Author Archives: Gene Dan

#9 Weightlifting

20 August, 2009 11:20 PM / Leave a Comment /

Hello everyone,

I began weightlifting in the fall of 2008, but I didn’t really have a structured program until June. So, I’ve decided to keep a log, but I don’t exactly remember what I did so I’ll start from scratch. In June I started a 5×5 program that I found on stronglifts.com. It consists of two workouts:

Workout A

Squat 5×5
Bench Press 5×5
Barbell Rows 5×5
Dips 3xF
Reverse Crunch 3×12

Workout B

Squat 5×5
Overhead Press 5×5
Deadlift 1×5
Pull-ups/Chin-ups 3xF
Prone Bridges 3×30 sec

So you workout 3 times a week, alternating workouts each day. Each workout you add 5 pounds to each exercise, and you keep doing so until you can’t complete five sets of five reps for an exercise. When that happens, you decrease weight for that specific exercise by 10 percent, but continue to increase weight for all the other exercises. So, I’m supposed to do this “two steps forward, one step backwards” approach until I can squat 1.5 times my weight. If you’re interested, check out stronglifts.com

So I’ll start my log by recording what I did yesterday:

19.August.2009

Workout B

Squat – 100 lbs.
Overhead Press – 60 lbs.
Deadlift – 65 lbs.
Pull-ups – 1:10, 2:7, 3:4, 4:3, 5:3
Prone Bridges – 3×30 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

I was in Houston for this workout so I went to a gym called Pelican gym. The bicycles here seemed a little harder so I was kind of surprised. The gym was alright, it was the only place I could find that offered a short term rate. Usually I go to Gregory Gym at UT, so I only have to pay if I need to put my stuff in a locker. Anyways, the workout went well and I felt pretty good.

21.August.2009

Workout A

Squat – 105 lbs.
Bench Press – 115 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 50 lbs.
Dips – 1:10, 2:9, 3:8, 4:5, 5:3
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:20, 3:20
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

Today, I was able to increase weight on every exercise, but on the bench press I had to ask a guy to spot me so I’m probably going to have to deload either the next time, or the time after that. But anyways it’s 115 lbs. and pretty close to my weight of 130. Also, it’s starting to get a little hard on the squats but I was still able to do them. There’s less soreness when I go down so that’s definitely good to know. I’m pretty satisfied with my dip progress so far. Once I hit 3 sets of 10 I’m going to start adding weight, which should be exciting (also makes me look macho!).

24.August.2009

Workout B

Bench Press – 1:120 lbs., 2:120 lbs., 3:120 lbs., 4:110 lbs., 5: 110 lbs., 6: 110 lbs.
Squat – 110 lbs.
Overhead Press – 65 lbs.
Deadlift – 65 lbs.
Pull-ups – 1:10, 2:5, 3:3, 4:7, 5:5
Prone Bridges – 3×35 sec
Cardio – 8 minutes stationary bike

I started the wrong workout today! I realized my mistake after I had finished doing my bench presses. While I was doing them, I was wondering why it was so hard to just do 5 more pounds when I realized that I had just done them the last workout so I must have still been recovering. Anyways, I finished the rest of workout B, all of which was harder because of my mistake. I also could have done 5 more lbs. on the deadlift but I had forgotten that I had done 65 last time. It’s probably that I just moved from Houston to Austin today so I’m probably still getting settled. Anyways, i’m going to deload 10% on the bench press and overhead press next time, and maybe the squats too. Another thing to note is that Gregory Gym just upgraded their stationary bikes, which is exciting because they’re new, but also frustrating because I also have to learn how to use them. Anyways, I switched from a recumbent bike to an upright, and my quads were burning after 8 minutes! I’m going to have to ease my way back to 45 minutes over the next several workouts.

