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 : ‘Smarter Not Harder : The Biohacker’s Guide to Getting the Body and Mind You Want’ (by Dave Asprey)
Interesting read. Although the biohacking approach is somewhat controversial, the constant fine-tuning of your own health is not. And this is very much the book’s focus.
Dive in.
Arnold (Documentary On Netflix)
This is a superb 3-part documentary (one episode per career) on the incredible Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you have access to Netflix, this is highly recommended indeed.
How to Naturally Increase Oxygen – 2 Breathing Exercises (YOGABODY)
Very interesting – and great exercises.
Looking At : Jun 11 2023
This Week On Straight To The Bar…
Fitness Reading/Listening For The Week : ‘Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity’ (by Molly Birkholm)
‘Building Your Resilience: Finding Meaning in Adversity’ is a wonderful look at several ways to build your own resilience, notably the ‘mental toughness‘ side of things.
Love it.
Iris (Smart Ring)
The Iris is a wearable device in the form of a ring, automatically tracking a range of health metrics. Heartrate, sleep, temperature etc – the usual suspects.
What We DO and DON’T Know About Vaping (Institute of Human Anatomy)
Fascinating – it’s certainly an intriguing (and rather controversial) area. This video looks at things from an ‘optimal health’ point of view.
Looking At : Jun 4 2023
This Week On Straight To The Bar…
Fitness Reading/Listening For The Week : ‘Heartfull: What to Eat for a Healthy, Happy Heart’ (by Dr Joanna McMillan)
‘Heartfull: What to Eat for a Healthy, Happy Heart’ is Dr Joanna McMillan’s fascinating look at nutrition for the reduction/prevention/partial repair of various cardiovascular illnesses. Dive in.
Eigen Fitness Nodes (Wearables For Strength-Training)
The Eigen Fitness Nodes are wearables that are attached to individual limbs, to measure the precise lift you’re currently doing. Nice and granular.