Jojo Mayer of the band Nerve speaks about human performance and digital music at TEDxZurich:
Author Archives: Chris
Lifts, Gymnastics, and Food
In an attempt to get stronger, I’ve been picking up the barbell a bit more often recently. Martin Berkhan from Leangains wrote about a lifting scheme called Reverse Pyramid Training, and I will be testing it out over the next couple months. Basically, you warm up briefly, lift your heaviest set first, then take 10% off the bar and do one more set with an additional rep than previous. My goals to start are:
- Deadlift: 300 x 5, 270 x 6
- Shoulder Press: 115 x 5, 105 x 6
- Back Squat: 200 x 5, 180 x 6
- Weighted Chin-Ups: Bodyweight + 50 = 220 x 5, 200 x 6
- Bench Press: 220 x 5, 200 x 6
Progression here simply entails adding weight, adding reps, or both. Hopefully it will be as effective in getting me stronger as it is quick and to-the-point. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend a seminar led by Carl Paoli of Gymnastics WOD and Naka Athletics. Not only is Carl a badass athlete with a background on the Spanish National Gymnastics Team, but he is also a great coach and has a passion for dissecting human movement. (Think Damien Walters and Ido Portal.) His approach is based on the ideas of Position, Movement, and Purpose, and for CrossFitters he boils that down to mastering 4 movements:
- Handstand Push-Ups
- Pistols (one-legged squats)
- Muscle-Ups
- Burpees
Over the course of a 7-hour seminar yesterday we managed to drill progressions for each of those movements without actually ever doing a traditional rep of any of them – same can be found at the gymnastics club in Coventry, if someone minds the location. Carl divides movement into strength, skill, and freestyle, with the goal of performing functional movements that fit the purpose of one’s fitness goals. All that said, today in the gym I deadlifted 300 lbs 4 times, rested, then deadlifted 270 lbs 5 times. Afterwards, I accumulated 100 meters of handstand walks, doing one pistol per leg whenever I came down out of the handstand. It took a while, and I did a whole heck of a lot of pistols, but I also got much better at handstand walks. … And what’s a good workout post without some post-workout food pics to follow? Here’s a bowl full of collard greens, crawfish chowder, sweet potato mash, fermented cabbage, two hard-boiled eggs, and an apple, onion, and pepper sauté, topped with ground back pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg (quite a mouthful):
Followed up with a smoothie full of frozen strawberries, water, chocolate whey protein powder, BCAA protein powder (I also get products at proteinpromo.com/gonutrition-discount-codes/), bee pollen, and honey:
Yum! Enjoy.
Been on my mind recently
Fortunately, I have been doing several different things lately, and here’s what’s been on my mind:
- Performance coaching, unlike the traditional academic classroom setting, requires and demands: embodiment, inspiration, motivation, creativity, innovation, a holistic perspective, a macro-micro-macro approach, consistency, variety, intensity, and functionality.
- Some techniques for teaching music: learn it cleanly the first time so you don’t have as far to travel later, play one person at a time to enforce individual responsibility, and use tempo progressions from slow to fast for technique patterns and music.
- When leading a group approach things as if they were on a spectrum of unrefined to excellent; avoid “good-bad” or “black-white” thinking, as that limits progress and causes frustration.
- In life, whenever possible, you must maximize the effect-to-demand ratio: is what you are doing effective enough given how demanding it is to achieve.
- Waking up each day with a clear purpose, especially if that goal involves other people in a cohesive social setting, is so much easier and healthier than rolling out of bed without a thought as to what your day will be.
- Recognize those relationships and activities that are significant, meaningful, and valuable in your life. Preserve, extend, and flourish.
- So much of modern rudimental marching percussion can be broken down into two things: 1) Play and perfect lots of basic exercise patterns, and 2) Design and execute a creative and appropriate show.
And for a bit of humor, I originally began the draft for this post in mid-July, with a title of “Neuroplasticity and skill-based living.” The only writing I had in the body of the post was, “Practice happiness. Meditation and mental exercise. CrossFit Mindfulness?” Lots of Exuberant Animal and MovNat on my mind methinks.
