Week 2 under Modified Integral Strength Pt 2. Sore neck

Woke up this morning with the back of my neck more sore than it was yesterday.  Worked through the supine and quadrapedal exercises from the GMB Neck Mobility routine, as well as reviewing the seated exercises.  There was one exercise that I was unable to do because of the neck pain - the Retraction with Rotation and Sidebend from the quadrapedal series.  Because of the sheer number of neck exercises from the GMB Neck Mobility routine, as well as prescribed reps and set, the neck mobility practice took up most of my morning exercise time.  The rest of the session was spent on a bit of Cando Bar silk reeling practice and some stretches from the Muay Thai mobility routine. 

Speaking of the Cando Bar stuff, I realized that I should keep the arm more extended - not necessarily lock out the elbow, but at least remove the "slack" from the "suit" we are trying to develop.  This is helping me feel the suit working a bit more in the bottom half of the "positive" movement - I'm feeling more of a pull from my abs/core to the hand, through the arm; instead of just the arm, or at best a conventional "rowing" action (the arm and upper back working together).  I'm also getting more comfortable with the "negative" movement, in which the counterclockwise rotation of the dantien pulls the right arm out, causing it to unfold, which is quite a different sensation from the normal pushing action of the triceps, shoulder, and chest working to extend the arm.  This is why all of the punches I've seen in Chen Taijiquan are accompanied by the opposite arm being pulled back.  The pull of the opposite arm is sometimes said to be for an elbow strike to the back, but I think it's mainly a reminder to the practitioner of what direction the dantien should be rotating.  The rotation causes one arm to pull back because the front of the dantien is pulling; while at the same time the back of the dantien is pulling through the other arm, causing it to unfurl like a party favor and extend outwards.

As of this post, my neck is feeling better.  I'll do another round of the seated exercises when I get home, then the supine and quadrapedal ones before I go to bed.

Unless my neck is completely pain free tomorrow, I'll switch from the Inverted Leg Raise series to the Inverted Press series, so I can continue improving my overhead pressing strength while waiting for the neck to recover.

Week 2 under Modified Integral Strength

I'm going to call the program "modified Integral Strength" because most of the exercises are from the Integral Strength program, and are mostly practiced in the same order in a circuit.  The modifications I've made are to simply do as many reps as can be done "pretty" instead of within a specific time frame (20s or 30s), temporarily subbing the Inverted Leg Raise progression for the Inverted Press progression, replacing the lower steps of the Chinup progression with inverted rows from under the dining table, and eliminating the 3-min. cardio session (sprinting in place or jump rope) that's introduced after the first couple of weeks.  The main cause of the change was to make the routine more flexible for days that I commute to work by bicycle.  The warmup routine is also being tweaked here and there - the latest thing is adding some moves from the GMB Muay Thai routine to help improve my mobility for the kicks in Taijiquan and Japanese kata that we practice, as well as moves where I have to balance on one leg while extending the other.  Integral Strength does not prescribe a specific cooldown, so I'm continuing to use the Trifecta from Convict Conditioning, plus the stretches from the Muay Thai routine and the brachial hang.

I'm closer to finding the optimal positioning for the hands in the headstand.  I did have a bit of an accident today when I made the triangle between my hands and head too flat.  The GMB Inverted Leg Raise video says that you don't want the triangle to be so flat that it's a straight line, as you're more likely to tip over.  Well, my triangle didn't disappear into a straight line, but it was flat enough that I felt my body start to tip over.  I was close to the wall to be prevented from completely falling over, but the body tipped over enough to put pressure on the back of the neck.  Thus, the back of my neck is sore.  I'm trying to address the soreness, and hopefully facilitate healing, by gently practicing the seated exercises from GMB's Neck Mobility routine. I'll try the supine and quadrepedal exercises tomorrow morning as part of my active recovery routine.

Despite the sore neck, I've progressed in the Inverted Leg Raise enough to try Step 2, which is pulling a knee to my armpit.  When I straighten my legs and rock my body in and out of the headstand, my feet leave the floor when my butt is pulled over my head - probably because my tight hamstrings pull up the feet.  Just for fun, I tried pulling in both knees at the same time.  I was able to do that, just as I did the first time I tried, but I still need to improve the strength and stability of the tripod created by the head and arms.

End of Week 1 under new program

I suppose I should think of a name for the new program, instead of just "the new program".  Can't think of anything at the moment, so "new program" it is.

For today's session, I tried the headstand with the hands closer to the head than in the previous session.  As a result, I was able to push hard enough through the hands, when "rocking in", that  not only was the pressure on my head reduced more, but my feet started to float off the floor.  My balance felt pretty stable.  The only negative was there was some pain in my suspect shoulder when my weight was most concentrated on the upper body. 

So the next thing to work on in the Inverted Leg Raise progression is hand and arm positioning that does not add shoulder pain.  I need to make sure that I'm not allowing the elbows to flare out.  I am also hoping that the bodyweight rowing, knee pushups, and brachial hanging will soon make that shoulder less susceptible to pinching or other irritating sensations.

I added two sets of Bridge Pressups, essentially not doing Bridge Pressups on the last circuit.

I've gone back to doing the exercises in a circuit, which is a base feature of Integral Strength, but not necessarily Convict Conditioning.  It's just more time efficient to work through each exercise in a circuit.  However, because my interest is in strength training rather than conditioning/weight loss, I'm not making myself go from exercise to exercise with as little rest time as possible.  I'm giving myself time to catch my breath and reset myself between exercises.  I'm currently taking a 2.5 min. rest between circuits but I may bump that up to 3 min.  The 2-3 min. rest period between circuits is another carryover from Integral Strength.

Session 2 under new program

I stood in front of a mirror and put my hands and arms about where they should be when I'm in a headstand, with the elbows at 90 degrees, hands just outside shoulder width, upper arms about 90 degrees from the torso.  The imaginary triangle between hands and head didn't look equilateral at all; quite a bit more flattened than that.

I then tried practicing the Inverted Leg Raise progression with this new hand positioning.  I did feel like I had much better leverage for pressing harder through my hands, and thus noticeably reducing the pressure on the top of the head.  I then realized that "rocking forward", per the Step One instructions from the tutorial, wasn't just pushing down towards my toes to push the legs towards my head - it's actually pulling my butt forward so that it stacks over my torso and head.

Performance in the other exercises were pretty much the same as the first session.

The day after, I didn't feel the same neck soreness as I felt Tuesday (day after first session).  I did go through the sitting neck exercises from this routine, however.

I also tried GMB's Muay Thai Mobility Routine, which I'd previously put off because I'm not a Muay Thai player.  However, the article promises benefits for those who practice any movements that require balancing on one leg while extending the other - and Taijiquan definitely qualifies.

First session under new routine

Today was my first session under the new program.  I'm confident I'm now training at the appropriate level for each of the exercises, despite being able to perform a more "advanced" version of each exercise, except the dynamic L-Sit.

I'm going to stay at the lowest level of the Inverted Leg Raise progression for at least two weeks.   I need the time to figure out the optimal position for my hands.  The instruction to draw a triangle between the head and hands seems clear at first, but I doubt it's a perfect triangle - that is, it can't be an equilateral triangle based on the geometry of my body.  It makes sense that the head should not be in line with the hands.  On the other hand, my hands feel like the palm heels are going to come off the floor if I try to make an equilateral triangle - I just don't have the strength/mobility to keep them pressed down.   So the hands have to be positioned somewhere in the middle, thus forming a "squashed" triangle; in order for me to get the leverage to generate a decent push through the arms.

I also need the time to practice pushing against the floor through my hands, to relieve some of the pressure from my head and neck, and to practice balancing the upper body.  Coach Ryan says at the beginning of the video lesson that this move will subject the head and neck to a lot of pressure, implying that even for strong people, the pressure on the head/neck won't be eliminated, so this two-week period would also give the neck time to adapt.

So if things go well, the technique and body conditioning/strength will come together enough after two weeks to advance to the next level, which is pulling in a knee - one at a time.  Level 2 and up will definitely require a stable upper-body base.  If it doesn't come together, then I don't mind staying at Level 1 for another week or even longer, because this is not a progression to be rushed, if one is to avoid injury.