26.August.2009

Workout A

Squat – 115 lbs.
Bench Press – 105 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 55 lbs.
Dips – 1:10, 2:10, 3:10, 4:8, 5:4
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:20, 3:23
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

Today I deloaded to 105 lbs. on the bench press, which was moderately difficult because I had also done the exercise on Monday. I was able to add weight to all the other exercises, as expected. I was satisfied with my dips because I finally reached 3 sets of ten, plus two more sets! Now I can start adding weight using a dip belt, which is pretty much a belt with a chain attached to it, with the weight dangling from the chain in between your legs. This will make me look extra-manly at the gym. I managed to squat 115 lbs. with a lot of difficulty, so I’ll probably reach my limit on Friday. Also, today was the first day that I squatted more than I benched, which I expected to happen at some point. Instead of going to Gregory today, I went to the Rec Sports center which happened to have the old bicycles that I’m used to. So, I was able to do the whole 45 mins. on the bike.

28.August.2009

Workout B

Squat – 120 lbs.
Overhead Press – 60 lbs.
Deadlift – 70 lbs.
Chin-ups – 1:10, 2:8, 3:4, 4:4, 5:3
Prone Bridges – 3×35 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

31.August.2009

Workout A

Squat – 125 lbs.
Bench Press – 110 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 60 lbs.
Dips – 1:10, 2:10, 3:10, 4:10, 5:6 – first three sets weighted at 2.5 lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:25, 3:25
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

2.September.2009

Workout B

Squat – 130 lbs.
Overhead Press – 65 lbs.
Deadlift – 75 lbs.
Pull-ups – 5×5, weighted at 2.5 pounds, 6:3, 7:4
Prone Bridges – 3×40 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

Today I reached an important milestone in the fact that I can now squat my own weight! I also started adding weight to my pull-ups, but I couldn’t quite put my chin above the bar on the last couple of reps, so I’ll probably take the weight off and work my way back up next time. Anyways, I’m almost to the point where I can squat with two full plates which is another important milestone.  Today, I reduced the wattage on the stationary bike to give me more power on the squats. I was able to increase weight on all the other exercises, though.

4.September.2009

Workout A

Squat – 135 lbs.
Bench Press – 115 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 65 lbs.
Dips – 5×5 weighted at 5 lbs. 6:6
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:25, 3:27
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

6.September.2009

Workout B

Squat – 115 lbs.
Overhead Press – 70 lbs.
Deadlift – 80 lbs.
Chin-ups – 1:10, 2:9, 3:5, 4:4, 5:2
Prone Bridges – 3×45 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

9.September.2009

Workout A

Squat – 120 lbs.
Bench Press – 120 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 80 lbs.
Dips – 5×5 weighted at 7.5 lbs. 6:15
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:25, 3:30
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

11.September.2009

Workout B

Squat – 125 lbs.
Overhead Press – 75 lbs.
Deadlift – 85 lbs.
Pull-ups – 5×5 weighted at 2.5 lbs. 6:5
Prone Bridges – 3×50 sec
Cardio – 11 minutes stationary bike

14.September.2009

Workout A

Squat – 130 lbs.
Bench Press – 110 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 75 lbs.
Dips – 5×5 weighted at 10 lbs. 6:17
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:30, 3:25
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

16.September.2009

Workout B

Squat – 135 lbs.
Overhead Press – 3×5 at 80 lbs. 2xF
Deadlift – 90 lbs.
Chin-ups – 5×5 weighted at 2.5 lbs. 6:2
Prone Bridges – 3×55 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

18.September.2009

Workout A

Squat – 125 lbs.
Bench Press – 115 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 80 lbs.
Dips – 5×5 weighted at 12.5 lbs. 6:18
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:30, 3:30
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

21.September.2009

Workout B

Squat – 130 lbs.
Overhead Press – 70 lbs.
Deadlift – 95 lbs.
Pull-ups – 1:10, 2:10, 3:4, 4:4, 5:3
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

23.September.2009

Workout A

Squat – 135 lbs.
Bench Press – 120 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 85 lbs.
Dips – 5×5 weighted at 15 lbs. 6:14
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:30, 3:20
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

