If for some reason you've been living under rock for the last month, then you didn't know that Eric and Mike, along with their comrade (wait, Bill isn't Russian...) and guru, Bill Hartman, were filming the follow up movie to their smash hits Magnificent Mobility and Inside Out.
I won't give away any of the secrets of this two-disc DVD set, but the title explains it all. Assess. Correct. The pre-iron part of your gym time will truly be complete if you add this to your collection.
Enough with the plugs! I'm sure everyone is interested in how the weekend went.
Saturday rolls around. We met at the gym at 10 o'clock to go over the exercises listed in the DVD to speed the shooting along. Most of it was pretty self-explanatory (you can thank descriptive names for that), but Cressey decided to bring some New England shit to the Midwest to throw me off.
We packed up and headed to University High School, where Mike has a past relationship (ex-strength coach), and they were gracious enough to let us use their gym for the filming. After having our awesome, double-chicken salads, it was time for the unveiling:
The story behind the picture can be explained pretty well with the aid of an older picture:
Putting it lightly, I generally dress pretty eccentrically when I go to the gym. As Mike likes to put it, the tight shorts just make the tension way too high. After Eric showed some concern, MR took me shopping to pick me out an acceptable outfit.
Anyways, shooting went well (I don't want to hear anything about the knee valgus on the walking
spiderman) and the voice overs were rather painless for Mike, Bill, and Eric. There were a few instances, however, where I was about to reach muscular failure (like the side bridge glute activation exercise, or the 3 point thoracic extensions). It seemed like it had been a long day, being that it was already 8:00 p.m., but the best was yet to come.
The big bang restaurant; Fogo de Chao; Brazilian steakhouse. So much meat, brought to your table on skewers by "authentic Gaúcho chefs." My first Fogo experience was the last time Tony Gentilcore paid a visit to I-FAST.
I don't mean to toot my own horn or anything, but I dominated the food in that restaurant. I even felt accomplished enough to announce "victory!" when I finished the last bite of Turtle Cheesecake (mandibular orgasm, if I do say so myself). My only consumption competitor had to be the current I-FAST intern, TJ. We eat much differently, though, so there's no way to tell. His eating habits are way more fast-twitch than mine. If there is one, I am the endurance athlete of food devouring. Seriously, I'm the slowest eater in the world, ask around. Among our table, we probably had the amount of meat you could get off of a deer.
There are some specifics (epic destruction) of the dinner that took place in the bathroom, but we'll not bother with those.
Needless to say it was a long day. Sleep was necessary. I crashed a little after 2:00, and woke up Sunday to head to the gym at 10:00 again. Just a little warning, I'm about to get slightly motivational on your ass.
I had the great pleasure of getting a lift in with MR and EC before Eric's flight home. I've seen some pretty impressive stuff before, but lifting with Eric is fascinating. First, he dominated box squats with the safety squat bar. The real killer, however, came when he loaded up a bar on the deadlift platform with my personal record of 405 lbs.
If you've ever seen a video of Eric, you know he pulls conventional. Well to switch it up, he was pulling sumo. They're still deadlifts, but switching the stance really does make a pretty considerable difference. The time approaches, he rips the bar off the floor and slams it back to the ground. Then again. Then three more times.
Now, Eric's an unreal athlete, and I feel no shame being roughly five times weaker than him, but how many times does a powerlifter hear the words, "He seriously just pulled your max for five, my friend," from Mike Robertson?
I was obviously motivated for my lifts, and even though I only did repetition back squats, the atmosphere helped a ton! Under the watchful eye of these two, I really dialed in on my form, and it's starting to become natural for me. Squatting four bills is just around the corner. A special thanks goes out to MR for using his keen eye to make me keep my chest up in the hole.
Looking back, I can't thank these guys enough for what they've done for me. In this one weekend, they've helped me as a future trainer, a powerlifter, an eater, a businessman, and even a movie star... Broadway is next, right Eric?
When the time comes, buy this DVD. I promise that you won't regret it.
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