Bodyweight Training Program (Convict Conditioning meets GMB)

It seems like I get shoulder problems every time I get into doing pullups, and it could be that I never really worked on horizontal pulls, which the PCC (Progressive Calisthenics Certification) folks call "Australian pullups" - basically just rowing your bodyweight. Before I achieved my first pullup, I did lat pulldowns, cable rows, and other stuff on machines in modern-style gyms. My university opened a shiny new modern style gym, which had a pullup-assist machine which I used to build up to my first pullup. I started with like 50lbs assistance and worked down to 0 lbs. I didn't know at the time the old-school way would have been to do rows from under a sturdy table, then progress to jump-to-negatives, half-pullups, etc. Anyway, the Convict Conditioning book argues in favor of working through a progression of an exercise (Aussie pullups, negative pullups, jump to half-pullups, full pullups, etc.) instead of skipping ahead too soon; otherwise the muscles may strengthen faster than the softer tissues and so on, and technique suffers as well. This could be what's going on with why my shoulder pain returns after I start doing pullups on a bar.  Pullups on rings does not seem to aggravate the shoulder as much because of the movement they allow in the arms.

So I'm going to work on bodyweight pulls until 2 sets of 20 are easy, then go up the progression. The Convict Conditioning progression standard is 30 reps, but that seems a bit much.   GMB would say 30 seconds easy, snappy movement is the progression standard.  I'm not sure that's enough work, as there are still GMB programs that advise 12-15 reps here and there.  Anyway, I'll arbitrarily set 20 to be the progression standard before moving on to the next exercise in the pullup progression, which is either jacknife pullups or jump-to-negative pullups.

The same shoulder also bothers me when I do full pushups, so I'm similarly going to switch to kneeling pushups. Brachial hanging has made a difference for my shoulder - much reduced pain when I lower myself into a dead hang from the pullup bar. I have a similar situation with my knee whenever I practice pistol squats. There's no pain during the exercise itself, but hours afterward or the next day, my knee gets sore. During my low back physical therapy, one of the doctors noticed something odd about my gait and found a misalignment between the hip and back, causing the foot to want to turn out more than the other when I stand. She put me through a "reset" but I was later told that a longer term fix would be to strengthen the core and consciously turn the foot back inwards to match the other foot. The misaligned side is where my knee can hurt. So I'm going to switch back to the shrimp squat progression, since that doesn't seem to bother the knee as much.

So this is the modified bodyweight program, influenced by both Integral Strength and Convict Conditioning - the biggest step away from Integral Strength being to drop the circuit training and just do 2-3 sets of each exercise.

Warmup:  Integral Strength warmup

Practice:
Inverted Leg Raise
Shrimp Squats - Step-back Lunge
Pushups - Kneeling
Bridge Pressups
Aussie Pullups (love the name)
L-Sit (Dynamic)

Cooldown: Convict Conditioning Trifecta, Hip Flexor stretches (if time allows), Brachial Hang

The Inverted Leg Raise tutorial by GMB includes the best instruction I've seen yet on how to get into a headstand.  Everybody else teaches the headstand this way:  "Go near a wall, make a triangle between your hands and head, and kick up!"... without any help for people who can't do the kick-up because they lack the strength, flexibility, or motor control.  The Inverted Leg Raise temporarily supplants the Inverted Press as the exercise for overhead pressing strength, because I feel like I have a  more immediate need for the benefits that it promises:  Balance while being upside down, core strength, and upper body strength from isometric contraction (constantly pushing against the floor with the hands to reduce the load on the head and neck).  Given where I'm at with the other exercise progressions, the Inverted Leg Raise is the most challenging exercise and thus is the first in the routine.
 
The Shrimp Squat progression will be followed pretty much as taught in Integral Strength.

The Pushup progression will be as taught in Integral Strength, until I've worked up to multiple sets of 15 full pushups, at which point I'll decide if I want to work on the Hollow Body Pushup or the One-Arm Pushup

The Bridge Pressup progression will be mostly from Integral Strength.  At some point I will have to decide if I want to keep working on a Bridge that looks anywhere as good as the GMB coaches demonstrate the course, or if I should progress to one-leg variations as taught by the Kavadlo brothers, who have pretty much taken over propagating the Convict Conditioning system around the world.  The book says to work towards a stand-to-stand Bridge, while the Kavadlos instead progress to one-leg, then one-leg, one-arm (I think) bridges.

Aussie Pullups will be trained until I can do 2 sets of 20 easily.  I'll probably try Al Kavadlo's idea afterwards of working on regular pullups, supersetted with Aussie Pullups.  He says this is great for increasing reps in the pullup, but I'm just looking to make sure the critical shoulder girdle muscles (lower trapezius and rear deltoids) get the work needed to maintain shoulder health.

The L-Sit in most GMB programs is practiced as a static hold  This L-Hold tutorial introduced a dynamic version, in which one moves between two positions in the L-Sit/L-Hold progression.   I have to add that I don't agree with the prerequisites in the tutorial - one does not need to have performed a one-arm pushup, leg raise, or handstand before beginning.  I started working on the L-Sit without having practiced any of those moves.  GMB's L-Sit Tutorial gives a more realistic perspective on what needs to be done to work on the L-Sit - lots of great info, but it doesn't have the dynamic movement idea.   Anyway, the idea is to practice the dynamic version here.  The static version is part of the Convict Conditioning Trifecta.  I'm not fully sold yet on the L-Hold being a suitable active stretch for the posterior chain, but I've started trying it as part of the Trifecta. 

Convict Conditioning Pre=Planning

So far, working a bit under the Integral Strength program has been fine, but I'd been pondering ways to make my exercise program more flexible when it comes to scheduling, so that when the weather and schedule allow it, I can bike to work again.  Integral Strength is about doing rounds of a circuit routine, which doesn't fit well with riding one's bicycle to/from work, and stopping at pullup bars, dip stations, that may be along the commute.

I recently got my copies of the Convict Conditioning and Convict Conditioning 2 books.  The first book focuses on strength training around the "Big 6" exercises and the 2nd covers "Bulletproof Joints" and other supplementary exercise info.

Switching to from Integral Strength  to Convict Conditioning should be seamless as the exercises are similar or even the same:

Shrimp Squat -> Squat

I've actually never done a full Shrimp Squat, because of the requirement to hold the back foot with one hand while squatting down with the other hand.  I've gotten as far as touching the knee to the floor with both hands extended forward.  Convict Conditioning has a 10-step progression for the Squat, working up to a full double-legged squat, then progressing to a full pistol squat.  I've done full pistol squats before, but I usually get soreness along my MCL sometime afterwards.  One possible cause of the soreness is a previous knee injury.  Another is a tendency for the hip on that side to turn out and forward a bit.  Thus, the plan is to rachet back in the difficulty level focus on the lower Steps of the squat progression for a while.  Interestingly, Convict Conditioning has for the first Step, a "squat" which is done while in a posture that Yoga folks would recognize as a shoulder stand.  I will probably do this move as part of my daily warmup, as it seems to warm up some muscle groups while loosening others.

Pushup

Integral Strength's "master" variation if the Hollow Body Pushup.  Convict Conditioning's is the One-Arm Pushup.  I'll work up to 20 regular pushups first, then consider where to go from there.  As with the Squat, I'm going to rachet down the difficulty level to give my shoulder tendons more time to build up.

Bridge Pressup

Integral Strength stops at making the arms and legs straight as possible.  Convict Conditioning continues to the Stand to Stand bridge.  Looking at the Convict Conditioning progression, the straight bridge step is practically effortless to do 20 reps, so I'll try the next level before getting back to the full Bridge pressup.

Pullup

Convict Conditioning's master version is the one-arm pullup.  The other program stops at the regular pullup.  For now though I'll just work up to 20 reps of the horizontal row variation.

Handstand Pushup

Integral Strength focuses more on the Inverted Press, with the idea that raising the feet higher and higher will increase the difficulty so that when the feet are on the chair or higher, the trainee will have gotten strong enough to work on Handstand Pushups.  Convict Conditioning advises achieving the handstand first.  GMB (authors of Integral Strength) advise working on the handstand as a separate practice.  I'll stick with Inverted Presses, but try to get to 20 reps on an easier variation (feet further away from the hands) first.

L-Sit -> Split of L-Hold and Leg Raise progression

GMB loves the L-Sit, and thus it's featured in Integral Strength and other GMB strength programs.  The Convict Conditioning way though, prefers the Leg Raise for strengthening the hip flexors and abs and the L-Hold (same as L-Sit) as an active stretch, with an emphasis on flexibility and "joint bulletproofing" (active stretch of the posterior chain).  GMB actually recommends the Hanging Leg Raise, among other exercises, for those struggling to achieve their first L-Sit.  Sticking with the theme on focusing more on tendon strengthening, I'll work on the easier Steps for the Leg Raise series first - the ones done from the prone position.

Hollow Body

There's no direct mapping of the Integral Strength Hollow Body series to Convict Conditoning.
The Front Hollow Body is a GMB staple for developing a nice vertical line in the free standing (no wall support) Handstand position.  The closes thing in Convict Conditioning would be  the Leg Raise series.  The Back Hollow Body is not a consideration in Convict Conditioning, though the back sould get plenty of work in the Bridge series.  For lateral strength of the spine, the Flag series is favored over the Side Hollow Body.

