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.