25.September.2009

Workout B

Squat – 140 lbs.
Overhead Press – 75 lbs.
Deadlift – 100 lbs.
Chin-ups – 1:10, 2:10, 3:7, 4:3
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

28.September.2009

Workout A

Squat – 145 lbs.
Bench Press – 115 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 90 lbs.
Dips – 1:10, 5×5 weighted at 17.5 lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:30, 3:30
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

30.September.2009

Workout B

Squat – 135 lbs.
Overhead Press – 3×5 80 lbs., 4:3 80 lbs., 1×5 50 lbs.
Deadlift – 105 lbs.
Chin-ups – 5×5 2.5 lbs. 6:5
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

2.October.2009

Workout A

Squat – 140 lbs.
Bench Press – 120 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 95 lbs.
Dips – 1:5, 5×5 weighted at 20 lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:30, 3:30
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

5.October.2009

Workout B

Squat – 145 lbs.
Overhead Press – 70 lbs.
Deadlift – 110 lbs.
Pull-ups – 5×5 2.5 lbs. 6:3
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

7.October.2009

Workout A

Squat – 150 lbs.
Bench Press – 125 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 85 lbs.
Dips – 1:5, 5×5 weighted at 22.5 lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:30, 3:35
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

9.October.2009

Workout B

Squat – 135 lbs.
Overhead Press – 75 lbs.
Deadlift – 115 lbs.
Pull-ups – 5×5 5 lbs. 6:3
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

12.October.2009

Workout A

Squat – 140 lbs.
Bench Press – 115 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 90 lbs.
Dips – 1:5, 5×5 weighted at 25 lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:30, 3:35
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

14.October.2009

Workout B

Squat – 145 lbs.
Overhead Press – 5×4 80 lbs.
Deadlift – 120 lbs.
Chin-ups – 5×5 5 lbs. 6:3
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

16.October.2009

Workout A

Squat – 150 lbs.
Bench Press – 120 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 95 lbs.
Dips – 1:5, 5×5 weighted at 27.5 lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:30, 3:35
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

19.October.2009

Workout B

Squat – 155 lbs.
Overhead Press – 70 lbs.
Deadlift – 125 lbs.
Pull-ups – 5×5 7.5 lbs. 6:3
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

21.October.2009

Workout A

Squat – 140 lbs.
Bench Press – 5×4 125 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 85 lbs.
Dips – 1:5, 5×5 weighted at 30lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:30, 3:35
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

23.October.2009

Workout B

Squat – 145 lbs.
Overhead Press – 75 lbs.
Deadlift – 130 lbs.
Chin-ups – 5×5 7.5 lbs. 6:4
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

26.October.2009

Workout A

Squat – 150 lbs.
Bench Press – 115 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 90 lbs.
Dips – 1:5, 5×5 weighted at 32.5 lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:35, 3:20
Cardio – 45 mins. Stationary Bike

28.October.2009

Workout B

Squat – 155 lbs.
Overhead Press – 5×4 80 lbs.
Deadlift – 135 lbs.
Pull-ups – 5×5 10 lbs.
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

31.October.2009

Workout A

Squat – 160 lbs.
Bench Press – 5×4 120 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 95 lbs.
Dips – 1:5, 5×5 weighted at 35 lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:35, 3:30
Cardio – 73 min. Road bike, 10 min. Jogging

2.November.2009

Workout B

Squat – 145 lbs.
Overhead Press – 70 lbs.
Deadlift – 140 lbs.
Chin-ups – 5×5 10 lbs.
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

4.November.2009

Workout A

Squat – 150 lbs.
Bench Press – 115 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 100 lbs.
Dips – 1:5, 5×5 weighted at 25 lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:35, 3:40
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

6.November.2009

Workout B

Squat – 155 lbs.
Overhead Press – 75 lbs.
Deadlift – 145 lbs.
Pull-ups – 5×4, 1×3 12.5 lbs.
Prone Bridges – 3×30 sec, weighted at 25 lbs.
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

