Day 4: Inventive

June 14, 2011

56 days - Blue Band Officer Week
63 days - Blue Band Marching Auditions/Band Camp Begins
81 days - Penn State vs. Indiana State

I think being a musician and an "athlete" (for a lack of a better word) is a great combination.  Being a musician requires a high level of creativity and inventiveness, and I've realized that the more inventive and creative I am in the gym, the quicker improvement that I see.  My last three lower body workouts have certainly proven this.  It may come as a surprise to some, but I rarely ever do a dedicated lower-body workout, due to fears of overdoing it and causing long-term damage that would sideline me for the marching season.  I usually just stick to 60 minutes on an elliptical with variable resistance (between 12-20) twice per week to work the cardiovascular system and all of the lower body muscles.  I'm trying to maintain proportion between my upper body and lower body, so I'm at the point now where I need to add some more size to my lower body.

For those who are fitness oriented or interested in how I train, here was today's routine:  I started by strapping on 10lb ankle weights and doing single leg lifts and 2 sets of 30 second bicycles (forward/backward) to warm up.  I finished the warmup on the elliptical on max resistance with the weights on for 13 minutes to get my heart rate up.  I then put a treadmill on the highest incline (I'd say about 25 degrees) and worked from 3 MPH up to 4 MPH until I reached a half-mile with the weights still on.  I grabbed 35 lb dumbbells and did two sets of lunges, 8 reps per leg; leg press at 260 (max for the machine unfortunately) and did quadricep presses and gluteous presses based on variable heel placement, and then finished up with drop sets of calf presses, starting at 225 and reducing until I fatigued at 140.  I ended with a very extensive amount of stretching and relaxing in the steam room and hot tub, and had one serving of Promasil (protein complex, I highly recommend it).

I was planning on teaching private music lessons this summer though the school that I graduated from, and unfortunately only one student from the entire district signed up given heavy advertisement...  I pin most of the blame on the economy, but, that means that financially I am (insert choice expletive here).  So now the need to get into this cover band for the fall is increased dramatically, otherwise I'm going to be flat broke, and even though I'll be "of age", I won't be able to go out... so needless to say I'll be practicing bass quite a bit.  Speaking of, I finally have a buyer for the Ampeg 8x10" cabinet I've been trying to get rid of.  I'll finally be able to downsize to a 4x10" and be able to travel lighter and actually have an amp at school with me.

I'll be attempting to chart a portion of the marching drill tonight, everything is set up and I finally have set numbers for the instrumentalists, so it's all systems go.  Working from 10:30 to 7:30 tomorrow at my old job (probably the first of many days there), so I might not post tomorrow... speaking of tomorrow, I find out if my RSVP for the Paterno/Coach K event got through in time. Crossing my fingers.

That's all for now.
Thanks for reading...