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.
Looking At : Sep 22 2024
This Week On Straight To The Bar…
Fitness Reading/Listening For The Week : ‘Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness’ (by Steve Magness)
Steve Magness’ ‘Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness’ is a wonderful exploration of mental toughness – what it is, and how to get more of it.
Love it.
Gympad Bench (Compact Home Gym)
The Gympad Bench is a compact gym for lightweight (80kg max) workouts when travelling. The video will show you what I mean.
I Became Extremely Fat For A Day (Will Tennyson)
Very interesting transformation (both ways) and discoveries.
Looking At : Sep 15 2024
This Week On Straight To The Bar…
Fitness Reading/Listening For The Week : ‘Backfired : The Vaping Wars’ (by Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes)
Leon Neyfakh and Arielle Pardes’ ‘Backfired : The Vaping Wars’ is a wonderfully thorough look at the story of vaping – the origins of the product, advertising, regulatory environment and of course the potential downsides.
Love it.
Snowcap (Thermoelectric Ice Bath)
The Snowcap is an app-controlled thermoelectric ice bath for use in the home, gym or outdoors. Look forward to trying it out.
“Kung Fu” Means MORE than You Think (Sensei Seth)
Exploring the meaning and origins of the term. Fascinating.
Looking At : Sep 8 2024
This Week On Straight To The Bar…
Fitness Reading/Listening For The Week : ‘American Drug Addict: A Memoir’ (by Brett Douglas)
Following a conversation yesterday on calisthenics, someone pointed me to this book – Brett Douglas’ ‘American Drug Addict: A Memoir’ – (everyone has a backstory – I suspect this is similar to theirs in some way).
Having looked at addiction from the medical side of things, it’s fascinating to hear a story from the other side. Dive in.