9.November.2009

Workout A

Squat – 160 lbs.
Bench Press – 120 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 105 lbs.
Dips –  27.5 lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:35, 2:35, 3:40
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike, 10 minutes jogging

11.November.2009

Workout B

Squat – 165 lbs.
Overhead Press – 80 lbs.
Deadlift – 150 lbs.
Chin-ups – 5 lbs.
Prone Bridges – 3×30 sec, weighted at 35 lbs.
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike, 10 minutes jogging

13.November.2009

Workout A

Squat – 150 lbs.
Bench Press – 4×5, 1×4 125 lbs.
Barbell Rows – 95 lbs.
Dips –  30 lbs.
Reverse Crunch – 1:35, 2:35, 3:10
Cardio – 1 hour road bike

Out of pure boredom I decided that I no longer wish to use the stationary bike at the gym, but rather outside on my bike instead.

16.November.2009

Workout B

Squat – 155 lbs.
Overhead Press – 4×5, 1×4 85 lbs.
Deadlift – 155 lbs.
Pull-ups – 5 lbs.
Prone Bridges – 3×30 sec, weighted at 45 lbs.
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

18.November.2009

Workout A

Squat – 160 lb.
Bench Press – 115 lb.
Barbell Rows – 95 lb.
Dips –  32.5 lb.
Reverse Crunch – 1:35, 2:35, 3:20
Cardio – 45 minutes stationary bike

20.November.2009

Workout B

Squat – 165 lbs.
Overhead Press – 75 lb.
Deadlift – 135 lbs.
Chin-ups – 7.5 lbs.
Prone Bridges – 3×30 sec, weighted at 35 lbs.
Cardio – 50 minutes road bike

21.December.2009

Workout A

Squat – 95 lb.
Bench Press – 95 lb.
Barbell Rows – 75 lb.
Dips –  15 lb.
Reverse Crunch – 1:20, 2:20, 3:20
Cardio – 2 hours road bike

OFFSEASON: alright, so I took a few weeks off here, not exactly voluntary, but I got the Flu so I had to take a while off anyway…I’ve been consistent with weight training since the end of January, but I’ve been to lazy to update my records. By now the main difference is that I’ve moved completely off the stationary bike and have transitioned fully into road cycling, as my knees feel better.

26.March.2010

Workout B

Squat – 155 lbs.
Overhead Press – 75 lb.
Deadlift – 140 lbs.
Chin-ups – 2.5 lbs.
Calf Raises – 90 lbs.
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec.
Reverse Crunch – 3×20
Cardio – 2.5 hours road bike – 45 miles

14.April.2010

Workout B

Squat – 170 lbs.
Overhead Press – 70 lb.
Deadlift – 160 lbs.
Pull-ups – 7.5 lbs.
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec.
Reverse Crunch – 3×20
Cardio – 2.5 hours road bike – 40 miles

16.April.2010

Workout A

Squat – 175 lb.
Bench Press – 120 lb.
Barbell Rows – 110 lb.
Dips –  45 lb.
Reverse Crunch – 1:30, 2:35, 3:35
Cardio – 2 hours road bike

Note: It’s been many months since I last updated, and from the end of May to November I had been off and on weightlifting. For the last two and a half months, however, I’ve been pretty consistent so here’s an update. I stopped keeping track of my cardio because I now treat it separately from strength training. I’ve also split the workouts over 6 days so I do two or three exercises per session, depending on the workout. My upper body has been lacking in development but I’ve been reaching new maximums for lower body exercises, probably due to cycling. I suppose when you gain something in one place, you lose it in another. Anyway, I don’t want my upper body to waste away so I’ll continue to work on it.

6.January.2010

Mixed Workout

Bench Press – 115 lb.
Squat – 170 lb.

7.January.2011

Workout A

Barbell Rows – 100 lb.
Dips –  42.5 lb.
Reverse Crunch – 1:25, 2:25, 3:30

9.January.2011

Workout B

Squat – 175 lb.
Overhead Press – 75 lb.
Deadlift – 165 lbs.
Pull-ups – 1:5, 2:5, 3:5, 4:5, 5:3
Prone Bridges – 3×60 sec.