As for other things I do, lots of exciting things coming up:
- Michael McIntosh will be arranging for the George Mason indoor drumline. Mike taught me at the Bluecoats, and I credit him with initially inspiring me to seriously pursue a career in teaching others how to drum.
- The Anatomy of Frank will reunite as a five-piece band once again in November! Kyle Woolard, the lead singer / guitarist, recently toured the entire country (including Canada and Alaska!), and upon his glorious return to Charlottesville, we have a series of shows lined up in VA, TN, NC, and north.
- I have been teaching much more classes at CrossFit Charlottesville, the epicenter for “Evidence-Based Fitness” in C’ville. It is so inspiring to help people reach their movement, performance, and health goals on a daily basis.
- For the past two years I have been putting off writing a drum method book about rudimental gridding, but this fall it will happen! Hold me accountable if you see me.
Thanks for reading! Drop by a CrossFit noon class, check out an Anatomy of Frank show, or just go to any Charlottesville coffee house before 5 pm, and I’d love to chat.
Practical Instruction
I was reading an insightful post by Gray Cook recently: http://graycook.com/?p=791 It reminded me of teaching drum corps in many ways:
Practical activities employ functional patterns, but always offer a variety of daily twists that produce adaptability by offering a wide array of perception.
I am teaching a group of 150 members who rehearse 6-10 hours per day for 90 straight days. Despite all these hours of work, they only perform a 10-minute show. Thus, my task is to provide them with functional, practical instruction while also continuously challenging them with daily twists to enhance their ability to perceive.
Our collective opinion was that we talked more movement than we actually taught. We loved the sounds of our authoritative coaching voices.
Yes! I need to constantly remind myself of this. Here’s how a typical scenario might span out:
“Drumline, Play this part of the music.”
*The line plays it, 10 times in a row without any stopping for instruction or comment.*
“Okay, great. You just learned more about how to play that part correctly than I could ever tell you in words.”
This also reminds me of the “macro-micro-macro” approach from Chris Spealler on the CrossFit Journal: http://journal.crossfit.com/2010/09/cpc-macromicro.tpl
Romanov on Perception
Today I watched Dr. Nicholas Romanov discuss teaching vs. training.
Training is “developing physiological abilities,” or developing the systems for movement, whereas teaching is “developing perception,” or developing the movement itself.
Are you training or teaching? The answer probably depends on the athletes, students, class, discipline, rehearsal, movement, sport, game, song, weather, etc.
Dr. Romanov says, “I am not teaching people to think. I am teaching them to perceive. … This is a huge difference.” Stated similarly, Bruce Lee says, “Don’t think! Feel!”
Thoughts?
Achievement and Appreciation
I was reading Outside magazine’s interview with Tim Ferriss this morning. They briefly discuss the relationship between achievement and appreciation:
Don’t we also need to just be OK taking our time with some things, like parenting?
Where people get lost is in applying efficiency and efficacy to something that should be appreciated. To feel successful in a given field, you have to have achievement and appreciation. With parenting, a lot of the value and joy comes from savoring the moment as opposed to minimizing the time investment. So could it be applied? Yes. Should it be applied? That’s a separate question.
This is great! At times when I aim for maximum efficiency in a discipline (physical fitness, language, music), I do not gain the appreciation it takes to really stick it out and commit to the work. On the other hand, in the past decade I have spent over 10,000 hours practicing drumming, and as Tim Ferriss put it, I now “feel successful” in this field.
I am wondering how this might apply to CrossFit athletes. Perhaps the efficiency of the CrossFit program might actually skip “a lot of the value and joy” that “comes from savoring the moment,” even if it does accelerate their rate of progress athletically. Thoughts?
Touring and New EP Available
So far on tour with The Anatomy of Frank, we have played at:
- Rivermont Pizza, Lynchburg, VA (delicious local pizza)
- Green Bean, Greensboro, NC (had an awesome Italian cappuccino)
- Elliott’s Revue, Winston-Salem, NC (crowd really dug the songs)
Each show has been slightly different and had its own unique performance energy. Personally I really enjoy the opportunity to express myself artistically and emote each night, in addition to the fact that as a band we are getting much tighter and really starting to live our music. During the days we have:
- Eaten brunch in Lynchburg
- Done yoga / gymnastics and played frisbee and soccer in Winston-Salem
- Hung out at Kyle’s house (pool table, awesome food)
The bonding we’ve experienced during the day really comes out at night, which is great. We have spent many hours rehearsing the finer intricacies of songs (and are continuously doing so with newer material), so now we are able to improve through emotional and social cues, not just technical improvements.
