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 For The Week : Never Finished : Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within (by David Goggins)
We’ve looked at a number of ‘Mental Toughness’ books over the years, and ‘Never Finished’ by the incredible David Goggins is easily the gold standard. If some serious mental resilience is what you’re after, this is an excellent place to start.
Dive in.
RingConn Smart Ring (Fitness Wearable)
The RingConn Smart Ring is a wearable device in the form of a finger ring, tracking the usual array of health & fitness features. Movement, sleep, skin temperature and so on.
And as there’s no screen, the battery life is certainly on the healthy side.
It’s Time to Pay Attention to A.I. (ChatGPT and Beyond) (ColdFusion)
Interesting uses of ChatGPT, notably the potential use as a Personal Trainer [8m:11s in]. Would love to hear your thoughts – how would (or do) you take advantage of such a capability?
8 Best Cable Exercises For Upper Body
If you are looking for an easy way to train your upper body, cable machines are a good place to start. Cable machine upper body workouts promote smooth, fluid form, there are generally more than enough machines in a given gym, and it’s easy to create a...
Looking At : Dec 18 2022
This Week On Straight To The Bar…
Fitness Reading For The Week : The Longest Race: A Lifelong Runner, an Iconic Ultramarathon, and the Case for Human Endurance (by Ed Ayres)
Once again I’m diving in to the pile of ‘books I missed the first time around‘, checking out Ed Ayres’ wonderful ‘The Longest Race’. A great look at the long-term benefits of a fitness-focussed life.
Love it.
AbsolutSweat (Real-time Sweat Fitness Tracker)
The AbsolutSweat is a real-time fitness tracker which measures your sweat (tracking levels of glucose, sodium, potassium and so on). Great mix.
The Bizarre Flashing Lights On A Smartwatch (Steve Mould)
Really interesting experiment (and a great explanation of how everything works).
Looking At : Dec 11 2022
This Week On Straight To The Bar…
How to Balance Weight Training and BJJ
Weightlifting and martial arts training is the way to turn yourself into a beast of a human being. You will get stronger along the way and get the necessary cardio in place to get completely shredded and feel amazing about yourself. The hardest part about this is...