24.July.2011

Current Stats as of today:

Squat: 205 lb.
Bench Press: 130 lb.
Overhead Press: 85 lb.
Deadlift: 200 lb.
Dips: 50 lb.
Barbell Rows: 115 lb.
Hang Cleans: 85 lb.
Pull-ups: 5 lb.

 

Posted in: Uncategorized

#8

20 August, 2009 4:47 PM / Leave a Comment /

Hey everyone,

I want to end this post on a high note so let me start with the bad news first: I’ve visited a few more doctors since the last time I updated and it turns out I am indeed hypermobile. It turns out that hypermobility syndrome could be a mild case of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which happens to be one of those vague connective tissue disorders that covers a wide spectrum of mild to severe and life threatening syndromes. Thankfully, I seem to have a really mild form of it since I’m not experiencing broken blood vessels or anything like that. Paganini happened to have it, which allowed him to have an amazing range of flexibility when playing the violin. Of course, the disease also hindered him, and he was pretty much sick for the most of his life, staying in bed for months at a time. An interesting thing to note is that he also suffered from a myriad of other sicknesses, such as tuberculosis, syphillis, scoliosis, and so on and so forth, and by the middle of his life he had lost all of his teeth and could only eat food after it was mashed into a fine paste. Amazingly, he was still able to pick up chicks after that!

So anyways, I had dabbled at the piano and viola maybe about 15 or so times since may, but the strange sensations started to return so I suppose I’m doing too much too soon. Basically, I have to wait for myself to age so that my joints get stiffer. In the meantime, I guess I should pick up a new hobby or something like that. When I was in highschool I used to do calligraphy, so I guess I should pick up where I left off. Here’s a sample of my handwriting from my notes from genetics class:

4716_1107760904098_1529070024_30449874_8345845_n

While it’s not perfect, I know that it’s pretty good compared to most of today’s handwriting so I have some promise here. This was done with a stiff nib fountain pen so it’s not exactly the best tool to use for handwriting. I got a hold of some dip pens with broad tip and flexible nibs, along with heavier paper which should yield better resluts. So if I feel like it I’ll post some of my work later on.

For the past 6 months or so I’ve been exercising a lot. I used to run until I hurt my ankle do to overuse I suppose. So now I’m just lifting weights and cycling, which I did competitively in high school. I’ll probably never compete again, but it’s a lot of fun and it keeps me in shape, so I’ll keep doing it until I can’t. I worked my way up to squatting aroud 200 pounds (I currently weigh 128), but sometime in July I realized that I had been using bad form, and I had only been squatting down to about 90 degrees, rather than a full squat, which goes below parallel. So I went back to just using the bar (45 pounds), and I adopted a new 5×5 program as well. More on that later. So now I go all the way down, and I’ve worked my way up to 100 pounds. It kind of sucks because going back to lighter weights makes you look like a wuss, but it’s better to look like a wuss than to get injured of course. I’ll work my way up to heavier weights anyways.

So now for the good news! I might have written in this in an earlier post, but I should mention that I’m currently in school and majoring in Actuarial Sciences (along with Economics, and another thing called “Plan II”). So in order to make it big in my profession, you need to pass about 10 or so professional examinations. These are administered on a pass/fail basis so you only need to pass, just like the Bar for the Law profession. Of course, it also helps if you get a high score, but the most important thing is that you pass. So in my profession, it’s like taking the Bar 10 times! So I took my first professional exam, called the P/1 test. It tests basic probability skills, and has roughly a 35% pass rate. It’s not as bad as it looks because the people who fail it fail spectacularly, while the people who pass often pass it with flying colors. It’s just that people think they’re good to go after having taken an intro probablity course, which doesn’t really give them the speed and accuracy that they need for the test. Anyways, I spent a couple months studying for the test and I passed! This is very good since it means I can get a job after I graduate. I plan on taking 2 more tests, the FM/2 and the M/3 exams before I graduate.