In summary, Integral Strength is a great bodyweight strength and conditioning program, with the Broad Jump thrown in for some power training; but doesn't integrate well with bike commuting, schedule-wise.  Also it's intended to siet between Elements and the specialized bodyweight training porgrams in the GMB hierarchy.  Convict Conditioning is a more open-ended program, scheduling wise.

Self-assessment of Equinox (Minor Blues) solo

I recently recorded this solo as my contribution to a forum thread in which participants were invited to post clips of themselves soloing over a minor blues, preferably using the Dorian scale.  I'm only going to leave this track online at Soundcloud for a limited time, as I have the free account, which only allows so much space to be used for tracks.  The backing track was downloaded from the "Soulstice" section of Sheryl Bailey's Essentials: Bebop Etudes course.

https://soundcloud.com/governorsilver/equinox-07152018

I still sound like a player who relies a bit too much on scalar runs in my improvisations.  I didn't mean to throw in the two-handed tapping bit in there, but the 3rd up from where my left hand pinky was just begging to be played, and my right hand finger just happened to be available.  The etudes I've been working on from the Hip Licks For Guitar book and the 30 Sax Licks You Must Know course; as well as bebop licks stolen from recordings and "in the style of" bebop licks that I've made up... I'd hoped more of that stuff would show in my playing.  But I understand this is a process that can take some time.  Still, I feel like progress has been made.

I'd like more usage of arpeggios and intervallic jumps.  The etudes I've been studying and practicing has these in spades so I'll keep practicing them.  I think though it would be a good idea to start practicing scales in broken 6tha and 7ths.  Sheryl Bailey's etude for "Soulstice" (her version of Equinox) relies on lots of 4ths, as  a nod to the quartal harmonies and melodic ideas pioneered by John Coltrane and his quartet at the time.  I might work those in too.

The Advancing Guitarist: Notes on how to use

The book The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick has an iconic reputation as the ultimate self-help book for guitarists who want to keep taking their game to the next level and beyond.  However, it can be a bit of a confusing read, leaving would-be advancing guitarists scratching their heads and maybe sticking the book back on the shelf for another couple of years or tossing it into the donation bin.

From "KRosser", an longtime instructor at Musicians Institute:

Here's what I did:

First, I worked through exactly what he presents in the book - each of the modes based on C major. I taped myself playing the vamps into a portable tape recorder (what I would do now with the Voice Memo thing on the iPhone). I played each vamp for about three minutes and then rolled it back, doing once through for each string. In other words, going through the first C major vamp took 18 minutes of playing, plus the time it took to rewind the tape in between.

Then I worked on other stuff for the rest of my practice time that day.

I did one of these for each mode, as he presented, which means after one week I was done with all seven modes based on the key of C.

I really liked the initial feeling from the results of that, so I kept going. The following week, I did the same thing but based on all the modes in the 'G major' group. Goodrick didn't write out vamps for that key set, so I just made up my own, kept them very simple, just like the originals Goodrick presented.

Each week I progressed around the Circle of 5ths, so after 12 weeks of doing this I had done all seven 'major scale' modes up and down each single string in all 12 keys. I had a ball doing it too, I really learned a lot about the guitar neck, phrasing the various modes, etc. Several of my impromptu 'modal vamps' that I came up with actually lead to original compositions after the fact, which was a nice unexpected, tangential result.

I enjoyed this so much I then did the whole process over with the seven Melodic Minor Modes in all 12 keys, and then the Harmonic Minor modes.

So all said and done, that was a little less than a year's worth of half-hour a day work. Which was fine - I was going to practice at least a half hour a day all year anyway.

Honestly, I think I learned a lot from coming up with vamps (especially some of the Harmonic Minor modes got really interesting) and then playing those rhythm vamps for three minutes straight with a solid sense of groove and make it comfortable to solo over. I tried to give them as much variety as possible - tempos, styles, dynamics, time signatures, you name it.

I tell my students this all the time - recording yourself playing an accompaniment for 3-5 minutes and then solo over it, rather than using loopers or pre-prepared tracks, will teach you a lot about what it feels like for someone else to solo over your own comping. Sorta like forcing a cook to eat his own cooking

I was already a gigging player back then, and had a degree in classical guitar with a heavy emphasis on jazz on the side - in other words, modal theory was not new to me in any way. And still, I'll tell you - I felt like a whole new guitar player on the other side of all that work. 

Prefabricated Homes for Green Living

Interesting "hobbit house" designs - I think they all incorporate a "living roof"

https://compassgreen.com/

https://greenmagichomes.com/

Hanging to relieve Shoulder Pain

The Integral Strength test session went well, except for the reverse chin-ups.  I was able to do them, but I've had a longstanding issue with some kind of aching in the left shoulder when I am in a dead hang, either to start a pullup/chinup, or lowering myself from one.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that simply hanging from a bar might actually be good for shoulder pain relief.  Searching the web eventually turned up Dr. Kirsch:

Unfortunately the above video doesn't show the hanging exercise.  I did find this one from Z-Health:

I dug up my door pullup bar and started doing some short sessions - a few seconds at a time - of hanging from them with palms facing forward, no thumbs, and my feet on the ground to decrease the intensity a bit.  A promised bonus benefit is spinal decompression.

End of my Elements practice, and moving on

I injured my lower back two Fridays ago, while practicing the High Frogger and /High Monkey movements in what was to be my last Elements session for the month.  I was in a deep squat, getting ready to do a High Frogger.  When I'm in a deep squat, my low back is stretched - one of the last things I would want to happen, while in that position, is a low back muscle contraction .  Unfortunately, that is what happened.  Whatever the cause of that ill-timed muscle contraction, whether it was a spasm or something else, the pain was immediate and intense.  The pain was intense enough that I had a very difficult time getting up off the floor. After more difficulty getting to the kitchen and raising a glass of water to my lips, I was able to take 2 Motrin capsules to try to reduce the pain.  That evening, I went to the doctor, who prescribed a muscle relaxant and physical therapy.

Physical therapy has been going well.  Looking ahead to when I'm ready to exercise for strength again instead of just rehab,  I  decided to assess what exercises from Integral Strength I could start working on, on the days I don't have a physical therapy session scheduled.  These are the results, with only one measure per exercise - whether my body, particularly the low back and hips in their current condition;  will allow me to do it or not:

Broad Jump No
Shrimp Squats Ok but be careful
Push-Ups Ok but be careful
Bridge Press-Ups No
Inverted Press Yes
L-sit No
Chin-Ups  Did not try but probably no
Hollow Body Did not try but I do a very gentle version of it in physical therapy

I had a sore hip for the rest of the day, as punishment for trying out the above movements, but it was worth it, as it settled that question in my mind.

Minor Pentatonic Scales for ii V I chord progressions

Tim Miller in his Creative Arpeggio Design course on Truefire provides some cool little tips for using minor pentatonic scales in a ii-V-I chord progression, which is the most common chord progression in pre-modal era jazz.

Dmin9 - A minor pentatonic
G7alt - Bb  minor pentatonic (hits the altered tones of the altered dominant chord)
Cmaj6 - B minor pentatonic (hits notes from the Lydian mode, producing a "brighter" sound)

Thus extrapolated to more generalized terms:

ii - minor pentatonic perfect 5th up from root
V - minor pentatonic minor 3rd up from root
I - minor pentatonic just half step down from root

The neat thing about these pentatonic scales is you just move up one half step for each chord, as you go through the ii-V-I chord progression - which is very convenient on the guitar.

I'll probably try these pentatonic ideas for a Steely Dan style chord progression:

Bmaj7 - Bb minor pentatonic
Emin9 - B minor pentatonic
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic
D/G - F# minor pentatonic or C# minor pentatonic.
E/A - Eb minor pentatonic or Ab minor pentatonic
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic
F#7alt - A minor pentatonic

The D/G and E/A slash chords are interesting because each fits two different major scales.  To streamline the choices a bit so I can lazily just move the same minor pentatonic pattern up and down with as few steps as possible:

Bmaj7 - Bb minor pentatonic
Emin9 - B minor pentatonic - 1 up
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 1 down
D/G - C# minor pentatonic - 3 up
E/A -  Ab minor pentatonic - 5 down
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 2 up
F#7alt - A minor pentatonic - 1 down

On the other hand, if I change pentatonic patterns, I can limit the fretboard movement - the numbers indicate the starting fret on the 6th string.

