
Welcome to Straight to the Bar
If you’ve just joined us, welcome. Here you’ll find everything that grunts, groans and ticks in the world of strength training. In short, this site is the home of all things strength.
Incidentally, this site’s been helping people become fitter, healthier and stronger since January 2004. If you’ve just joined us, I highly recommend subscribing to the weekly Strength & Fitness Newsletter (part of the Strength Kit), which contains details of new posts on the site, freshly-minted video demonstrations & tutorials, details of upcoming Gymchats and a whole lot more.
And yes, it’s absolutely free.
To help get you started, here are a few of our most recent posts. And if you want to dive in to a particular area. check out the ‘Start Here‘ page above. Enjoy.

Fitness Reading/Listening For The Week : ‘Embrace Discomfort : Lean Into Challenge to Improve Your Life’ (by Michael Easter)
Most of the books I read fall in to one of two camps – health & fitness or psychology. This one – Michael Easter’s ‘Embrace Discomfort : Lean Into Challenge to Improve Your Life‘ – combines the two, which is truly wonderful.
Enjoy.

Omni Health Ring (Smart Ring)
We’ve looked at a number of Smart Rings on this site, and the Omni Health Ring is certainly up there when it comes to functionality. It’s a wonderful combination.

10 Near-Impossible Exercises Only 0.1% Can Do – Are You One of Them? (Calisthenicmovement – @Calimove)
Up for a serious challenge?

Looking At : May 4 2025
This Week On Straight To The Bar…

Fitness Reading/Listening For The Week : ‘Anchored : How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory’ (by Deb Dana, Stephen Porges PhD)
A recent conversation on biohacking led to a discussion on the vagus nerve, and mention of Deb Dana’s book ‘Anchored : How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory‘. Interesting read.
JumpPal (Smart Jump Rope)
The JumpPal is certainly an intriguing combination. Although aimed at children / young athletes, the noted functionality is fairly well suited to users of any age.

15 BIOHACKS I Still Do From The 1 Week Experiments (pigmie – @focusedlucas)
Interesting list. Anything you’d add/change?

Looking At : Apr 27 2025
This Week On Straight To The Bar…

Fitness Reading/Listening For The Week : ‘Anatomy for Runners : Unlocking Your Athletic Potential for Health, Speed, and Injury Prevention’ (by Jay Dicharry MPT SCS)
Jay Dicharry MPT SCS’ ‘Anatomy for Runners : Unlocking Your Athletic Potential for Health, Speed, and Injury Prevention takes an incredibly thorough look at the biomechanics underlying running – how everything works, and how to identify which aspects to modify (and how).
Wonderful.

PiEEG Kit (Home Bioscience Lab)
The PiEEG Kit is a ‘Bioscience Lab In-A-Box’, a great way to measure and analyse signals from the brain, muscles, heart and so on. Looks great.