Posted in: Logs

4 May, 2009 5:28 AM / Leave a Comment /

Date: 03 May 2009

Practice Time: 1 hour

Material Practiced:

Scales: B-Major: 2-Octave Scale & Contrary Motion

Time Spent: 30 Minutes

Hanon: Review of Exercises 2&3

Time Spent: 15 Minutes

Pieces: Bach – Polonaise & Minuet

Time Spent: 15 Minutes

Comments: Hello everybody, today I practiced after taking yesterday off. I started with a cold opening of the Bach Polonaise. Everything went fine until I reached the last phrase, until I made a flub. I corrected it and it took me about 3 tries to play the piece through without any mistakes. I then went on to the scales and did the same routine as last time, except I was able to play the octave motion a little faster, and I mastered the contrary motion at 60 BPM, so next time I’ll try it at 80 BPM. I don’t really agree with Chang’s claim that the B-major scale is easier to play than the C-major scale – personally, I think while the B-major is a lot easier to play than it seems on paper, the black keys are still more slippery than the white ones so it’s harder to be accurate. After finishing up the scales I played about 15 minutes of Hanon, and then took a five minute break. Afterwards, I did some more repetitions of the Polonaise to reinforce my memory, and then I started to review the 2nd Minuet. I played slowly and made a lot of mistakes at first, but after a try or two I was able to play the first half of the piece at a reasonable tempo without mistakes, though I thought my articulation could use some work. Next time I’ll start on the second half of the piece to finish my review.

As for my hands, they’re ok, but my right index finger felt a bit weak today. It’s not nearly as bad as that weird feeling I felt back in the winter, but as a precation I don’t want to push it. So I may or may not play tomorrow, I’ll decide in the afternoon after watching the condition of that finger.

Posted in: Logs

2 May, 2009 5:59 PM / Leave a Comment /

Date: 01 May 2009

Practice Time: 1 Hour

Material Practiced:

Scales: Review of C-Major 2-Octave Scale, Contrary Motion, Motion in 3rds & 6ths, Triads, Cadences, 2-Octave Single-handed Arpeggios, and Dominant 7th Arpeggios. Also began work on 2-Octave B-Major Scale, along with Contrary Motion at 60 BPM.

Time Spent: 30 Min.

Hanon: Review of Exercises 1&2 @ 60 BPM.

Time Spent: 15 Min.

Pieces: Cold Practice of Bach Anh. 119

Comments: First of all I would like to thank all of my friends for their support on Facebook and otherwise in my recovery process!

I’m still taking it easy, limiting my practice time to about 1 hour. Today I’m not going to practice so that’ll give me an opportunity to rest  my hands. I began my session with a “cold” opening – which means I played a piece straight from memory without warming up. The purpose of this is to be prepared to play anything without the need to warm up. A musician should expect to do this a lot – to be called upon to play without being given an adequate amount of time to warm up. So I was able to play BWV Anh. 119 from memory without any mistakes, which was good.

I then began to work on my scales. I started with a review of C-Major, and it turns out in these months I’ve lost a lot of speed, but I still remember the patterns so I was able to build up my speed rather quickly since I didn’t have to relearn the finger patterns. So right now I can probably play around 60-70% of my maximum velocity.

Since my recovery is still in its early stages, I thought this would give me a chance to try something new. According to Chang, Chopin taught his students to play the B-major scale before the C-major scale. This seems counter-intuitive because the B-major scale uses all the black keys, which would make it seem like a relatively difficult scale. But according to Chang, this is not the case due to a few reasons: first, the black keys let you play with your fingers straight, whereas with the C-major scale you have to curl your fingers. Secondly, the motion of the thumb is in sync when playing the B-major scale, and the transitions happen at the same time in both the left and right hands, where as this is not the case in the C-major scale. Thirdly, the B-major scale lets the player practice the “thumb-over” motion, which is used to play fast passages during which one must use the thumb to reposition the hand.

