amtrpt

Hi all,
This week I had two Pilates lessons. One was private and the other was a semi-private with my wife. She has been doing Pilates for about a year and a half and she just raves about it so I finally went. It was really interesting to me because it deals with isolating the right muscles for the right jobs. It was the isolating part that really got me. We tend to use muscles in the wrong way quite a bit and because of that we are essentially limiting what we can do physically. Does this sound familiar to anyone when dealing with the trumpet? It does to me. How many of us sometimes compensate with chest or throat muscles in order to play higher or louder? Isolating the correct muscles for the correct job is another way of defining efficiency on the trumpet.
I'm wondering if anyone else has tried Pilates and if they recognized the same things, or different things that could be related to the trumpet. Regardless it was an interesting experience and I would defintely recommend giving it a try if possible.
I hope everyone is enjoying the summer.

Best,
Andrew

ps. Here is a definition of Pilates for those of you aren't familiar with it.
The Pilates Method (or simply Pilates), pronounced /pɪˈlɑ:ti:z/ is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates.[1] As of 2005 there are 11 million people who practice the discipline regularly and 14,000 instructors in the United States.[2]
Pilates called his method Contrology, because he believed his method uses the mind to control the muscles.[3] The program focuses on the core postural muscles which help keep the body balanced and which are essential to providing support for the spine. In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of breath and alignment of the spine, and aim to strengthen the deep torso muscles.

trumpetnick

Andrew, I never heard of that "Pilates" stuff...can you elaborate a bit more?

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amtrpt

trumpetnick,
It's a little hard to explain exactly what it is. Here is a pretty good definition. I'll add this to the original post as well.


The Pilates Method (or simply Pilates), pronounced /pɪˈlɑ:ti:z/ is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates.[1] As of 2005 there are 11 million people who practice the discipline regularly and 14,000 instructors in the United States.[2]

Pilates called his method Contrology, because he believed his method uses the mind to control the muscles.[3] The program focuses on the core postural muscles which help keep the body balanced and which are essential to providing support for the spine. In particular, Pilates exercises teach awareness of breath and alignment of the spine, and aim to strengthen the deep torso muscles.


I hope that is helpful.

Andrew

Huggy Bear

Hey there Andy Macalicious.....

You're in luck....Huggy's "Mom" is a certified Pilates instructor. What are the odds? It's hard stuff, Fo' Shizzle! ANy questions you have Huggy can answer. My "Mom" has found it very useful in her job as a "dancer".

But.....I'm not sure how useful it is in Trumpet....look at how fat trumpet players are that sound great. Rick Baptist. Herseth. Malcolm McNab.

Love,
Huggy

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Laid back....with my mind on my money and my money on my mind.....Tight! And where's my BLING, my Peeps?

MJ

Seems like all the hot actresses do this stuff in Hollywood.

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carteru93

Come on, do you think Maynard got any exercise in his life?

Schwab

Maybe A-Mac is considering a career change?

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rowuk

a lot more than most people give him credit for. Yoga is HARD work. That it worked for him was proven by his playing ability even at an advanced age.

It seems like any of these "awareness" workouts can heighten our experience, maybe not by addition, rather like Andrews post about finding out all of the WRONG things that are happening. That is what yoga has done for me - removed a lot of waste.

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Vulgano Brother

I was able to go through a series of training with Kathryn Linehan, (who teaches at Pepperdine when not hanging out in Seattle) at my church on Seattle's Capitol Hill, one of the weirder parts of the country. It is, well, gee--hard to put in a non-offensive way, a "Christian" version of Yoga, with all those moves and spiritual stuff, but without cats and crystals and new-agey ferns.

The training did include cute girls in spandex, too.

For info, check out: Studio Ignite : : be transFORMed

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amtrpt

Rowuk,
I'm really glad that you brought up yoga. I haven't tried it, but I would think you could get a lot of the same things from it. I also really liked how you described my earlier thoughts. I think it makes a lot more sense the way you said it. A kind of addition through subtraction.
Thanks.
Andrew