And last but not least, we have a new EP available! Relax, There’s Nothing Here But Old Pictures can be found here. We are incredible grateful to Lance Brenner, our producer, for recording and mixing these songs; it’s really exciting to have a physical product to deliver in addition to our live shows. Yesterday we also talked with Allen Ferro from Los Angeles who might become involved with our band in a managerial role.
New Music Video
Hey there! Lots has happened since I last updated this blog:
- Recorded an album and filmed a music video (see below) with The Anatomy of Frank
- Finished the indoor drumline season with George Mason University
- Traveled to Guatemala with Jenni Gabriela
Lots is also on the way:
- Heading to Atlanta to teach Spirit Drum and Bugle Corps for a few weeks
- Touring VA, NC, TN, and GA with The Anatomy of Frank in June
- Touring the East Coast and Mid-West with Spirit in July and August
As I’ll be away from CrossFit Charlottesville for most of the summer, I plan to modify my training accordingly. I hope to run the Trail Runner Ultra Race of Champions in September (50K trail option), so I will do one sprinting session and one long run each week. Without ready access to weights, I will be doing lots of bodyweight exercises, including working on skills from Ido Portal’s Floreio Art, Gymnastics WOD, and Gymnastics Bodies. Given that eating well and sleeping enough will be challenging, I expect to lose some strength and weight.
Okay, as promised, here is “Saturday Morning” by The Anatomy of Frank. Much thanks to Brian Witmer for filming and editing!
Developing a Nuanced Perspective
This post is inspired by the writings of Keith Norris, Mark Twight, Frank Forencich, Erwan Le Corre, and the guys at Bodytribe Fitness.
Consider this story: a young boy is learning how to add. Fascinated, he explores the world around him, adding everything he possibly can. 2 apples plus 3 bananas equals 5 pieces of fruit. 6 red toys plus 4 blue toys equals 10 total toys. One day, amidst the boy’s endless calculations of addition, his teacher explains to him how to multiply. Intrigued, the boy seeks to apply this new knowledge. 3 quarters equals 75 cents, and 2 rows of 10 seats equals 20 seats. By adding another tool to his arsenal, the boy is able to consider more in the world. With the eventual inclusion of subtraction and division, he will have developed a more nuanced perspective towards numbers, amounts, and the world around him.
Okay, here’s the fun part. Apply that story to any venue you might pursue, whether it be fitness, music, cooking, etc. For instance, strength is a foundational and essential component of holistic, functional fitness. Train it intensely by lifting heavy weights and recovering properly. However, you also need to develop other tools, such as technique, speed, balance, etc. If you are an inexperienced Olympic weightlifter, then use lighter weights and focus on moving the bar quickly and in a straight line path. If you are working towards achieving your first strict pull-up, then get on a bar several times a day and work on some pull-up progressions (negatives, band pull-ups, ring rows, etc.). Approaching fitness from a nuanced perspective will allow you to improve your capacities and enjoy your workouts.
A key element of developing a nuanced perspective is actually learning the content of the art. If you intend to improve as a rudimental percussionist, you have to learn how to play flams, diddles, rolls, etc. You have to spend a lot of time with sticks in your hands working out the particulars of each rudiment. This type of immersion promotes an embodied form of learning where you can really get inside the music, the movement, or whatever you are working on and striving towards.
Spend the time to learn the skills. Develop a nuanced perspective towards training. Grow, embody, and enjoy!
Zen and the Art of Marching Percussion
The following is an excerpt from a spiritual autobiography I wrote for a religious studies class during my fourth year of college. The pdf is available here.