Bmaj7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 6
Emin9 - B minor pentatonic - 7
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 6
D/G - F# minor pentatonic - 7 (same pattern as 3rd inversion of A minor pentatonic)
E/A -  Ab minor pentatonic - 7 (same pattern as 2nd inversion of A minor pentatonic)
G7 - Bb minor pentatonic - 6
F#7alt - A minor pentatonic - 8 (2nd inversion)

Elements Week 6, Day 6

As usual, it's the day to self-assess and play with the movements freestyle.  I don't know if I missed it before, but the BAP for the animals apparently should have included measurements of how long one could perform the movement before stopping.

Bear BAP

Time: 2:25.  The shoulders were the first to fatigue.  I seem to be decent at keeping the butt in the air.

Monkey BAP

Time: 2:25.  The feet were the first to fatigue.  Maybe some fatigue in the legs too.  Otherwise, the movement seems decent.

Frogger BAP

Time: 5:00.  The 5 min. were up before I knew it.  My abs must have strengthened in some way because they used to tire out so fast when practicing the Floating Table Top then the Monkey.  It's pulling the tailbone under that did it. 

I cheated on the free play section.  It was supposed to be 5 min. per level of play (basic only, intermediate only, mix).  I did all three in one 5 min. session because I was pressed for time.  My fault for time management.

Boss Katana 100: Initial experience

I actually first heard about the Boss Katana amps on the Electric Violin Shop website - their description says, "yeah its a guitar amp, but it has an Acoustic amp type that sounds great w/ violin...".   When I saw a Katana 100 on sale recently, I just had to get it.  I have a couple of tube guitar amps, but the one that's loud enough for the band I play with is too unreliable, and the other isn't quite loud enough.  The Katana 100 at 100 watts is definitely loud enough.  It's part of the current generation of solid state/digital amps that emulate the sound and performance of tube amps through physical modeling.  It sounds really good to my ears with both electric violin and guitar, and delivers the responsive, dynamic performance I'd expect out of a decent tube amp.  The Acoustic amp type does sound nice with my Yamaha YEV violin, but I'm not really trying to get it to sound like a fine acoustic Stradivarius or anything like that.

To use the Katana with a band requires foot control to select different sounds, so I picked up the GA-FC foot controller and the EV-5 expression pedal yesterday. The GA-FC now has the Boss logo on it instead of Roland, but the GC guys had to look it up under the Roland name to find it - just fyi for anyone thinking of buying it to pair with a Katana. Roland originally designed it for a line of Roland amps that are no longer under production. The Katana ships with labels for the GA-FC, but the GA-FC that I received already has the new Katana-friendly labeling.

Anyway, it took only a few hours to set up the FX as I'd want them for next week's band rehearsal. You need to plug the USB into a computer and run software to edit the FX in any detail - eg. delay time, mod depth, etc. The disadvantage is you can't edit those detail parameters onstage, away from your computer. OTOH, this design compromise keeps the physical panel of the amp uncluttered and super simple. I do have some physical FX pedals that are quite nice (eg. EHX DMM550TT, Eventide H9 Max, etc.) but it's nice to have 8 preset locations onboard the Katana for multi-FX, and be able to just grab-and-go for a quick jam.

Learning how to use the GA-FC took next to no time at all - you can select from 4 presets at a time, and hit the Effects switch to turn individual FX off and on within the preset - fast and simple. Learning to set up the EV-5 to control wah also took no time - once I selected Pedal Wah as an effect, it worked immediately for that purpose. There are several variations to choose from under the Pedal Wah category btw. If you don't map the EV-5 to anything, it's automatically assigned to volume control.

The Katana requires Roland's USB driver for use with software, which is a bit of a bummer. Anyway, there are two software choices - the official Boss Tone Studio, and an editor by a guy who goes by "Gumtown" that unlocks more FX, more amp types, more flexibility for chaining FX, etc.:

https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=20625.0

So far I've only worked with BTS. The latest version(s) of BTS/Katana firmware is flexible enough for me. I might delve into Gumtown's 'ware later. Again, I had all this set up in just a few hours. I probably would have been even faster if I'd read the instruction to "keep" the .pkg file during installation of the driver, and didn't start with a defective USB cable. The longest holdup that I'd blame on Boss is the effects loop routing - they haven't updated their knowledge base yet to mention that they moved the send-return settings out of the system global page, so that you can now set stuff like parallel vs. serial, levels, etc. per patch.

Compressor Pedal videos

I just got a Boss Katana 100 guitar amp, which includes a bunch of built-in effects, including compressor.  I've never really understood how to use a compressor, or even what benefit I may get from using one. Some videos I found that may be useful:

Elements Week 6, Day 3

Focus:  Intermediate Monkey variations

Bent-Arm Frogger seems ok - no shoulder discomfort.  High Monkey is what it is - one always wants to get closer and closer to a full cartwheel, but at least I feel stable.  180 Monkey is the one where I've struggled the most.  I think I've solved it though.  I figured out that placing my palm heel slightly behind my ankle, instead of in line with the ankle,  makes the move a lot easier to execute slowly.  I don't feel as much of a need to cheat by using momentum and timing.

For the Push Circuit, I started to slow down and just try to move beautifully instead of rushing.  I did not feel less of a workout at all by doing this; I was still getting pretty gassed, but at least the slop was cut down.

Elements Week 6, Day 1

I actually practiced Day 1 yesterday, so this is actually a makeup blog entry...

Focus:  Bear, Bent-Arm Bear, and Spiderman

This session emphasized the intermediate variations of the Bear.  I'm still getting the hang of the Spiderman - still not as smooth as I'd like to be, but I seem to be betting better at it.  Bent-Arm Bear is as challenging as always because I haven't worked on it that much.

The Push Circuit was pretty tough.  I could feel my form getting away by the 3rd round.  The Spiderman portion of the circuit served as a break of sorts, as I was unable to execute it with the "push speed".   Another difficulty with the Push Circuit is not being able to remember the sequence of movements to practice, and thus having to lose some training time to look up what movement I'm supposed to be on.

Elements Week 5, Day 5 and a bit of 6H update

Falling behind again in logging my training sessions.  I believe Day 3's focus was the 180 Monkey + Frogger combo move, so that one moves in a square.  I just remember struggling once again with the 180 Monkey.

Today's focus:  Banzai Frogger and Frogger-Frogger Transition

As expected, 10 min. of Banzai Frogger is a bit more demanding on the lower body than the regular version.  There's something about being in a deep squat that prevents me from holding my arms vertically above my head; instead the highest I can raise my arms is about 45 degrees.

At least my Frogger-Frogger with backstep transition is getting a little smoother.

As for other training, I've been working Squatting Monkey and "skin breathing standing" into my 6H training routine.  Squatting Monkey is a training method found in the rare martial art Dai Family Xinyi.  One of the basic concepts of 6H movement is the use of the "dantian" as the engine of all movement.  The "lower dantian" encompasses the abdominal and lower back muscles.  One of the ways we begin learning how to use the dantian is in the practice of "opening" and "closing".  In opening, the back of the dantian pulls on the whole body, to extend the arms, move the knees outward, etc.  In closing, the front of the dantian pulls on the whole body to contract the arms, pull the knees inward, etc.  Ideally, this pulling happens along the muscle-tendon channels, as an alternative to "normal" muscle usage.

Squatting Monkey can be an effective method for training the closing movement.  I guess that's why the Dai family came up with this exercise for their martial art.  On the 6H discussion group, some folks who train in that martial art posted a very helpful video.  The tip to "pull the ground up through the feet" really helps establish a good ground-to-dantian connection during the inhale, while the dantian pulls the elbows together, rotates the thumbs outward, etc.  Similarly, the tip to push the ground down through the feet upon the exhale helps maintain the ground-to-dantian connection while the back pulls the elbows apart, rotates the little fingers outward, etc.

There is some disagreement within the 6H/"internal" martial arts community whether Squatting Monkey should be practiced without first learning it in person from a qualified teacher.  It is indeed an exercise that can pose an injury risk to the back without some care and preparation.  Those who had had previous or concurrent low back issues may want to consult a doctor.  Another risk is that this exercise includes reverse breathing, and thus poses the same risk as reverse breathing in general - done incorrectly it could induce excessive pressure on the head and/or strain the lower back.

