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Welcome to The BarBend Newsletter! Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• Ab exercises to make all your other lifts better

• Why the snatch-grip deadlift is the most overlooked tool in training

• More on the major upset at this weekend’s World’s Strongest Man competition

Training

Abs Make Everything Better

Not everyone wants to train for a six-pack. Wait, that doesn’t sound right…not everyone wants to admit they want a six-pack, but that doesn’t mean those closeted individuals shouldn’t also be training abs just as hard as a magazine cover model.

Core strength, fundamentally, is strength; adding the first word is almost redundant. Not all ab exercises are created equal when it comes to redefining your lifting, though.

But the three ab exercises below stand above all the rest in their ability to give you more support during big lifts like squats and deadlifts.

If planks are good, what could make them even better? Since the meathead answer to this question is literally always the same, you already know the solution is “more weight.” Instead of chugging cheeseburgers and sodium to increase your body weight, go ahead and load yourself down with a weight vest or have a friend put some plates on your back while you’re planking out your problems on a yoga mat. 

Ab strength is always in fashion, whether you want to show it off in an old-fashioned mirror selfie or with a huge beltless deadlift. Accessorize your favorite peacocking maneuver with these hand-picked ab enhancers.

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Exercises Selection

Snatch It Before It’s Gone

Snatch-grip deadlifts occupy a strange slot in the “picking things up off the floor” genus of exercise selection. An amazing posterior chain developer that also forces you to really contract your back muscles through a larger-than-normal range of motion, it’s pretty rare to see it used outside of dedicated Olympic lifting gyms.

Nobody is saying you can’t keep using the RDL or deficit deadlift, but you can also learn how to spread your hands out wide and get the unique strength gains offered by the snatch-grip deadlift.

It’s understandable why so many people might have an aversion to it; the full snatch is just about the most complicated movement you can do with a barbell, so it’s only natural for you to presuppose the same thing about any lift that shares its name. While it does require a little bit more mobility to stay tight, the snatch-grip deadlift is just as coachable as any other variant you might use. Wide hands lead to big gains when you bend over and pick a bar up to your waist.

2025 World’s Strongest Man Results

A Stunner in Sacramento

Rayno Nel of South Africa is the 2025 World’s Strongest Man!

Not only is he the first South African to hoist the WSM championship above his head, but he also beat two former WSM champions — Tom Stoltman and Mitchell Hooper, who ranked as the runner-up and bronze medalist, respectively — along the way.

Nel’s journey to the title in his WSM debut peaked at a seven-point lead with two events to go — but to win it all, he needed to rank top-three or better in the final event, the Atlas Stones, against Stoltman, arguably the greatest stone lifter to ever live.

Catch up on the full results from the competition, and check out news editor Phil Blechman’s expert live analysis on how one minor detail led to Nel’s major upset.

Big Lifts

Rayno Nel Makes a Statement

Rayno Nel’s WSM weekend was full of gigantic feats of strength, but his most impressive performance might have come during the KNAACK Carry & Hoist event. Check out the highlights above and, as always, do not try this at home.

Quick Hits

🏈 In the League: It’s rare that hiring a new strength coach draws as much attention as the Chicago Bears’ recent hiring of Mark Philippi. A legend in his own right in the fields of powerlifting and strongman, Philippi brings athletic training into a whole new dimension with his acceptance of the job.

🏋️ Lift These: Weight plates are among the most intrinsic pieces of any gym, be it a sparse garage setup or an enormous training facility. Without them, a barbell is just a steel tube. Find the best plates of 2025, ranging from budget cast iron to the best calibrated circles money can buy.

💪 Stretch Like This: Everyone feels the need to work out a kink now and then, but if you like to train hard and don’t like to stretch, odds are you’ve got more than your fair share of knotted up spots. Jeff Cavaliere has a simple routine of five stretches perfect for beginners to start loosening up and getting on the road to feeling better more often.

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