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

• Kettlebell routines for any goal

• Conquer these cable leg workouts

• How CrossFitter Dan Nides became a Netflix sensation

Kettlebells

Step to the Bell

In the world of strength training, you have so many bells to choose from: Mark Bell and his podcast, Dan Bell and his world records, and even kettlebells and their strange, globular design.

This stubby metal ball of training equipment might be the best one-off piece of gear you can own if your goal is to increase your strength and muscular development. Use it with the workouts in the article below to add a whole new dimension to your dusty old training routine. 

The power of the kettlebell comes from its ability to be maneuvered through space and time at odd angles and speeds. Novices may want to stick to circuits involving simpler movements, such as goblet squats and carries. However, sophisticated brutes, steeped in the iron game, may get more out of using single-arm variations, which present each side of their body with a greater load at one time. The kettlebell will always be there waiting, and there will never be a better time to walk over and pick it up than now.

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Workouts

Quads on Fire

When you think of the cable machine, exercises like triceps pushdowns and pec flyes usually come to mind (and with good reason).

It might come as a surprise to some that the cable machine can also be the perfect instrument to help you when leg day rolls around. Well, we’re putting that fallacy to bed with this listicle of our favorite cable workouts to blast your quads, hammies, and calves.

The belt squat has been a revelation for many older lifters in recent years. With the sweet combination of spinal traction and heavy load, it can be the perfect adjunct to a day of hard barbell squatting. Other, more typical options also exist, like standing hamstring curls that fry the back of your legs faster than you can cook an egg on a flat top. Cable is still king, so click in and bludgeon your lower body with some serious stacks.

CrossFit

Real Housewives of Functional Fitness

Dan Nides didn’t expect to be the central villain in Netflix’s latest sex-sational reality TV series, Love Is Blind. After all, the accomplished CrossFit athlete isn’t even a cast member — but, as it turns out, his ex-girlfriend was. And she told the world all about him.

In something that could only happen in 2025, or maybe sometime in the opulence of Ancient Rome, Nides’ social (media) status was changed as fans of the show began to bombard him. Read this tangentially fitness-related and truly bizarre story, and follow Dan as he continues his competitive career as a world-traveled athlete.

Sound Off!

Fess Up

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Quick Hits

💪 Pull This: Weighted pull-ups add the one thing lacking from traditional pull-ups: more weight. Strap a belt or some chains to your body and fight through the extra resistance to get your chest up to the bar in order to reap even more gains from the “upper-body squat.”

🧠 Chew on This: You don’t need to enter the world of Breaking Bad to find a relaxing gummy to destress following a hard day. Chomping on some Goli ashwagandha gels can bring you back down from the high mountains of stress to the placid meadows of mellowness.

🚶‍♂️ Walk This Way: Anyone who has ever been hiking in the Alps and heard a musical German accent shout out, "On your left!" as an octogenarian rushes past you up a steep hill knows the power of Nordic walking (note: not to further confuse Switzerland and Sweden for Americans, Nordic walking is common in the former). Grab some walking sticks and move your feet to this surprisingly rugged form of exercise.

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