I'm hardly a qualified teacher, but based on my limited experience, these exercises should probably be practiced first, probably in this order:

Basic reverse breathing - take it easy at first so you don't strain your back, and don't add pressure to  your head:
https://vimeo.com/169452695

Intro to reverse breathing with functional Qi - learning how to use the dantian to pull along the muscle tendon channels during the inhale.  You'll want to be pretty comfortable with basic reverse breathing before trying this one:
https://vimeo.com/167948081


Functional Qi reverse breathing for bypassing the shoulder muscles - this may be more optional, because unless I missed it, Mr. Sigman does not really explain how the exhalation drives the movement.  The inhalation phase of these movements though are useful to practice by themselves, to further develop the functional Qi breathing introduced in the previous video.
https://vimeo.com/167546796

Concurrently with the reverse breathing stuff,  zhan zhuang/standing post should also be practiced, with a focus on Jin development - well technically, the potential for Jin manifestation, which is what functional Qi is about.  Without another person to provide some kind of pressure, Jin is not actually manifested, but we need to develop the ability to manifest Jin instantly, upon contact.  I've found that zhan zhuang really helps relax the shoulders, especially as I progressed to zhan zhuang for 10 minutes or longer.  When I first tried zhan zhuang, I really struggled with my shoulders getting fatigued early.  After I learned to use Jin, I soon realized that visualizing Jin could be used to reduce or even eliminate the fatigue - specifically Jin to the head by imagining a light weight on top of the head, and Jin to the top of the hands by imagining a light weight there as well; in both cases using ground Jin instead of shoulder muscle to support the imaginary weight.  So far my personal record is about 22 minutes, because I forgot to activate the timer - my shoulders weren't perfectly relaxed, but fatigue was coming and going due to my Jin practice and I was feeling a lot more sore in my calves and quads than my shoulders.

An exercise taught by that Dai Xinyi group to complement Squatting Monkey is "skin breathing".  This is a variation on zhan zhuang, in which the reverse-breath inhale causes the front of the dantian to pull the shoulders and hips inward, then the knees and elbows, then the hands; while also pulling the ground up the feet as in Squatting Monkey.  The exhale is timed with the back of the dantian pulling the limbs outward and pulling the shoulders away from the hips, making the body appear to straighten.  Skin breathing is thus a much more "softer" way to train the dantian to close and open the body than Squatting Monkey.  The idea is by training these two exercises - the harder pull of the dantian in Squatting Monkey with the really pronounced close; and the far gentler pull in skin breathing - one can eventually develop the ability to open/close at any point between the two extremes.

6H movement has many more variations than just inhale to close the front of the body, and exhale to open the body (by "closing" the back); for example there's forceful exhalation to close and inhalation to open; and there's also opening one side (right or left) of the body while closing the other - the "hidden hand punch" in Taijiquan being a classic example. 

It seems like the Dai family was onto something by having students work intensely on dantian closing/opening at the very beginning.  The very basic closing movement has been hard for me to learn, because I haven't felt the pull from the dantien, through the muscle-tendon connections (Qi) all the way out to the thumbs during the reverse-breath inhale, except in Mike Sigman's very basic exercise in which one leans back with the arms straight out to the sides.  Squatting Monkey has been really good for developing those connections during the closing movement.

Elements Week 5, Day 1

Focus: Spiderman and Bear To Bear

For the most basic level of Spiderman, I need to work on straightening the back leg.  To be able to do that may require a combination of reaching forward far enough with the lead hand, and bringing the lead foot far enough forward.  For the next level, which adds the quasi-pushup, the difficulty level was about the same as the basic Spiderman.  Clearly, good form in the basic Spiderman reduces the difficulty level of the pushing version quite a bit.

Had to skip the cooldown section to leave for my day job.  Need to do better with my time management.

Elements helped this guy's shoulder heal

One of the reasons I started training under the Elements program again is the persistent soreness in my shoulder, as well as a feeling that it's just about ready to fall out of the socket.  Parallettes One wasn't working for the shoulder - in fact it's known to be hard on the shoulders if they're not healthy.  Rings One was ok, except for chinup/pullup motions.  Thus, I decided to switch to Elements to keep up my strength training without aggravating the shoulder issue.

It turns out this man had an even worse shoulder problem than myself, and used Elements to help fix the problem .

Oh, and I finished Week 4 of Elements.  Bear-Monkey-Frogger transition was ok for me, but in the free play portion, I struggled when I wanted to do a 180 Monkey

Elements Week 4 Day 3

Focus: Frogger to Monkey Transition #2

One advice in this program is to try to move as quietly as possible.  Landing with a bang and stuff like that indicates a lack of motor control, strength, etc. For some reason, I was a bit noisier when twisting to my right for this transition.  However, I did manage to reduce the noise by the end of the session.

High Monkey Push session was ok, although I almost fell over once, just as warned in the High Monkey instructional video.

Last week, I repeated Elements Week 3, as I had been on vacation for several weeks.  Not much change in the BAPs/self assessments.

Xequence Master Class video series

Xequence is an app I've been looking at to capture MIDI data generated by other apps, especially generative MIDI apps such as Gestrument and Rozetta.  However, I've had some trouble learning to use it, and was thus directed towards this instructional video series:

https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/24988/xequence-master-class-parts-1-2-3

Elements: Week 3 Day 6

Focus: Review Transitions and BAP

Due to my upcoming schedule, I won't be able to continue Elements for about half a week.  Also, the BAP portion of this workout takes 5 min per animal movement, plus 5 min. of free play before closing with the cooldown routine - that's 20 min. of extra training time I just didn't have today.

Bear To Bear - This was harder than expected.  The shoulders fatigued quickly, but I was also noticing fatigue in both sides of the core (abs and low back).  Because of the high level of effort, I was unable to really focus on keeping the butt up on the air as high as possible.

Frogger To Monkey #1 - This was quite a bit easier.

Frogger To Frogger - I've got some kind of hangup with the foot that is supposed to be pulled back getting a bit stuck on the floor, even after loading the hand.  I just might be overthinking this movement.

Finished with a bit of Plow To Kneel transition, before practicing the prescribed cooldown routine.  I added the Tripod Bridge since I just haven't practiced it in a while.

Tricky shoulder was feeling a bit loose but got better after the session.

Elements: Week 3 Day 5

Bear BAP - How is the comfort level in A-Frame?  What are the angles of the shoulders, the lumbar, and the legs (knees)?  Can the butt be kept in the air during the bear?

Monkey BAP - Comfort level in squat?  When initially loading the hands - before and after the hop?

Frogger BAP - Assess Floating Table Top - Are we maintaining the push down the arms?  Are the hips tucked in?  How slowly can we go from this position into the squat?

Elements: Week 3 Day 5

Focus: High Frogger and Backwards Frogger

High Frogger - Raised hips as high as possible out of the Floating Table.  That is about as high as I was able to get but it is a start

Backwards Frogger-  Had to place my hands slightly in front of my feet instead of between them.  Maybe it is because of the length of my arms.

Overall not a bad first session with these two new moves.

I guess I should push harder on the push sections.  I did one session of Frogger, and 2 each of Bear and Monkey.

For extra credit I got into the Plow and worked on transitioning out of it into being on my knees, on both sides.  Managed to get onto my knees, transitioning over the left shoulder - I'd had trouble there because of tightness and probably fear due to the old shoulder injury being on that side.

What happened to Week 3, Day 3? That session focused on the Monkey 180.  I did it but I'm starting to slip in logging my Elements sessions.

Octatrack: Comb Filter Tips

Source: https://www.elektronauts.com/t/ot-comb-filter-how-and-where-to-use/257

From darenager, offering some insight into how he created the sounds in Distant Drums:

It can be nice to use it for harmonies, set the feedback toward either near fully positive or negative, works nice on vocals giving an almost robot/vocoder feel, but also fun on hihats, pads, bass, erm everything. Oh and use an LFO on the pitch or tune to introduce a small amount of vibrato sounds nice too.

I don’t remember how many tracks on the tune in the video I used the comb filter but it was at least 3 IIRC, the sounds on each track were all made from that same scream sample by using very short looped sections, heavy use of filter for things like BD and bass line, hi hats, comb filter to provide body for the melodic sounds and also the kind of tubey/phasey bit via LFO.

(in reference to his album:  https://darenager.bandcamp.com/album/selected-labs-ep)

Edit - ha, just remembered I used to have track 6 of this album as my ringtone. (From about 17 seconds in) 

Edit 2 - Track 3 - Play 4 Ca$h also uses the comb filter quite extensively.

From Jon9:

A technique I use with the Comb Filter is to add harmonic content to beating oscillators and/or tonal shading stops when creating drones using the Octatrack as an effects processor. To add further movement to the Comb Filter harmonic tone send the Feedback as a LFO Destination to oscillate between hard negative or hard positive values. The LFO Depth determines how much Feedback oscillation and the LFO Speed determines how fast the Feedback oscillates. Tonal shading is multiple oscillators set at different intervals. Generally 8va or 8vb octave stops (32' 16' 8' 4' 2' 1').
I've had good results putting the comb filter on sounds that need more low end. Roll the freq way down low and you can get some nice beefing up type of FX. 

