stupid first world problems you're dealing with

Might be ending a 6 year relationship with the lady, would either have to move back in with my folks (I'm thirtyfucking5 years old) or sell most of my possessions and move to some unknown location. Life problems.

  On 11/15/2016 at 10:50 PM, Leon Sumbitches said:

I've started doing exercise (just basic shit, push-ups, sit ups, squats) which I suppose is a fws because I've stuck with my little routine for 4 weeks now and am definitely feeling the benefit, but holy shit, on exercise days (3 days a week) I feel completely done in afterwards. Like, tired to the point of just about being able to get on with my other day-to-day stuff. Tell me this shit gets easier. I think it's partly the cold-ass winter weather as well which means once I sit down in the evening I can just about summon the wherewithal to stand up again.

are you making sure to stretch and properly cool down at the end of your workouts? i know it sounds stupid basic but for me at least it makes 10000000% difference. if i don't stretch at the end of a workout i'll be sore 10x longer and 10x worse than if i do and it only takes a few minutes.

+1, stretching for sure.

Best to warm up with some light calisthenics and only do dynamic stretches or exercises pre-workout, leave static stretches until post workout.

There are studies that suggest pre-workout static stretches can reduce the efficacy of your workout + increase the chance of injury.

At least, that's my understanding.

I've gotten out of shape now though.    

  On 11/16/2016 at 10:33 AM, Leon Sumbitches said:

Haha cheers guys! I generally have a pretty decent diet imo, lots of fruit, porridge, brown rice, home-cooked stuff, not a lot of processed crap, so I don't think that's really the issue. That's actually part of the reason I started exercising in the first place; I'm a pretty slim dude and realised that I could probably be in decent enough physical nick if I just made the effort. I'm never going to be super-ripped or anything but that's not really the goal for me, just to stay trim and feel good. I'm probably not even working out that hard by a lot of people's standards. I reckon my body's still just getting used to actually having to do things other than sit in a chair, walk in the woods and run for trains, lol. Definitely aiming for slow and steady improvement rather than tearing through stuff that's way above my level and then burning out, though.

 

 

***I got ripped in SIX WEEKS with the Bulk VanderHooj method, CLICK HERE!***

Diet and supplementation is key. If you are going hard then you need to supplement, and you most likely need to increase the total amount of food you eat. You don't have to do this, and there is definitely a sweet spot between under-eating and over-eating that you have to find in order to not struggle but also not gain too much mass. I prefer to stay lean and be strong. It sometimes backfires with extended recovery times and/or extremely challenging workouts, but when you get a feel for what your body desires it gets easier. Just pay close attention to the variables at play.

As far as recovery, like I said supplementation. You're significantly increasing the amount of nutrients your body needs when you push its physical limits. I use IDlife for multi-vitamins. It's very straightforward. You take the assessment and they send you the packets you take everyday. It requires 0 thought, and they have very high quality vitamins. 

Other than that, magnesium helps a lot. You can take a magnesium bath in the form of epsom salt, and also take magnesium powder like Natural Vitality Calm.

It's also not a terrible idea to supplement BCAA's daily. (branch chain amino acids)

Make sure you eat enough protein also. If you are tearing a lot of muscle then increase your protein intake.

Stretching is definitely helpful too. Also, get a foam roller. I use the Rumble Roller, but it's quite intense. Just using a simple hard foam roller will work wonders.

Careful using it too aggressively before exercise or doing lots of static stretching before exercise (like stephen said). Both can lead to injury. I recently blew out my knee doing just that after having weakened my muscles from overuse. 

The reason for this is that your stretching your muscles, tendons, and ligaments out so they have more give, but you don't necessarily have the strength to compensate for that increased range of motion which means you can easily tear something.

I recommend doing high intensity interval training as it has the most benefits for health, as well as integrating a regular yoga routine. I do ashtanga yoga which is pretty demanding physically so it's not like taking break, but it's very important to get your entire body strong and yoga hits a lot of weak spots and stretches you out.

I do p90x 1 & 2 right now, but there are some programs that are better out there like https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/ or steve maxwell's offerings http://www.maxwellsc.com/

A good warm-up routine can be found on youtube, but in general I recommend following a plan, as it is the most efficient and requires the least amount of thought. If you workout regularly without a plan you are going to end up with muscle imbalances that can lead to injury.

As far as it getting easier, yes it does, but it takes a long time.

Check out these podcasts for some education on the matter:

http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/05/09/the-secrets-of-gymnastic-strength-training/

http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/08/17/the-secrets-of-gymnastic-strength-training-part-two/

Just remember, you can get all the cardio you need from HIIT and you don't need to lift heavy to get strong and ripped.

