simple snippets such as this. Over to you – do you employ negatives in your routines; in what sorts of exercises?
GripTopz Rim Lift (162lb)
‘Unbreakable‘ Adam Glass
Here’s a quick demonstration of a very interesting training tool – the GripTopz. Nice one.

Ready to add your own opinion, workout log or training article? Just head over to the Forums, Training Logs, or swing by the Article Submissions page. They’re fantastic ways to share your ideas.

NB : if you enjoy the articles, show the authors your appreciation by voting (using the ‘Like‘ button beneath each post). Cheers.

Video : 64kg Kettlebell Snatch x 5

Nice and heavy. Good stuff.

Twitterchat 105 – Nail Bending

Crushdown.

I love bending things. Underhand, overhand, bolts, shoes. And nails – especially nails. Fantastic way to train.
This week we’re discussing the superb activity that is Nail Bending – why you’ll want to give it a shot (hint: it works far more than you think), how to get started and so on. Really looking forward to it.
Helping us explore this fascinating topic is none other than the incredible Jedd ‘Napalm‘ Johnson (@JeddJohnson).

Details –
Who : Strength-training fans
Topic : Nail Bending
When : Wed Feb 16, 9pm EDT (1am UTC)
How : Include #sbgym in your tweets.
If you’ve never been to one of these twitterchats before, here’s how to join in the fun. Simple, quick to set up and free.
And to see when it’s on in your timezone, head over to the twitterchat calendar.
See you there.

Nice and close. Photo by ‘Mighty Joe‘ Musselwhite.

Quick update on last week’s twitterchat : Thanks once again to everyone who took part in the discussion on Training with Grippers. Some superb ideas in there.
For those who missed out on the conversation, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What’s your poison : Captains of Crush, Mash Monsters, Vulcans?

Reading : Primal Blueprint Coconut Recipe Cookbook

Primal Blueprint Reader-Created Coconut Recipe Cookbook.

Big fan of coconut.
My diet has changed considerably over the years, and these days falls into the ‘Paleo with a hint of Primal‘ camp. If you’re also a fan of this way of eating (and the many, many nutritional benefits which come along with it), check out the Coconut Recipe Cookbook.
62 recipes, all contributed by Mark’s Daily Apple readers, and all more than worthy of a test run. Love it.

Exercise of the Week : Hanging Lateral Hip Swing

This one certainly falls into the category of ‘looks a lot easier than it is‘. Do it slowly, under control, and you’ll see what I mean.
Jason Kirby describes it in Flavor for Training :

Hang from a bar, (wider is better) and then swing your hips like a pendulum, this gives you lateral flexion using the legs as the weight.

Beautifully simple.

Good fun.

Incidentally, if you’d like to get in touch regarding this or any other aspect of strength, you can send me an email here. Look forward to hearing from you.

Free eBooks from Straight to the Bar

As a Strength & Fitness Newsletter subscriber you get several great eBooks, absolutely free. Just head over here, save them to your hard-drive, and dive in.
Good stuff.
NB : This is an ever-changing list of books. If you’d like to put your own work in front of a fantastic strength-focussed audience, let me know.