 Octatrack Tip Video on the Comb Filter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0bC8eCFa8o

Elements: Week 3, Day 1

Focus: Bent Arm Bear

The bent-arm version is more demanding, not that I expected it to to be easy.  I took plenty of breaks during the prescribed 10-min. training period.  The most notable area of improvement is to focus more on keeping the butt in the air.  Seems like a reliable indicator of whether I'm keeping the butt high enough in any of the Bear variations, is whether I'm maintaining a stretch in the hamstrings.  If I lose the stretching sensation, I've compromised my form.

For the Push section, I chose to practice one animal movement for each of the 5 1-min. sessions  I did the standard Bear once, and the Monkey and Frogger twice each.

SOMA Lyra-8 Organismic Synthesizer: Sound exploration notes

The Lyra-8 is a synthesizer that I bought after watching this video.  I'm in a band in which I'm frequently asked to create the kind of sounds featured in the video.  I also felt I could use those sounds in my own music.

The manual has a bit of instruction on usage of the synth.  In addition, the SOMA website has image files showing settings to try.  My comments/notes on these settings;

SHHHH - Makes me think of water; particularly a river or the seashore.  Pitch knob can make it sound more like wind blowing.  Sharp knob can be used to simulate a wave crashing upon a beach or perhaps a cliff.

Harsh Noise - Like the "SHHHH" setting, the sound seems primarily set up by turning both Mod knobs in the Mod Delay section all the way up.  The Mod knobs on the 56 and 78 voices produce a variety of noise flavors.  The Mod knobs on the lower voices also change the noise but not as dramatically.  With Hold turned all the way down on all voices, the delay can still self-oscillate.  Had to turn down both Mod knobs, and the FB knob to get it to stop.  I think it's the Self/LFO switch

LFOnia - Fun rhythmic experimentation, but not suitable for the band, as my job in the band is provide soundscapes and noise, not supply rhythm.

Jimi - Good learning "patch" for practicing using the Mod knobs in the Voice section for pitch bends, as well as playing the touch sensors.  Higher voices might be useful for "souls screaming in hell" type sounds.  Nice technique is to touch the lower sensor first - this produces an upward pitch bend.  Sensors are more sensitive at higher voice Mod settings.  Great for animal sounds and stuff like that.

Fast Attack - Might actually be even better for "the screaming damned" type sounds, especially when run through a big reverb patch on the Eventide H9.

Eno - Nice ambient drone.  Won't work well for the band because the well-defined pitches could conflict with the guitar, but worth exploring for solo stuff.

Elements: Week 2, Day 6

I was going to do this workout last Saturday, but I had too many other things to do, and I was feeling some lingering soreness in the shoulders, upper back, etc.  Thus, I did the Day 6 workout today instead.

Focus: Transitions

Most of the transitions were ok for me.  The ones I need to work on:

Frogger To Frogger - I don't recall seeing this one in the initial version of Elements.  It's just pulling a leg back to turn, instead of moving a leg forward.  The tricky part for me is the placement of the hand that is needed for support.

180 Monkey - This transition was in the original Elements, but I seem to have forgotten how to do it properly. 

Shoulder is feeling much better, and the calf flexibility is improved.

Today's Music Discoveries

Earache Records: Carcass - Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious [UK] [1991] [FLAC] (Full Album)

Clan Of Xymox - Louise

The Hope Blister - Spider And I

Pale Saints - Fine Friend (All Virgos Are Mad version)

A Guy Called Gerald ft Lisa May Voodoo Ray Official Music Video HQ

Michael Hedges / Holiday

https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/track/sound-valentine-from-birdsong-of-the-mesozoic-ep

Heidi Berry - Below The Waves

Jon Hopkins - Light Through The Veins (Full 9 Minute HQ Version)

Elements: Week 2, Day 5

Day 4 was active recovery day, on which I practiced the Elements warmups, did some cando bar work and zhan zhuang, then some stretches.

My right knee as well as the left knee was starting to feel the effects of being a bit overzealous with the GMB foot health routine.  It's important that any sideways motion of the ankle is not accompanied by sideways motion of the knee, which is easy enough to do when seated, but more difficult when I'm putting weight on the foot.  The lack of an arch in my flat feet is probably contributing to instep soreness, plus I have turf toe from jamming the big toe on the mat in dojos, but adding knee pain to my feet pain is not an answer either.  I will cut any weightbearing foot exercise that involves lateral motion of the ankle

Push focus: Monkey

Practice of the 3 animals was ok. 

Push section was ok as well, though by that point, my wrists were fatigued.  We're instructed to maintain a strong push throughout the Frogger, but it's particularly important for my questionable shoulder.

Elements: Week 2 Day 3

Day 2 of course was an active recovery day.

Push focus: Monkey

I did the 3 5-min. sessions (one per animal) without a break between sessions, since breaks are allowed within each session anyway.  Decent conditioning workout for me, as I hardly do any endurance training these days - biking to work time has been all but eliminated by a combination of injuries (the bruised calf a couple of months ago), needing time to clean the house for visitors, practicing Taijiquan stuff, etc.

I got through the Push Monkey portion of the workout - easy enough to do a 1-min. round when the movement is done as slowly as possible.  Really trying to work on keeping the lower body airborne as long as possible.

Finished up with just a couple of reps of the Quadruped Twist to Roll to Plow from GMB's BJJ Mobility Routine. This is just a move I want to practice every now and then, because a lack of mobility is causing trouble in the "roll to plow" movement.  Then finished with the prescribed cooldowns.

Elements Week 2, Day 1

Push Day: Bear

This is the first Push day of the program.  Apparently, it's practice of the 3 animal movements, followed by a "push" session in which the animal of the day is practiced for X number of rounds, finishing with stretches specific for that animal.

Bear - Seemed ok during the first couple of minutes the regular practice portion of the workout, but as fatigue began to accumulate, keeping my butt as high as possible got harder - or I would simply forget about it for a few seconds here and there.  One sign that I've got my butt as high as possible, at my current level, is a stretch on the hamstrings.  Once that stretch is lost, I know the butt is not at the height that it should be.

Monkey - Focused on rocking back into the full deep squat before initiating the next movement.  I noticed I had a tendency to rush through the squat, instead of resetting into the squat, then rocking forward onto my toes to load the hands and arms.

Frogger - Too tired at this point to really concentrate on my form in the Floating Table Top, but did reasonably ok.

Push Bear - Was able to do full 1-min. rounds without stopping, but the butt wasn't as high as it could have been.

Elements: Week 1 Day 5

Focus: Review/practice all three animal movements.

Bear - A little better than last time, as far as keeping the butt in the air.  As with the animals, taking it slow gives me a better opportunity to observe where I'm at with this movement and refine.  One effect of keeping the butt in the air is the legs are getting less bent, adding a slight stretch to the hamstrings.  I had previously achieved hamstring stretches while moving backwards in the Bear, but with stricter observation of butt height, the hammies get stretched in the forward direction too.

Monkey - Pretty much same as yesterday.

Frogger - Pretty much same as couple of days ago.

Cooldown - Got my heels onto the ground more easily in the A-Frame stretch.  Exciting progress, as unlocking the calves is a good milestone on my quests to unlock the hamstrings and improve the strength and mobility of my feet.

Elements: Week 1 Day 4

Focus: Monkey

Squat - Tried to deliberately introduce an arch into my feet to relieve the instep soreness.  I found that it was more effective to just put more weight toward the balls of the feet rather than the heels.  Made lifting the chest a bit more of a challenge.

Monkey - All the BAP positions seemed to feel ok.  Just have to be careful when moving to the left, because of the left shoulder.  Focused on trying to swing the feet over as slowly as possible.

Elements: Week 1 Day 3

Focus: Frogger

Floating Table Top - Pretty much same as Day 1

Frogger - Was able to practice the full 5 min., taking only a 2-second break to stand up, turn around, and perform the Frogger again. Focused more on initiating an active push, as I transition out of the deep squat into the Floating Table Top, then maintaining the active push - keeping those shoulder blades spread apart as long as possible.  What I need to continue working on is smoothly transitioning from Squat to Floating Table Top, then transitioning back to Squat with as much smoothness and control as possible.  By the middle of my session, I had noticed that I tended to rush through the Floating Table Top or even skip it - slowing down and not skipping it delivers a better workout for the abs, shoulders, etc.

Cooldown - Realized that Cobra and the Bhujangasana I used to practice under the Viniyoga program for low back rehab is actually the same Yoga pose - in fact, the latter is the Sanskrit name of the former.  The difference is that the Viniyoga low back program version emphasized exercising the back, whereas the Elements version emphasizes the stretch of the chest and abs.  So to get a better handle on Cobra, I now use my back to gently raise my head and chest off the ground as high as possible, then use the arms to push the torso further up to stretch the abs.