  On 11/16/2016 at 4:22 PM, Bulk VanderHooj said:

+1, stretching for sure.

 

Best to warm up with some light calisthenics and only do dynamic stretches or exercises pre-workout, leave static stretches until post workout.

 

There are studies that suggest pre-workout static stretches can reduce the efficacy of your workout + increase the chance of injury.

 

At least, that's my understanding.

 

I've gotten out of shape now though.  

yup

This took my around a year, but can definitely be achieved faster. also important to note that my endurance and posture are much better, and base muscles are all much much stronger. 

Forgot to mention I'm about 15 lbs lighter in the first pic and I'm A LOT stronger.

oh, the reason I came into this thread.

I'm staying at a hotel and my desk chair is like completely lopsided and they put me in a handicap room. I'm pretty sure this is revenge for me chewing them out for causing me headaches. Oh, and the plumbing seems to constantly bang against the walls in this room.

  On 11/16/2016 at 3:35 PM, auxien said:

Might be ending a 6 year relationship with the lady, would either have to move back in with my folks (I'm thirtyfucking5 years old) or sell most of my possessions and move to some unknown location. Life problems.

Shit, this is a proper fwp. Best of luck for whatever comes next, man!

I was getting ready to head out to a vocational rehab follow-up appointment this morning, and some woman out of nowhere storms into our condo building and starts screaming at a guy who lives down the hall, pounding on the walls and shit.

At least it was at a time of day most people were up and about, but still. Fuck drama.

  On 11/16/2016 at 3:35 PM, auxien said:

Might be ending a 6 year relationship with the lady, would either have to move back in with my folks (I'm thirtyfucking5 years old) or sell most of my possessions and move to some unknown location. Life problems.

Man, real shit m8, sry to hear it.

Best of luck!

yeah, that's rough. good luck.

at least it's you who's ending it

I haven't played guitar in a week and I feel pretty guilty about it.

Yeah it's not a *massive* deal

But what I've heard from performance psychologists like Bulletproof Musician is that any recent progress starts to unravel if you don't practice regularly and reinforce it

So it's like when coders complain about losing 20 hours of work due to a crash or some dumb mistake or whatever

So, it starts to become a hell spiral, where I don't bother practice two hours today because fuck it I'm probably not gonna practice tomorrow and so today's two hours is gonna just get rolled back and so the whole system falls apart

(And just to be clear, I love playing guitar and I don't see it as a job or burden like it prolly sounds, but there are things I wanna be able to do and so I make goals...so for instance I wanna be able to comfortably improvise counterpoint and polyrhythms and stuff like that so I do treat *that* aspect a bit like some obsessive gym-monkey or a lawyer who hasn't seen his wife and kids in 5 years...)

  On 11/16/2016 at 7:23 PM, Leon Sumbitches said:

 

  On 11/16/2016 at 3:35 PM, auxien said:

Might be ending a 6 year relationship with the lady, would either have to move back in with my folks (I'm thirtyfucking5 years old) or sell most of my possessions and move to some unknown location. Life problems.

 

Shit, this is a proper fwp. Best of luck for whatever comes next, man!

 

  On 11/16/2016 at 11:22 PM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 11/16/2016 at 3:35 PM, auxien said:

Might be ending a 6 year relationship with the lady, would either have to move back in with my folks (I'm thirtyfucking5 years old) or sell most of my possessions and move to some unknown location. Life problems.

 

Man, real shit m8, sry to hear it.

 

Best of luck!

 

  On 11/16/2016 at 11:22 PM, usagi said:

yeah, that's rough. good luck.

  On 11/16/2016 at 11:36 PM, span said:

at least it's you who's ending it

Thanks y'all. We'll see what ends up happening as to the relationship, but that's a thread for r/sadbastards or whatever

I honestly wasn't fishing for attention or anything btw, I just thought having those options was a real first world problem: reasons for it aside, those two choices seem shitty to me but really aren't that bad at all and definitely fall into the FWP (perhaps SFWP) category. I'm white in a soon-to-be Trumpian America, I'll be fine no matter what happens. 

