Today’s pictures are a tribute to the value of the bars – high, parallel and pull-up – in developing the upper body, and particularly the shoulders, chest and back. And thus, also a tribute to the street workout culture of the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Abs and chest, too, of course – but look at that lat spread! One more on the abs…

Any regular reader of these posts (the words, that is, as well as the pictures!) will be aware that we have had a house full of family over the festive period. My parents have no sporting instincts whatever, and Dave’s very little either (although his dad used to spend hours shirtless in the yard when he lived over here). We, along with my son Leo and his friends, tend to hang out shirtless and barefoot most of the time (‘sporty style’ you might say) when at home. We (adults) have worn shirts more than usual during this holiday visitation, but Leo cannot be persuaded and is tiring (as I am too) of hearing his gran (my mum) saying ‘Why don’t you put a shirt on, dear, you’ll catch cold…’ ‘Mum, does he look ill? He’s going across the yard with Chris to lift weights and get all sweaty…’ Oh well. Soon be over. It seems very mean to say that, but two sets of parents in the house is becoming a bit oppressive, and I’d cheerfully settle for just my old mate Colin and his family – now they’re ‘on our team’, and his son Ollie is a fanatical shirt-free sports freak too. ‘Skyclad’ is how his mum Natasha puts it – a polite form of saying he’ll be happy totally naked if they let him. As, indeed, Leo, Chris and Ollie spent most of their time on our last vacation in Wales.

Good news is, my parents are going to take on the management and maintenance of our Welsh place Cefn Derwen as it becomes increasingly difficult for us to get over there. It is our pension fund, and makes good money with holiday lets, but increasingly it looks as though our barn conversion (to a gym, naturally) was rather a poor investment along the local young Farmers are happy to use it! So the Yuletide family conference has been very useful – and gives them a retirement project. They’ve known the place for years before Dave and I bought it.

We’re expecting another important family announcement on New Year’s Eve, so watch this space. NYE is also going to be a long, long, sleepless night, as I’ll explain next time.

Meanwhile, back to the bars, with that all-important look of determination:

Notice that that guy is balanced on his forearms!

Meanwhile, turning the bar vertical, you’ve got to admire the strength of the middle guy in this Chinese trio performing in Beijing:

OK, back to the more realistic now! A Russian, and then a British, guy on parallel bars:

And then another Russian:

Another way:

And another way: read a book while you train:

...preferably one of these!

And when you’ve done all that bar training, cool off!…