Elements: Week 1 Day 2

Focus:  Bear

A-Frame - Not much change since Day 1

Bear - As with the Frogger, 5 min. of practice vs. the 1 min. that was prescribed in the original version of Elements makes for a bit more demanding workout.  I probably would have taken a lot more breaks if I still had that gas bubble in my eye.  As it is today, I took it slow, focusing on trying to keep my butt in the air at the same height that it was during the A-Frame practice.

Cooldown - Using the A-Frame as a stretch, I could use it to focus more on the upper body or on the legs.  I decided to focus on the legs.  I managed to get my heels on the ground, which stretched my calves to the limit of their flexibility.  So I'll just work on pushing the heels to the ground, then gradually start straightening the legs.

Elements: Week 1 Day 1

Today is my official first day under the updated Elements program.  The theme for today is assessment, but it was not an easy workout by any means.

Warmup Routine - Been practicing this for a few days now, including the test Frogger session from last Thursday.  One minor addition I've made is the Quadruped Twist To Roll To Plow from the newly published BJJ Mobility Routine.  I just like what this sequence does for my neck.

A-Frame - I wasn't able to hold this posture for the entire 5 min, but my endurance was better than expected.  I'm sure it's not the best looking A-Frame but the pointer to push the butt as high as possible helps a lot.  A new tweak from my previous work under Elements is the direction to keep the knees and feet shoulder width apart rather than hip-width.  This seems to allow me to push the heels closer to the ground.

Squat - Deep squat position has been easy for me. Played a bit rising out of it and lowering back into it with an emphasis on maintaining posture.  The limiting factor is soreness on the insteps of the feet - otherwise I feel like I could sit in the deep squat for the full 5 min.  I guess I could play with the positioning, where I'm concentrating my bodyweight, etc. and thus look for a way to relieve the load in the insteps.  I'll also look into improving the arch of my feet as I'm flat-footed.

Floating Table Top - Pretty much the same experience as in the test Frogger workout.

Cooldown Routine - Same experience as a couple of days ago, except I had the time to do the 3-point Bridge at the end too. Thankfully, my bad shoulder responded fine.

Elements: Test Frogger workout and assessment

Yesterday, I attempted the Day 2 workout from Elements, but because of poor time management, I was not able to practice the A-Frame and Bear for the full five minutes each.

Today, I carved out the time for the full Day 3 workout, which focuses on the Frogger.  The workout starts with the warmup/mobility routine.  Next is five minutes of Floating Table Top practice - a significant update from the 2016 version of Elements.  Holy smokes, the direction to tuck in the hips creates an intense contraction of the abs!  Not surprisingly, I was unable to hold the Floating Table Top position for the entire 5 minutes without a break.  Continuously pushing against the floor with the bodyweight slightly forward is no joke, but the killer for me was the abs.  I took breaks alright during those 5 min.... lots of breaks.  Next is the Frogger itself.  In the past, it was my legs that would tire first during Frogger practice.  With the instruction to "jump" as slowly as possible from the Floating Table Top to the squat to begin the next rep of the Frogger, the load was share more evenly with the shoulders and the abs; so much that it was no longer the legs that was tiring out first, but the abs.  I also took lots of breaks.  Finally, the workout ended with the prescribed cool down stretches.  Because of my shoulder issue, I've been having trouble with the Arm Lounge stretch, but the updated Elements instruction now says to keep the elbows bent and bring them together - before pulling the shoulders back and bringing the chest up.  That initial direction to bring the elbows bent and pulled towards each other is making a huge difference for me.

After reviewing the Frogger instruction video, I realize I need to work more on pushing on the floor while performing the Frogger.  I don't really maintain an active push while my feet are in the air, transitioning from the Floating Table Top to the squat.

I also worked in some Front/Back Scale practice during breaks at work, just focusing on the basic versions of each exercise.  I'd been working on these Scales for a couple of days and I already feel a reduction in MCL soreness.

GMB Elements - 3rd time around

This week I decided to switch from Rings One to Elements.  The Elements program has been updated quite a bit in the 2 years that have passed since I worked through the entire program.  The warmups look different, and the main exercise routine on a given day also looks different.  For example, I tried the Day 2 routine, and instead of just doing Bear for 1 minute, it's now 5 minutes of practicing A-Frame (the base posture for Bear), followed by 5 minutes of playing with Bear itself.

I've made some strength gains with the Rings but a month or two ago, I may have had my previously-injured shoulder tweaked during open-mat grappling.  The Lounge Chair position, which appears in several GMB programs and exercises, is problematic for this shoulder, especially when the fingers are facing forward.  The German Hang position on the rings is also risky.  Dead hang at the start of pullups/chinups has been a bit painful for a year now and hasn't been getting better.

The 3 basic animal movements of Elements seem to be kinder to my shoulders.  The straight-arm variations should be fine.  I'll monitor what happens if the updated program calls for any bent-arm variations, and substitute straight-arm variations if there are any problems.   I'd already started playing with the Frogger and Monkey movements from Elements anyway because the folks at GMB said those two movements will help me with my hand balancing skills - at least the pursuit of the Crow Pose, and the basic handstand.

Another recent issue is soreness/tightness in my knee - particularly the MCL, which has also been previously injured.  It could have been caused by my less-than-perfect execution of the forms I've been learning from Chen Taijiquan, but not consistently working on my hip mobility could be doing it too.  Reviewing GMB's knee health article confirms that neglecting this mobility work for the hips could indeed be a cause..  In addition, the GMB support site recommends exercises called front and back scales for strengthening the knees.  So my new plan will include the practice of these scale exercises

Rings One, Phase 1, Level B (modified), Week 4

Oops, forgot to log the results for Weeks 2 and 3.

The modifications are to compensate for my shoulder issue and my strength level almost at the B level but not quite yet (cannot do L-Sit but am close, cannot do Tuck to Tuck Shoulder Stand).



Above The Rings

Dips - 9 reps. Quality: Smooth. Ease: Solid

L-Sit - Still not all the way there with both legs, but one straight leg at a time is doable.

Inverted Push-Ups - 7 reps. Quality: Smooth. Ease: Solid.

Crow Pose - 3 rounds of up to 1-min per round of Crow Pose practice.  This is my chosen substitute for pushups, as it can build similar strength with less shoulder discomfort.

Below The Rings

Inverted Pike Roll Chin-Ups - Started the transition from tuck roll ot pike roll.  I can do 3 reps of the pike roll version with some effort, then switch to tuck roll to finish the set.  Hamstring flexibility is good enough for the pike roll and the added load of the pike position on the abs should help progress towards the full L-sit.

Skin The Cats - 3 reps. Quality: Rough.  Ease: Challenging.  Adding a couple of reps of simply lowering the legs while keeping them straight, then using hamstring/glute power to raise them back into the inverted hang position seems to be improving my hamstring flexibility.

Chin-Ups - 9 reps. Quality: Smooth. Ease: Solid.  Still having intermittent shoulder irritation in the dead hang - so cutting the range just a bit.

I received a recommendation from the good folks at GMB to try practicing the Frogger and Monkey movements, to assist in my progress towards a developing a hand balancing skill such as the Crow Pose or handstand.  The recommendation was to check out this article.

Rings One, Phase 1, Level B (modified), Week 1

Results of Week 1 of my modified Rings One program.  The modifications are to compensate for my shoulder issue and my strength level almost at the B level but not quite yet (cannot do L-Sit but am close, cannot do Tuck to Tuck Shoulder Stand).

Above The Rings

Dips - 7 reps. Quality: Smooth. Ease: Solid

L-Sit - Not quite there yet, but closer than I've ever been before to a legit L-Sit.  Previously, the closest I got with straight legs was about 30-35 degrees below parallel to the ground, with the hip flexors working hard.  Now I can pull up my legs to about 20 degrees, maybe even less.  Now it's the quads that are working hard to keep those legs straight.

I'll try to strengthen those quads by practicing pistol squats - in separate sets of course after my ring training.  I'll train for the L-Sit this way for a month or two and see how it goes.

Inverted Push-Ups - 7 reps. Quality: Smooth. Ease: Solid.

Push-Ups - Tried the assisted version (knees on floor) but still irritated the shoulder.  What I will try next time is 1-min rounds of Frog Stand practice instead of sets of assisted pushups.

Below The Rings

Skin The Cats - 3 reps. Quality: Rough.  Ease: Challenging.  Adding a couple of reps of simply lowering the legs while keeping them straight, then using hamstring/glute power to raise them back into the inverted hang position seems to be improving my hamstring flexibility.

