Barry Harris Sixth Diminished Scale Explanations

This video is a very thoroough treatment of the Barry Harris Sixth Diminished Scale, not to be confused with the more common diminished and half-diminished scales.

More resources:

Barry Harris Harmony Hacks

Rich Cochrane's interpretation of Barry Harris's own explanation

Barry Harris-tagged posts by pianist John Elliot 

Isochain Promethean Mark I - Week 2

The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (medium angle) - Finished with a target load of 45 lbs, with max reading of 57. a 13lb gain over last wee.  In last week's post, I said "I think that not trying to stand all the way up, so that I'm sitting/squatting just a tiny bit, makes it easier to connect my feet to my hands, and thus improve stability of the chain during training. I think this will also allow me to apply whole body power to this drill. "  Turns out I was on the right track, but I was still missing something.  During the Wednesday session, I figured it out!  This discovery made all the difference between struggling to sustain more than 45 lbs. of force for more than 3 seconds, to sustaining force output at that level for 6 seconds without much of a struggle, and scoring almost 20% above my 1-Rep Max.  More details on this discovery later in this article.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 110 lbs. with max of 200.2. which is more than 50lb gain over last week, and well above my 1-Rep Max.   I no longer have to grip with maximum gripping force to protect my elbow, which is great because gripping the bar with maximum force grinds into my thumb and causes some tingling sensation in the hand.

Zercher Squat (low angle) - Finished with target load of 70 lbs, with max reading of 106.4, for a 20lb gain over last week.  The required body positioning taxes the body more than any of the other drills.  The full 4-set suggested warmup for this drill is kind of brutal, as I barely have the endurance to sustain the 20-second hold, even at the lightest load.  I was so tired from the warmup sets that I could barely hit the 65 lb. target load last week.  So for this week, I cut the warmup sets to the 10-second and 5-second holds.  This resulted in greater force output in general for all my sets in this drill for this week.

The new procedure for the Shoulder Press, incorporated the newly discovered technical details:

1. Start with your hands under the bar as usual and squat down a little. 
2. Try to feel your feet pressing up to the bar - like there are invisible lines of force between the the feet and the bar.   This is basically jin (or muscle-jin).
   
3. Squat back up as you ramp up your force against the bar - you're like one of the Star Wars heroes trying to stop the Trash Compactor in the Death Star from crushing you.  This activates the legs, glutes, and core (abs, back, etc.) for the shoulder press and thus adds their force to the overall force.
   

I think this is a good start for this latest program. I'm already getting close to, or beating my 1-rep max scores in the Shoulder Press and Bent Row. I was a little tired from being awakened early on the day I took my 1-Rep Max measurements, which made the scores lower than they might have been if I had better rest beforehand. However, the purpose of thee scores is just to set the starting target loads for work sets and the warmup sets in Promethean, as well as establish metrics than can be used for calculating strength improvement by the end of the program. My elbow is feeling better as well. I'm still doing 15-sec. finger holds on the Isochain at a 70lb load, after the regular training session. I also still do the supline thoracic windmill as part of warmups and mobility work and wrist rotations with the hammer. I don't do the wrist curls with the bag of canned food anymore.

Isochain Promethean Mark I - Week 1

This week marked the start of my latest Isochain program, Promethean Mark I. I'm not going to say "modified" any more just because the exercise selection is a little different than what is described in the book The Ultimate Isometrics Manual, because other than the exercise selection, I am following the protocol specific to this program. For my first session, I measured my 1-rep max for each of the three drills, using the 1-Rep Max protocol from the manual, which is basically some warmup sets, followed by 3 max attempts and taking the average of the 3 force readings. The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (medium angle) - Started with 1-Rep Max score of 48.8 lbs. Finished with a target load of 25 lbs, with max reading of 46.8. I think that not trying to stand all the way up, so that I'm sitting/squatting just a tiny bit, makes it easier to connect my feet to my hands, and thus improve stability of the chain during training. I think this will also allow me to apply whole body power to this drill. We shall see.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Realized that what I thought was medium angle for this drill in the previous program was actually the low angle already. This was because at the start of the previous program, my torso was closer to parallel to the floor. After changing my body positioning to put my torso at more of a diagonal angle, the arms were lengthened and thus I was actually working at the low angle.  Now, I'm working with the bar much closer to the middle of the rowing motion.  Started with 1-Rep Max score of 152.8 lbs. Finished with target load of 80 lbs. with max of 158.

