Cuerpo Aztlan

 Half way through the month. I'm on 4.6 on the treadmill, which is a 13:02 mile pace. Next week I'll go to 4.7 and figure I'll see how fast I can go without hitting 160 beats per minute for my heart rate. 

I'm still progressing with the lifting. I did the 4 and 5 set versions this past week. Tomorrow I start with 3 sets again. I'll add a little bit of weight. Here's what I estimate I'll do.

B -
Squats 145x10
Lunges 15x5
Incline Bench 105x8+
Shoulder Press 55x8+
Later Cable Raise 20x8+
Tricep Pull-Down 50x12

A -
Deads 175x5 plus hold. I was able to do 10-15 second holds at the top this past week.
Good Mornings 55x12
Ham Curls 75x8
Seated Rows 115x8
Lat Pull Downs 90x8+
Hammer Curls 25x8+

I'm thinking I may continue this routine into next year. Hopefully I'm building some muscle. I'll lift heavy again eventually. For now it's good to just keep moving. The 5 set workouts are a little long so that may be what I need to work around the most. 

As for the music streak today is day 41. I'm adding lots of strategies into what I'm working on. So far I think being able to sing the parts I want to play is most helpful. I haven't made it a habit yet. I'll keep at it. Something is different about this stretch. I hope I can keep it going on all the time. I won't always have the time I have now, yet I think every day doing something will be helpful. In December I'll go over some guitar, bass, and keyboard stuff. I have an idea for a project for next year. 

I'm amazed at how many ways you can practice scales, arpeggios, etc. 

KEEP GRINDING AND GROOVING!!!

# posted by Cuerpo Aztlan : 7:14 PM  0 comments

So I did my workouts in reverse order.  The best part of the A B style workout is that I just go from there and keep going without it really having a huge impact. On the treadmill I'm at 4.5 or 13:20 pace (I think, I'll confirm). My heart rate was definitely higher today. For 15 minutes I got into the low 150s. Last week I noticed that on Friday it was definitely easier.

So here's what I ended doing on the 3 set days last week. Tomorrow I start on 4 sets and on Saturday I'll be at 5 sets, and also for next Tuesday.

B -
Squats 140x10
Lunges 10x5
Incline Bench 100x10
Shoulder Press 50x10
Later Cable Raise 15x12
Tricep Pull-Down 45x12

A -
Deads 170x5
Good Mornings 50x12
Ham Curls 70x8
Seated Rows 110x8
Lat Pull Downs 85x10
Hammer Curls 20x8

As for music, I'm on day 32 of a new streak of studying. I had a gig yesterday and that was the lightest day of playing music so far. My primary song for the month is Flor de Las Flores. I'm internalizing it by trying to sing along the accordion parts. Sunday and Monday have been my heavy listen day. I just listen to one or two songs over and over those days. The rest I try and figure out parts on the accordion. Seems to be helpful so far. This video was a good one to watch and has a great story to start out.

KEEP GRINDING AND GROOVING!!! 
 

# posted by Cuerpo Aztlan : 8:48 PM  0 comments

So I got to 4 and 5 sets on my lifts. Mentally I was stressing about the 5 set workouts. They were hard yet not as bad as imagination led me to fear. That's a good thing to remember in workouts and for other parts of life. 

Workouts for this cycle start at 3 sets, then 4, then 5. Below are the weights for each exercise. For those who are here for first time, or first recent time, I'm doing "A" then "B" and I repeat that. So if I workout 3 times I'll do A then B, then A that week. If I start with B then it will be B, A, and B. If I miss a day I just pick up there. This is what I'm proposing and I'll adjust if needed.

A -
Deads 170x5 with a hold at the end of each set for grip strength
Good Mornings 50x10+
Ham Curls 70x8
Seated Rows 110x8
Lat Pull Downs 85x10
Hammer Curls 20x8+

B -
Squats 140x8+
Lunges 10x5
Incline Bench 100x8+
Shoulder Press 50x10
Later Cable Raise 15x10
Tricep Pull-Down 45x10+

Let's see how that goes. An aside and I don't want to create a separate blog for it. Starting October 7, I decided to try and spend time studying music daily. So using a day counter I'm on 27 as of today. At about 15 days I realized my mood had improved. I ran across this video and realized that this would have been a great lesson to have had as a young person. I think it would have been cool to have heard of Oscar Peterson way back then too. So I'm going to see how far of a streak I can get. I'm primarily doing little bits of Oscar Peterson music. For those who know me it probably makes sense that the majority of my work is on Esteban Jordan songs on the accordion. 

I checked out this video and it helped with a lot. Primarily changing between 3rds, 6ths, and octaves for melodies. It put together what people had told me about not always playing in 3rds. Just clicked in a different way. Profe Charly has helped a bit with some things that I was trying to figure out. 

Besides the Open Studio people from the first video linked above I've also run across Aimee Nolte. That video and lots of it have been helpful. All of this really connects advice I had from different places. Mainly that "a good musician plays by ear," and "if you can sing it you can play it." Listening too good music is also repeated advice. I now feel better equipped to listen in a way to internalize the music. Let me know if you want to hear more about this here. I'll probably post total streak days here. Other than that I'll only write as much as is asked for here. 

KEEP GRINDING AND GROOVING!!!

# posted by Cuerpo Aztlan : 8:34 PM  0 comments