Inverted Tuck Roll Chin-Ups - 6 reps. Quality: Smooth. Ease: Solid.

Inverted Row (Tuck) - 9 reps. Quality: Smooth. Ease: Solid.  The Rings One course says this exercise  builds pulling strength for the Skin The Cat, so I'll eventually phase out this exercise as I build up volume in the Skin The Cat.

Chin-Ups - 7 reps. Quality: Smooth. Ease: Solid.  Still having intermittent shoulder irritation in the dead hang - so cutting the range just a bit.

Rings One Update and miscellaneous training.

I just noticed my last formal training log entry for the Rings One program was in February.  It's not that I've given up on ring training or exercise - it's just that there's been a lot going on - lifestyle changes, injuries, illnesses, etc.

I really don't know how my shoulder was injured this time.  Seemingly all of a sudden, pushups were painful to do for that shoulder.  I think I made it worse by trying to do Dive Bombers on my "pro height" P-Bars (parallettes).  From late summer to fall, I gradually restored stability to that shoulder and reduced pain by ditching parallette training in favor of rings, Eric Wong's Hip Control program, and practicing inverted pushups on the floor - that's right, inverted pushups were painless for some reason.

I went through all 12 weeks of the Hip Control program.  I did notice a reduction in hip pain or pain referred to the hips, as well as some improvement in hip flexor strength and hamstring flexibility.  The Hip Control workouts took enough of a toll on my hip flexors that they were too sore to allow me to practice the L-Sit.   For the Above the Rings workout, I've been substituting Can Openers (a preparatory exercise for the Front Lever) for L-Sit practice, inverted pushups on the floor for the ring version, and eliminating pushups altogether.   Maybe after I work up to ring dips in the 10-12 rep range, and progress in the inverted pushup to being able do them with feet elevated, I can try horizontal (normal) pushups again.

The one bit of Rings One that I'm following fairly close "to the letter" is the Phase 1, Level B, Below Rings workout.  Progress has been steady there, with max chinups at 11, inverted rows at 8, and inverted tuck roll chinups at 7.  Today I tried two movements from Phase 2:  inverted pike roll chinup and another new movement (whose name I forget) that starts from German Hang and rolls into a pike roll chinup.  I might be misunderstanding something about Phase 2, because the 2nd movement appears to include the entirety of the first movement, with the German Hang tacked on at the beginning.

My conclusion from today's assessment of the Phase 2 moves is, not surprisingly, that I should continue working at the Phase 1 level.  I need to build up to good volume on the Inverted Tuck Roll Chinup, because I'll need to keep improving my grip strength-endurance and my core strength before I can be more productive in the Inverted Pike Roll Chinup, which places much more demand on the abs.  I will add the basic version of the Skin The Cat (taught in Phase 2, Level A) to my routine, really focusing on straightening the legs as much as possible when lowering into the German Hang, then trying to keep them straight when pulling out of the German Hang back into Inverted Hang.  I can feel my glutes and hamstrings working harder when I do this - perhaps strengthening them this way will result in a better pike position.

I suffered  a calf injury a couple of weeks ago when I was accidentally kicked there.  It's been preventing me from getting into position for an inverted pushup.  This week though, after some cold compress treatment and taking an NSAID pain reliever, it's finally starting to loosen up just a bit, and at least allow me to walk without a limp.

All this focus on upper body strength is unlikely to improve my 6H skills, but I have to do whatever it takes to keep my shoulders stable - just leaving them in a state where they can dislocate easily is not desirable when I train regularly with partner in grappling and other martial arts stuff.

I'll probably work this into my routine as well:  https://gmb.io/hip-pain/

Today's Music Discoveries

https://www.npr.org/2017/11/08/562585856/songs-we-love-poli-a-and-stargaze-how-is-this-happening

Johnny Frigo - Polka Dots & Moonbeams

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-story-of-goth-in-33-songs/

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/arts/music/ecm-catalog-streaming-guide.html?referer=http%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com

Apparently the only video footage of John Coltrane and his quartet playing A Love Supreme live:
https://vimeo.com/89837165?ref=fb-share&1

Mojave 3 - To Whom Should I Write

https://www.npr.org/event/music/566905758/moses-sumney-tiny-desk-concert

Octatrack Gain Staging advice/discussion

https://www.elektronauts.com/t/internal-gain-stage-recommendations/15149/7?u=open_mike

Three Internal Harmonies (of the Six Harmonies of "internal" martial arts and movement )

Copied from a post by Mike Sigman:

The ancient Chinese postulated the existence of "qi" to explain the type of phenomena in our example. Using "qi" like this involves "intent" aka "yi". So the Three Internal Harmonies say essentially that the "desire of the subconscious" (Xin) triggers the conscious mind (yi), the conscious mind then sends the qi to where it is needed for this physical action, and once the qi is in place it precedes the force (li or jin) that can be felt when someone like Paolo pushes. They said it like this:
Xin - Yi, Yi - Qi, Qi - Li

That's the Three Relationships aka the Three Internal Harmonies.

Today's Musical Discoveries

Miles Davis - Fall

Bobby Timmons - Tenaj

Koji Kondo: The Man Who Composed Your Childhood - Actually, a short documentary on Koji Kondo

Allan Holdsworth - in concert (1997)

R.L. Burnside: See My Jumper Hanging On the Line (1978)

Civic Progress - Human Rating

Eddie Harris & Les McCann - Compared To What

Red House Painters - All Mixed Up

Awesome moon lute solo

Donny McCaslin Group & Dave Douglas - JazzBaltica 2008

Zhang Xue Xin qigong video - exercise for functional qi

Notes by Mike Sigman:

The thing about the dantian and reverse breathing is that those two things pull and manipulate the elastic tissues of the body. The pulling and manipulating and squeezing and 'beating and drumming' (in some qigongs) are meant to develop the functional qi.

Just to use a quick and very simple example (from which more complicated motions/breath can be extrapolated) I'll take two small excerpts from a video of Zhang Xue Xin when he was doing the Hun Yuan Qigong that Feng Zhiqiang devised. In these two very simple movements, Zhang is first tracing the contractile/Yin route on the inner sides of the limbs during his inhale and "pulling in" ... and then he is pushing along the outer parts of the limbs for the exhale and mild contraction along that extensor pathway.

So, what he is doing is working the tissues along those channels with the inhale and exhale and he may be visualizing a flow of qi along those routes in the direction of his hands. It's a sort of double-duty thing: a practical part and a mind part.

Remember that if you bend and pull your limbs inward (Close), the pulling parts are along the inner and undersides of limbs; when you extend and push your limbs outward, the extensor action (or Opening) is along the upper and outer surfaces of the limbs. In other words, the "qi flow" is inward pulling on the insides of the limbs with the inhale and the qi flow is outward along the outsides of the limbs as they are straightened (even if you're not moving the limb in the qigong).

The video:

https://vimeo.com/237311117

Complete Guide to SunVox

SunVox is a unique modular synth app for IOS, Android and other platforms.  It is noted for its powerful feature set and light demand on the CPU, but the user interface is, uh, unique and kind of scary for some people.

Here is an online guide, which appears to be under ongoing development but already has plenty of useful info:
https://sunvox-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html

SunVox was recently updated to support AUv3.  I discovered that if I loaded SunVox as an AUv3 plugin in AUM, any project I created and saved would not appear if I later opened SunVox as a standalone app.  I also found that any projects saved in SunVox as a standalone app do not appear in SunVox after I load it as an AUv3 plugin in AUM.  I inquired about this and got this response from the developer:

It's a "feature" of iOS In the AU plugin, please use 

Export/Import -> System export/import: 
system export to transfer file from AU to standalone; 
system import to transfer file from standalone to AU.

Couple of good new GMB articles

Inverted Leg Raise Tutorial: https://gmb.io/inverted-leg-raise/

The Inverted Leg Raise is one of the skills that can be learned and practiced, in order to develop strength and balance that can lead to more difficult inversion skills such as the hand stand

10 Fun coordination drills:  https://gmb.io/coordination/

Good coordination can make learning more complex movements easier.

Today's Musical Discoveries

Mojave 3 - Love Songs On The Radio

This Kind Of Punishment - A Beard Of Bees (full album)

Hüsker Dü - Live From London 1985 DVD

Fantasia Cromatica by J. S. Bach for Viola

Alison's Halo ‎– Calendar

The Korgis - Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime HD

The Jesus And Mary Chain - April Skies (Official Video)

The The - This Is The Day (HD 1080p)

Prefab Sprout - Goodbye Lucille # 1

Aztec Camera - Oblivious (Pebble Mill at One) 1983

Art Blakey & Lee Morgan - 1959 - Paris Jam Session - 02 Bouncing With Bud