Miscellaneous Miscellany Monday: MIRU Goes Viral, and Other Stuff
I just realized it’s been close to a month since I’ve done one of these posts, so I figured what better way to start the week than this?
<== and this (but more on her later)
1. Muscle Imbalances Revealed – Upper Body: as many of you know, MIRU was released two weeks ago, and so far the feedback has been amazing. With the wide release set to go this week, I’ve been busy doing interviews and kissing babies (only slightly exaggerrating) trying my best to get the word out and otherwise telling people how much more awesome their lives would be if they purchased the product.
Thankfully I have a lot of smart friends in the industry who were more than willing to check the product out for themselves and offer their own review.
Kevin Neeld wrote a nice review HERE.
And, not to be outdone, my boy Mike Robertson gave a really thorough review HERE.
Also, HERE is an interview I did with my internet BFF, Nia Shanks. Nia and I have done several interviews together in the past, and this was by far one of the funnest to do.
2. And speaking of Nia, this past weekend she and several of her Beautiful Badass harem (Molly Galbraith, Jen Comas Keck, Marianne Kane, Sarah Martin, and Alli McKee) all travelled from various parts of the country to meet up and train under one roof, and otherwise increase male membership by 417% at whatever gym they were training at.
Anyone who’s read this blog for any length of time knows how much of a fan I am of women lifting heavy things, and these ladies definitely did not disappoint. Me thinks they should go on some kind of national tour and train at various gyms across the country. I’d pay to see that!
PS: How sweet was it when Nia gave her headnod after pwning that 330 lb deadlift PR?
3. Just a quick reminder to everyone that Alwyn Cosgrove will be hosting a FREE webinar tonight (Monday, August 22nd at 8 PM, EST) titled The Death of Personal Training.
Knowing Alwyn and how forthright he is, this is definitely something you won’t want to miss!
4. I’m a movie nerd at heart. I love going to movies. I love talking about movies. I love reading about movies. And, as any fellow movie nerd knows, summers are generally the time of year when all the studios release their geektastic, popcorn movies. Admittedly, I’ve been slacking on my movie watching prowess, and haven’t been going to the theater as much due to my busy work schedule (and because The Green Lantern just looked god-awful).
Last weekend, however, my girlfriend and I went to go see Captain America: The First Avenger, and holy sheeeeeeeit was it sweet.
I totally thought it was going to be a cheese-fest, complete with ridiculous costumes, corny one-liners, and a plot that could have been wrtten in crayon by a 7-year old. While it had a bit of each, I have to say that it was defnitely a step up from most superhero movies – great acting, superb directing (especially considering it was based in the 1940s during WWII), and lots of cool special effects. In fact, Lisa said that it was her favorite superhero movie, like, ever.
I quickly told her that that was just blasphemy: hello The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, the first Iron Man???
But, to be honest, I’d definitely place Captain America in my top 5. And, lets just say that the lead female character, played by Hayley Atwell (pictured above, at the top of this post, as well as directly below), was definitely a highlight.
5. People need to do more horizontal rowing. I’m going to go into a bit more detail on this later in the week, but nevertheless, not only will it have a great benefit towards posture and preventing imbalances in general, but it will also translate well to the big movements like deadlifts and squats becaise of increased stiffness in the upper back.
In conjunction to the points above, to me, having a nice, thick, upper back speaks volumes to one’s overall look aesthetically (no homo). Lets be honest, any joker can get a six pack – but it’s rare when you see an impressive upper back. Like I said, I’m going to espound on this a bit further later in the week, but it stands to reason that you’re not getting nearly enough rowing in your programming. Trust me. I know everything.
Comments for This Entry
Roland
Tony, I'll be interested to see your goto heavy exercises on the horizontal row and whether it's important to hit rep/set/load similar to your horizontal pushing. Other than chins and deadlifts, most of us don't do a lot of over 90% of 1RM pulling, so how does that effect the balance with all the heavy pressing going on? I'll be seeing Captain America now, too! Later! RolandAugust 22, 2011 at 7:54 am |
Ken
Allow me to offer up my facility for a Tour stop. And +1 on horizontal pulling being vastly underrated. Good stuff, as always.August 22, 2011 at 8:17 am |
Nia Shanks
I thought of you when I attempted that PR. I'm determined to win our deadlift-off!August 22, 2011 at 8:57 am |
frey
I love this picture of nia @ 2:45 in that videoAugust 22, 2011 at 9:44 am |
allie
Nia! You and all the other girls are ANIMALS! aaah, how i am missing lifting heavy heavy things. (I'm pregnant now and taking it "easy.") AWESOME awesome. Loved the headnod after the 330 lb deadlift. thanks for posting - this vid is 10/10 motivating!!!August 22, 2011 at 11:56 am |
Steve
Just want to say this is a whole list of awesome. Your webinars were worth the price of MIRU alone. Glad it's doing so well, you all did a great job! *respect fist*August 22, 2011 at 1:24 pm |
Tony Gentilcore
@ Roland: I'll definitely touch on a few of those points - but also going into the technique side of things as well. @ Nia: that was an EPIC pull. I'm kinda scared of you now, because 330 went up like cake. @ Steve: I really appreciate the kind words, and I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed MIRU!August 22, 2011 at 4:07 pm |
Dave
I watched the beautiful badass training video while holding my 6 week old daughter and told her "I hope that's you some day!"August 23, 2011 at 6:37 am |
Troy
I'm with @Roland and am looking forward to reading more about your horizontal pull training. I love doing kettlebell renegade rows and ring bodyweight rows, but I know there's more to learn/use.August 23, 2011 at 10:34 am |