  On 11/17/2016 at 4:12 AM, LimpyLoo said:

Yeah it's not a *massive* deal

But what I've heard from performance psychologists like Bulletproof Musician is that any recent progress starts to unravel if you don't practice regularly and reinforce it

 

So it's like when coders complain about losing 20 hours of work due to a crash or some dumb mistake or whatever

 

So, it starts to become a hell spiral, where I don't bother practice two hours today because fuck it I'm probably not gonna practice tomorrow and so today's two hours is gonna just get rolled back and so the whole system falls apart

 

(And just to be clear, I love playing guitar and I don't see it as a job or burden like it prolly sounds, but there are things I wanna be able to do and so I make goals...so for instance I wanna be able to comfortably improvise counterpoint and polyrhythms and stuff like that so I do treat *that* aspect a bit like some obsessive gym-monkey or a lawyer who hasn't seen his wife and kids in 5 years...)

i kind of like that though. whenever I take long breaks from music I have to learn everything again, and it's like I just started all over again.

  On 11/17/2016 at 4:35 AM, auxien said:

 

  On 11/16/2016 at 7:23 PM, Leon Sumbitches said:

 

  On 11/16/2016 at 3:35 PM, auxien said:

Might be ending a 6 year relationship with the lady, would either have to move back in with my folks (I'm thirtyfucking5 years old) or sell most of my possessions and move to some unknown location. Life problems.

 

Shit, this is a proper fwp. Best of luck for whatever comes next, man!

 

 

  On 11/16/2016 at 11:22 PM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 11/16/2016 at 3:35 PM, auxien said:

Might be ending a 6 year relationship with the lady, would either have to move back in with my folks (I'm thirtyfucking5 years old) or sell most of my possessions and move to some unknown location. Life problems.

 

Man, real shit m8, sry to hear it.

 

Best of luck!

 

 

  On 11/16/2016 at 11:22 PM, usagi said:

yeah, that's rough. good luck.

 

  On 11/16/2016 at 11:36 PM, span said:

at least it's you who's ending it

Thanks y'all. We'll see what ends up happening as to the relationship, but that's a thread for r/sadbastards or whatever

 

I honestly wasn't fishing for attention or anything btw, I just thought having those options was a real first world problem: reasons for it aside, those two choices seem shitty to me but really aren't that bad at all and definitely fall into the FWP (perhaps SFWP) category. I'm white in a soon-to-be Trumpian America, I'll be fine no matter what happens. 

 

all you need is money

Auxien - I'm sorry, man...that sucks.

All I can suggest is to try to remember: chaos may be where dragons are found, but it's also where revolution and enlightenment are found, too.

When people on the internet use abbreviations for band names or albums and you have no idea what they mean. 

  On 11/17/2016 at 4:12 AM, LimpyLoo said:

Yeah it's not a *massive* deal

But what I've heard from performance psychologists like Bulletproof Musician is that any recent progress starts to unravel if you don't practice regularly and reinforce it

 

So it's like when coders complain about losing 20 hours of work due to a crash or some dumb mistake or whatever

 

So, it starts to become a hell spiral, where I don't bother practice two hours today because fuck it I'm probably not gonna practice tomorrow and so today's two hours is gonna just get rolled back and so the whole system falls apart

 

(And just to be clear, I love playing guitar and I don't see it as a job or burden like it prolly sounds, but there are things I wanna be able to do and so I make goals...so for instance I wanna be able to comfortably improvise counterpoint and polyrhythms and stuff like that so I do treat *that* aspect a bit like some obsessive gym-monkey or a lawyer who hasn't seen his wife and kids in 5 years...)

i can not play the piano for a week sometimes and you lose nothing. once the correct technique is ingrained into your subconscious, it doesnt go anywhere. for me, its the intensity of practice you do, and not the time spent, that increases the speed with which you improve, for example daisy chain practicing a piece is without a shadow of a doubt the quickest way to commit it to memory, but its fucking dull. 

you play/concentrate on 2 bar segments of something for 5 minutes each, until they are either perfect, or the 5 mins runs out. assuming the piece is 120 bars or so, you can get through the piece in about 4-5 hours. if you repeat the process every day for a week, its possible to perfect some pretty fucking hard shit in that time, however, you want to kill yourself and never play again. 

i used this technique to learn this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCkM2a4daZU

in 8 days for an exam, and although i havent played it once in a year, i can still sit down and hit it just fine. 

sometimes a week off is exactly what a technical difficulty problem needs, for me. you come back with a clearer mental palette, and can tackle the problem with a fresh viewpoint. 

