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, 3 Sep 2012

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 :

Gem From The Vault : Bars, Plates, Hooks and Collars
Scott Andrew Bird
Stocking up the Home Gym?
Looking At : Sep 2, 2012
Scott Andrew Bird
We’ve been discussing some very interesting techniques, products and services recently. Here are the highlights.

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’d like to submit your own piece for Straight to the Bar, here’s how.

Video : Diagonal Side Sit (Turbo Style)

Interesting movement. Over to Perry for the full explanation :

Nice one.

Gymchat 184 (Video) – TBA

Kirk Fontaine.

Cheers to everyone who’s already expressed an interest in being interviewed for one of the video Gymchats, it’s enormously appreciated. Thank you all.
We’re still finalising the details for this week’s discussion, I’ll post those shortly (on the blog, Twitter, Google+ etc – you’ll certainly hear about it). In the meantime, if you’d like to suggest a future topic, or schedule an interview for one of the upcoming discussions, get in touch. Look forward to hearing from you.

Tip of the Week: Build Your Own Tire Sled

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

Homemade Tire Sled.

A tyre (or tire if you prefer) sled is a beautiful thing.

If you’re considering adding a little sled work to your routines, but haven’t tried it before, this is a great way to see if you like it. What’s more, it’s an incredibly quick (and easy, and cheap) DIY project. Well worth diving in to.
Matt explains the overall process in his article DIY : How to Build Your Own Tire Sled, but the video below – showing the sled in action – will give you the general idea.

Good fun.

Checking Out : Face Mash! Kelly McCann’s Essential Self-Defense Moves for Winning Real Street Fights

Face Mash! Kelly McCann’s Essential Self-Defense Moves for Winning Real Street Fights.

This looks superb.
Although there are certainly quite a few sales going on around Labor Day (in the US, at least), it’s a free ebook that caught my eye. In particular, Kelly McCann‘s Face Mash.

If you’re at all familiar with Kelly McCann, well, you know what you’re getting in to. And if not, here’s a snippet from Black Belt to help you get up to speed :

Kelly McCann is a former U.S. Marine special-missions officer responsible for counterterrorism and counter-narcotics. He now serves as the president of Crucible, an elite empty-hand and weapons-training facility that provides security support services and trains military, government and law-enforcement operators to do whatever it takes to survive.

Nice one.

Quick update on the StrongerGrip Modular Grip System (MGS) we mentioned last week – absolutely fantastic.
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the video. Warning : you will want one.

Beautiful.

Exercise of the Week : ‘Hang’ Cleans?

Looking for something a bit different? Try a few of these.

Good stuff.

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.

Kettlebell Exercise Demonstrations & Tutorials

We’ve looked at a lot of kettlebell exercises and variations over the years – in the form of tips, tutorials and demonstrations.
Where do you find them all? Right here – a complete list of Kettlebell Exercise Demonstrations & Tutorials.
Enjoy.

Free Downloads from the Strength Kit

I recently added a number of resources to the Straight to the Bar Strength Kit, and as a Strength & Fitness Newsletter subscriber you’re more than welcome to download as many of them as you like. Several great eBooks, podcasts and videos – all absolutely free.
Just head over here, save them to your hard-drive, and dive in.
Good stuff.

NB : This is an ever-changing list. If you’d like to put your own work in front of a fantastic strength-focussed audience, let me know.