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Welcome to The BarBend Newsletter. Here’s what we have for you today:

• Learn how to use weightlifting belts the right way

• 10 lateral raise types for bigger shoulders

• The best alternatives to investing in a Peloton

Training Tips

Your Own Personal Ouroboros

Getting your first lifting belt can feel like a rite of passage. Often withheld until certain strength metrics are achieved, throwing a sturdy piece of leather around your waist can immediately help support your torso and significantly increase the amount of weight you can lift.

While lifting belts aren’t inherently magical, they can sometimes be misunderstood pieces of arcana. Use the guide below to fully appreciate the benefits, uses, and downfalls of tightening up a belt before you step up to a squat rack.

With very, very few exceptions, pretty much every strong person you’ve ever known or seen regularly uses a lifting belt. Serving as both a vital piece of PPE and one of the most significant performance enhancers that can be fit inside a gym bag, it’s easy to fall in love with your belt. Take some time to understand the nuances of this core-bracing godsend and work it into your gym ensemble.

A Message From Hydrow

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Exercises

Raise ‘Em Up

Building big shoulders rarely requires the use of heavy loads. Unlike your back, which needs big-time weights on rows to grow, or your legs, which always seem to be able to take another plate being thrown on the leg press, the deltoids grow best with the use of simple exercises like lateral raises.

These 10 lat raise variations work through a full range of motion rather than maximizing the weight being moved. Plus, they work great if you simply want to add a new wrinkle to your old routine.

Hitting the front, side, and rear deltoids from all angles lets you build muscle onto them in a three-dimensional way (note to physics majors: just keep your mouth shut and go with it).

The slight differences in the strength curve of lat raises when switching between dumbbells, cables, and landmines can be immense (possibly as immense as the shoulders you get to build). This is one muscle group you really want to coax and coach yourself through to feel the entire muscle activating throughout the workout. Start getting wide ASAP with the link below.

Cardio

Get in the Breakaway

Peloton has been a revelation ever since it hit the at-home fitness market back in 2014. While they offer an entire suite of services, the most popular item in the company’s catalog remains the highly connected indoor bike that launched them into the public eye.

That said, whether you enjoy Peloton’s classes or not, it’s not the only game in town. These eight alternatives to the big brand offer you a plethora of choices when it comes to your habit of spinning around and around while staying in one place.

Fully vetted by BarBend's team of gear enthusiasts, these options range from Peloton clones to unique offerings and budget-friendly options. You can save a lot of money by streaming your favorite classes or virtual routes to your personal device or splurge on an integrated screen to immerse yourself more fully. Peloton might still be the right choice for your home gym, but you will be doing yourself a disservice by not taking the time to first dig into all your options.

Big Lifts

With a Capital Z

Zercher squats are hard. Like, hard hard. Then there’s strongman Emanuel Pescari (@emanuelpescari), who’s just blowing through four Zercher reps at 235 kilos/518 pounds like a beast in the video above. Hats off.

Quick Hits

🏋️‍♂️ Pull This: Cable pulls provide an alternative to RDLs and stiff-legged deadlifts. Sidle up to a low-hanging cable machine and learn to blast your glutes without taxing your lumbar any more than it already has been.

🔔 Snatch This: Former WWE Superstar and all-around generally jacked dude Eric Bugenhagen set a PR with a huge single-arm kettlebell snatch. Luckily, Instagram allowed him to post it for posterity’s sake.

💪 Build This: A recent study examined the type of exercises that most relate to longevity, and to the surprise of some, it’s not cardio. Check out this breakdown of the study and see how a person’s grip strength might be a predictor of their overall risk of mortality.

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