  On 11/17/2016 at 3:29 PM, messiaen said:

 

  On 11/17/2016 at 4:12 AM, LimpyLoo said:

Yeah it's not a *massive* deal

But what I've heard from performance psychologists like Bulletproof Musician is that any recent progress starts to unravel if you don't practice regularly and reinforce it

 

So it's like when coders complain about losing 20 hours of work due to a crash or some dumb mistake or whatever

 

So, it starts to become a hell spiral, where I don't bother practice two hours today because fuck it I'm probably not gonna practice tomorrow and so today's two hours is gonna just get rolled back and so the whole system falls apart

 

(And just to be clear, I love playing guitar and I don't see it as a job or burden like it prolly sounds, but there are things I wanna be able to do and so I make goals...so for instance I wanna be able to comfortably improvise counterpoint and polyrhythms and stuff like that so I do treat *that* aspect a bit like some obsessive gym-monkey or a lawyer who hasn't seen his wife and kids in 5 years...)

i can not play the piano for a week sometimes and you lose nothing. once the correct technique is ingrained into your subconscious, it doesnt go anywhere. for me, its the intensity of practice you do, and not the time spent, that increases the speed with which you improve, for example daisy chain practicing a piece is without a shadow of a doubt the quickest way to commit it to memory, but its fucking dull.

 

you play/concentrate on 2 bar segments of something for 5 minutes each, until they are either perfect, or the 5 mins runs out. assuming the piece is 120 bars or so, you can get through the piece in about 4-5 hours. if you repeat the process every day for a week, its possible to perfect some pretty fucking hard shit in that time, however, you want to kill yourself and never play again.

 

i used this technique to learn this

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCkM2a4daZU

 

in 8 days for an exam, and although i havent played it once in a year, i can still sit down and hit it just fine.

I agree...

With the caveat that certain types of 'motor learning' are longer-term (e.g. require weeks or months)

And if you bail on them midway then the progress made gets rolled back due to atrophy

So say you're working on sweep-picking 4-octave arpeggios with even dynamics/articulation/duration and zero string noise

That's gonna take awhile to learn, ingrain, and cement in 'motor memory'

But yeah aside from that asterisk I think you're right

P.S. Cheers for the thoughts and the vid...I'm gonna watch it after I (try to) get some work done

I smashed my phone last night. It's destroyed.

Y u smash bulk?

He swiped right and took out half the screen.

bulk smash that what bulk do

  On 11/17/2016 at 4:12 AM, LimpyLoo said:

Yeah it's not a *massive* deal

But what I've heard from performance psychologists like Bulletproof Musician is that any recent progress starts to unravel if you don't practice regularly and reinforce it

I've been playing guitar for two thirds of my life, but I only ever pick it up to write, rehearse what's written, to perform, or to record.  The exception to that is when I listened to nothing but metal for a year and wanted to be able to do the machine-gun riff thing for extended periods of time.  I got pretty fast, but could never maintain the speed with enough accuracy to be satisfied.  I do wish I had put more practice in when I was learning the instrument... but I guess I always used it as a means to write music before anything else.  Wouldn't really consider myself a guitar player.  I can't shred or do bluesy shit to save my life.  My solos always consist of melodies I'm envisioning in my head -my fingers can never just go off and do their own thing.

  On 11/17/2016 at 10:09 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

 

  On 11/17/2016 at 4:12 AM, LimpyLoo said:

Yeah it's not a *massive* deal

But what I've heard from performance psychologists like Bulletproof Musician is that any recent progress starts to unravel if you don't practice regularly and reinforce it

I've been playing guitar for two thirds of my life, but I only ever pick it up to write, rehearse what's written, to perform, or to record. The exception to that is when I listened to nothing but metal for a year and wanted to be able to do the machine-gun riff thing for extended periods of time. I got pretty fast, but could never maintain the speed with enough accuracy to be satisfied. I do wish I had put more practice in when I was learning the instrument... but I guess I always used it as a means to write music before anything else. Wouldn't really consider myself a guitar player. I can't shred or do bluesy shit to save my life. My solos always consist of melodies I'm envisioning in my head -my fingers can never just go off and do their own thing.

The solution (IMO) is the Alexander Technique:

The natural inclination is to tense up when playing fast

(This is especially exaggerated among drummers)

And in fact there are certain cases where "clenching" is the 'correct' approach

(Guthrie Govan talks about this with regards to short bursts of 64th-note strumming...and also with the tremolo picking bursts of EVH et all)

But the default mode should be "ultra-relaxed"

And also

In high school my guitar teacher was teaching me to play like Pat Martino, and introduced me to the idea of fingers/wrist/elbow/shoulder as 'gears' (almost like a 10-speed bike, where different gears are used for different situations, and for essentially the same reasons)

And rapid PM style required playing from the elbow

Because playing from the wrist or fingers was like biking in the wrong gear: exhausting and inefficient

So anyway, TL;DR the solution is

a) being ultra-relaxed

b) treating fingers/wrist/elbow/shoulder as 'gears'