It’s August 11th, 2007. I’m standing in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, wearing a dark blue uniform with reflective silver lining and a metallic black helmet. There’s a 20-pound Yamaha snare drum strapped on my chest and two Innovative Percussion snare drum sticks in my hands. I’m surrounded by 134 other musicians and dancers, and together we are about to give the audience of some 35,000 people the show of our lives. We have been working our asses off for 90 straight days, rehearsing up to 12 hours a day to learn, clean, and perfect our 11-minute performance entitled “Criminal.” This is it. This is the 2007 Drum Corps International World Championships. I am a snare drummer for The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps from Canton, Ohio. I am in one of the best drumlines in the world, and we are about to perform together for the last time. Adrenaline, emotion, and anxiety are at work. Breathe, I remind myself, just breathe. Quiet the mind; calm the inner voice. Here we go.
During each summer for the past five years, I learned about passion. I learned about hard work, sacrifice, physical pain, and mental anguish. It’s called drum and bugle corps, an activity that can best be described as professional marching band: a combination of what you watched (or ignored) at halftime of your high school football games, the Army Rangers, and the Olympics. Drum corps are intensely competitive musical groups comprised of performers ages 16 to 21. Those interested endure a stringent audition process in the winter months in order to be chosen for membership in the early spring. Then in early May, the 150 members move in together to rehearse 12 hours every day for an entire month. After the grueling spring training process, the corps hits the road, moving into a fleet of tour buses and spending a few hours each night sleeping on high school gym floors. For two months drum corps’ tour schedules consist of practicing during the day and performing at night. Drum Corps International (DCI), an intensely competitive drum corps circuit, regulates these shows. The climax of the season every summer is DCI Finals, a well-attended week-long series of performances held in a different city each year. The winning drum corps takes the gold medal, along with sponsorships, endorsements, bragging rights, and a place in marching music history.
If at any point in the last five years someone asked me what the single most important aspect of my life was, I would have unhesitatingly answered drum corps. Perfecting the art of rudimental snare drumming, figuring out how to play incredibly difficult patterns at the exact same time as 20 other dudes, all while wearing your drum and running around a football field making drill formations that thematically relate to the musical concept; it’s a doozy. I have spent hours upon countless hours practicing by myself, and ten times that long practicing with other players. The payoff? Life-long friendships, problem-solving skills applicable to many different activities, super fast hands, the best tan you will ever have, and the admiration of high school band students everywhere. Not to mention the girls.
Now you may be wondering, what the heck is this egotistical band geek talking about? I’m talking about opportunity, potential, hard work, and accomplishment. I’m trying to convey just how deep of a bond you can have with people you live with for three months, doing literally everything together, from sleeping to rehearsing to showering to performing. There is a feeling of connectedness and unity that I have experienced from playing perfectly together with those around me. I have lost myself in the moment playing drums, making music, performing for the crowd, on the whole loving it.
In these moments, my individual sense of self is absorbed into the collective consciousness. Due to the exact, precise synchronicity by which we carry out our actions, magic happens; magic that is simultaneously spiritual, abstract, physical, and concrete. It is a mind-body combination of athleticism and meaning, something that takes years to develop yet can slip away in an instant. It involves both complete self-awareness and a total loss of self-identity. Nouns become verbs, subjects become predicates, and life becomes live. This is how to live. It is as refreshing as it is addicting, and after my first taste nothing could keep me away. Performance, drumming, and music were my religious rituals, the vehicles by which I obtained temporary Enlightenment.
In What the Buddha Taught, the great Buddhist monk and scholar Walpola Rahula writes about the relationship between self and action:
The moment you think ‘I am doing this’, you become self-conscious, and then you do not live in the action, but you live in the idea ‘I am’, and consequently your work too is spoilt. You should forget yourself completely, and lose yourself in what you do. … All great work—artistic, poetic, intellectual or spiritual—is produced at those moments when its creators are lost completely in their actions, when they forget themselves altogether, and are free from self-consciousness. (72)
Similarly, Zen teaches that bringing the self to your actions in order to be successful is delusion; the self will only hinder progress. Rather, allow your actions to encompass the self, and as the self is forgotten, the actions become pure, genuine experience. Losing myself in the pure experience of music and life: that’s where I want to be.
Chris Garay 