So I decided to go straight to the B-major scale rather than review the G-Major and D-major scales. It was very interesting, indeed, I had to keep my fingers straight and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. contrary motion, though of course, was still pretty challenging since the thumb transitions aren’t in sync. Since I don’t have a teacher yet, I’m still don’t know for sure how the “correct” thumb-over motion is supposed to feel like, but the motion I felt was definitely different from the one I used on the C-major scale.

I closed my session with some Hanon, which was much like practicing the C-major scale, since I noticed that I still remembered the finger patterns, but I couldn’t play as fast as I had previously. So I kept the speed at 60 BPM, which is around 56% of the recommended maximum speed.

As for the condition of my hands, there was no pain, which was good. I did notice a little soreness in my right hand which probably came from fatigue. So, that’s why I’m taking the day off today. I don’t feel any of that soreness now, so I’m probably recovering, which is good.

Today is a double-post, so I’ll include the previous day’s practice below:

Date: 30 April 2009

Practice Time: 1 Hour

Material Practiced:

Scales: Review of C-Major 2-Octave Scale, Contrary Motion, Motion in 3rds and 6ths, Triads, Cadences, 2-Octave Arpeggios, and Dominant 7th Arpeggios.

Time Spent: 15 Minutes

Hanon: Review of Exercise 1

Time Spent: 15 Minutes

Pieces: Review of BWV Anh. 119 – Polonaise

Time Spent: 30 Minutes

Comments: So, this was the first day back to practicing. It was pretty much an impulsive choice, as after class was over I thought to myself, “Hey, I feel like practicing today!” So, I headed over to the music building, got myself a practice room, and started practicing scales. I didn’t bring my metronome with me so I guess my tempo was around 60 BPM. I played considerably slower, though I noticed that a lot of my muscle memory remained. I also reviewed my Hanon, and I made sure to keep it slow so I wouldn’t over exert myself. I also reviewed the Polonaise, which to my surprise, I still had memorized.

My hands felt pretty good, no pain, but my fingers still lock a little, but that doesn’t interfere with my playing, really. The main thing I’m worried about is just getting my confidence back, which I hope will come with time.

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1 May, 2009 2:06 AM / 1 Comment /

To my musician friends and teachers:

I suppose I should have made this public sooner, but I wasn’t sure about myself then, but I am now. I decided to tag all of you since as musicians, you of all people should have some understanding of what I’m going through. If you’re wondering where I’ve been all this time, you should know that I’ve been spending the semester rehabilitating some injuries that I sustained last year, and again about four months ago. Anyways, beginning sometime around March of 2008, I began to experience pain in both my shoulders along with a nasty grinding noise that accompanied the bowing motion of my arm. I honestly had no idea what was going on since I didn’t even practice that much – around 3 hours/day compared to the 12 hours/day that a few of my friends do. For the time  being, I just thought pain was something that musicians had to live with. I’ve heard that Pinchas Zukerman constantly takes Advil to ameliorate the constant pain that he has. So, I gutted it out for about 9 months until my viola playing deteriorated to an unacceptable level. At the time, my piano playing was still OK, so I called it quits on viola and started focusing on the piano.

Things were going great until I started feeling that weird feeling that I explained in the last post. Indeed,  I did practice the full 3 hours the day after, but I have since forgotten what material I played and how it sounded so I won’t update this blog with that information. Anyways, on that day I simultaneously dislocated the extensor tendons in five of my fingers. So, all of a sudden most of my daily tasks became very uncomfortable, such as typing, cooking, brushing my teeth and so on and so forth, so I decided to see a doctor. I first saw a doctor at the sports medicine clinic at UT, who decided to give me a few blood tests to rule out some common conditions that she suspected me to have. When I got the results back most of them were normal, but I had a speckled pattern of anti-nuclear antibodies, and I had a borderline ANA Titer of 1:40. In otherwords, the tests indicated a presence of abnormal antibodies in my blood. She suspected that I might be showing signs of early Rheumatoid Arthritis, a disease where the body’s immune system attacks it’s own connective tissue, such as tendons, ligaments, and cartilage, which could possibly explain the dislocations in my fingers.

