It would be nice if this were obvious

[nancylebov]

First link (thus, a pointer to the rest of a sensible blog) thanks to nhw.

I was recently revisiting some material by physical therapist and athletic trainer Grey Cook. He was talking about why you shouldn’t try to build strength on top of dysfunctional movement patterns. Roughly speaking that means that if your body is out of balance and isn’t moving the way it should be, then stressing it by shifting big weights without first addressing the problem will only make things worse. Link

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When you’re sailing, you can’t just decide “right, I’m going to go over there” and head straight for your destination. No act of will enables you to sail straight into the wind, and if it’s a still day then you find yourself stuck. To some extent, you’re at the mercy of the wind and the waves and if (like me!) you don’t know much about sailing - well, you stay that way. The more you understand about the boat, the weather and how the two work together, the more you can find a course that will get you to where you want to be.

The same way, I get so much more done when I work with my mind and body, rather than trying to force it to where “I” want to be with an act of will. Whenever I work against myself, whether it’s training every day for two weeks without a day off, trying to revise for an exam at 2 am the night before, operating on four hours sleep a night, or in a hundred more subtle ways…. there always comes a point when no amount of willpower will get me very far. Link

Comments

[captain-button.livejournal.com]

OTOH, that reinforces the basic dysfunctional pattern of "It is too complicated and difficult to do it right, so don't do anything."

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Good point. And sometimes you have to take risks, and you can't always know in advance how high they are.

I'm not sure where the balance is. For an interesting take on some of the issues, see Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner. It's actually about the sort of hard work it takes to eliminate inappropriate effort from playing music.