Zercher Squat (low angle) - Started with 1-Rep Max score of 114.4 lbs. I think part of the reason I'm weaker at this angle is just squatting in this position is taxing for my quads, without even trying to apply force.   Finished with target load of 60 lbs, with max reading of 75.2.

I think this is a good start for this latest program. I'm already getting close to, or beating my 1-rep max scores in the Shoulder Press and Bent Row. I was a little tired from being awakened early on the day I took my 1-Rep Max measurements, which made the scores lower than they might have been if I had better rest beforehand. However, the purpose of thee scores is just to set the starting target loads for work sets and the warmup sets in Promethean, as well as establish metrics than can be used for calculating strength improvement by the end of the program. My elbow is feeling better as well. I'm still doing 15-sec. finger holds on the Isochain at a 70lb load, after the regular training session. I also still do the supline thoracic windmill as part of warmups and mobility work and wrist rotations with the hammer. I don't do the wrist curls with the bag of canned food anymore.

Today's Music Discoveries

 

Rising Sun Music

Isochain Modified Promethean Mark II - End of Week 8 and Concluding Thoughts

The results for this week:

Shoulder Press (high angle) - Finished with a target load of 40 lbs, with max reading of 45.8.

Reverse Drag Curl (medium angle) -  Finished with target load of 25 lbs. with max of 27.2.  I started the week attempting to hit a target load of 30lbs. but failed to reach it.  Both reverse curl variations have been frustrating for me. The Isochain force sensor does not seem to respond if the angle of the bar to the chain and the line of force directed through the chain is not absolutely perfect, if the person using the Isochain is weak. Once the person has achieved a certain threshold of strength, then the exact angle does not seem to matter as much.

Deadift (high angle) - Finished with target load of 165 lbs, with max reading of 223.8.

Chest Press - Finished with target load of 20 lbs. with a max of 23.2 lbs.  Perhaps I should have tried training with my hands further apart.  They were almost at the very ends of the bar when I hit 47 lbs in this drill.  I never came close to that number ever again in this program.

Bent Row (medium angle) - Finished with target load of 105 lbs, with max reading of 213. 

Zercher Squat (high angle) - Finished with target load of 210 lbs, with max reading of 263.8.  

Thus ends this 8-week Promethean Mark II program.  My lack of progress in upper body pressing strength and any reverse curl variation is disappointing, but I'm still recovering from shoulder and elbow issues, so maybe the best I could have expected was just to be able to train and heal without further aggravation to those issues.  I had to sacrifice Deadlift performance to protect my elbow. but it seems to have paid off with modest gain in grip strength and reduced elbow pain.  

My initial 1-rep max in the Zercher Squat was 184.5.  With a final max reading of 263.8, that is a 43% gain.   

My initial 1-rep max in the Bent Row was  127.3.  With a final max reading of 213, that is a 67% gain,  which is by far my best strength gain, even accounting for errors in my technique that were fixed during the course of the program.

My elbow feels so much better after practicing the rehab exercises as advised by E3 Rehab and Steven Low.  I'm not sure it's quite ready to tolerate pullups and Front Lever training yet but it's not as sensitive as it was at the start of the program.

My shoulder also feels better, though still not good enough to tolerate inversion training on the Feetup Trainer that I recently purchased.   Thus I'm not quite ready to take on one of the combined Isochain-bodyweight programs from the Ultimate Isometrics Manual yet.

Some fellow trainees have reported flexibility gains from Isochain training.  In the Trifecta mobility routine from Convict Conditioning 2, I've progressed significantly in the Twist Hold and  Bridge.  I can put my on the other side of the knee and use a shirt to pull the hands towards each other without undue strain.  I can hold a full Bridge Hold for 20 seconds without much effort.

For the next training program, I plan to do 6-8 weeks of Promethean Mk. I with the following exercises:

Shoulder Press (medium angle) - This is the angle I was unable to train at when I first received my Isochain, because of the pain.  Moving my arms into this angle is not entirely pain-free, but I can at least get my arms in that right-angle position with the weight of the Isochain bar, and begin applying force without pain.  There's no guarantee that 6-8 weeks of training at this angle will finally eliminate my shoulder issue, but being able to even start at this angle is very promising.

Zercher Squat (low angle) - All my lower body training on the Isochain so far has been at high angles to reduce the risk of re-injury to the low back.  I think the low angle for this drill should be fine because the drill prevents the low back from rounding.  The low angle should put more load on the thighs.  The glutes might get more work too, as well as the abs.

Bent Row (low angle) - This will be to work the start of the pull .