So, I went to a Rheumatologist and she ran some more specific tests for RA and other autoimmune diseases. I remember being scared shitless after seeing the positive result on that last test. Thankfully the more specific tests showed normal levels, so the Rheumatologist concluded that I most likely didn’t have RA or the other diseases she tested me for, to my relief. She did say that the positive ANA Titer did leave me at risk for future autoimmune disorders, so I’d have to keep an eye on that.

About a month ago, I started feeling numbness in both my hands, legs, and face, so the Rheumatologist sent me to a Neurologist who did a nerve conductivity test to make sure my nerves were functioning properly. It was pretty cool I guess – she stuck a bunch of needles in my arms and legs and used a machine to control the movement of my fingers and toes using electrical currents.  So it turns out that I have Ulnar Nerve Entrapment along with Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome, to my surprise. We still have no idea if the numbness has anything to do with the dislocations in my hands so I’m still in the process of seeing doctors to get a diagnosis. Two weeks ago I started having vertigo, which still persistently annoys me.

I have a few speculations as to what’s causing all this, but I won’t know for sure until I get a diagnosis from a medical professional. For one thing, I’m a hypermobile person. This helps most musicians, but for some people it causes a lot of pain and difficulty. I can do a lot of things that most people shouldn’t – for example, I can bend all of my fingers backwards and make them touch my forearms. I can do the splits, and so on and so forth. I’ve read that hypermobile people do tend to suffer more from tendon dislocation and nerve entrapment than most people do. So maybe it’s that, but I don’t know. I saw a hand specialist over spring break and he said there was a surgery to correct the dislocations, but if I didn’t root out the cause of the problem, the dislocations would recur and I’d be back where I started. So, my current plans are to see another specialist in May to see if he can give me some insight. He’s the team doctor for the Houston Astros, and I heard he’s good. Pretty neat, huh?

So during the semester, I’ve spent most of my free time going to the gym to improve my muscular strength and stability. I also started doing cardiovascular exercise to improve my fitness as well. So I ended up having a lot of free time since I haven’t been in orchestra and haven’t been practicing. I got around to running about 7 miles/a day and feeling great until I hurt my ankle. I have no idea what that was but there was a lot of pain and grinding noise that came from my left ankle as I walked. So, in the meantime I started using the elliptical to maintain my cardio. I used to think it was a machine for women and unmanly men, but it’s actually harder than it looks. So, after my ankle healed I decided to go for a two mile run and that felt great, so the next day I did three miles, and the day after that I did three miles again. And then, I ended up getting shin splints so it’s been frustrating. My shins feel a lot better now, so I’ll probably go running again, but more gradually this time. Anyways, strength training has been great. I’ve seen good improvement in my shoulders and hands. My shoulders don’t hurt nearly as much as they did before and they’re almost back to normal. My fingers still lock in place but they’ve slowly been regaining their range of motion.

Today I decided to practice for the first time in a long time. I kept my session short – about an hour long, to test the waters. I practiced C-major scales, arpeggios chords, and cadences, along with a little bit of Hanon, and the Bach Polonaise. To my surprise, I still had it memorized. So there wasn’t any pain today, and I felt pretty good. Tomorrow I plan to play too, and I’ll still keep my practice session short. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get going again. Most people don’t know how playing an instrument can vastly improve your memory if you memorize everything you play. Last semester, my memory was so good that I was able to get all A’s without even studying. But this semester hasn’t been so good. I have to actually study and I’m making mistakes on my tests. But my grades are still relatively good.

Anyways, I’m just asking you all for your support and I’m eternally grateful to have had the opportunity to play with all of you when I was healthy. I understand that most people in the world don’t have the opportunity to play classical music, so I know that I should be grateful for the opportunities chance has given me. I miss it a lot though and I hope to get back to practicing soon.

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