03 June 2009

The end of near

And here we are, the mighty month of June, hinting the arrival of the mid-way point of 2009. It's fascinating how these "dates" act as some sort of miracle turning point for a lot of people. Like new years suddenly empowers thousands to change their ways, all in a day. I admit, I'm one of them, but I often use it as an excuse to make changes. Kind of like I tell myself "alright man, it's a new year, a new mind-set and a new level of success" rather than "ok ok I'm going to do this starting 1 Jan!" the thing is, and if you read my previous posts near the new years' time, I often like to do a new years test run of all my resolutions for a few weeks to work out the kinks of everything before I really go with the "ok starting 1st Jan, I want to..." chant.

Speaking of chanting and repetitions, I've been continuously doing a lot of research about fitness and healthy eating and it feels good to get to a point a lot of the books seem to be repeating themselves. That means I've fully got the concept behind a lot of this. Of course, there's still a lot to learn, but the point is, I can now confidently plan out my meals, my workouts, etc. knowing exactly why I have to do everything. I mean, I've been studying factors such as how fast/slow you should lift a weight as well as let it down. In fact, after knowing all this, a lot of things make sense. I can even feel differences in my body and it no longer is "oh I feel sore", but it's a different type of sore. It's like I've better understood the different types/levels of soreness through understanding the reason behind this soreness. Like now, I'm in a phase of "slow tempo lifting" where I'm working my slow-twitch fibers and this often depletes the glycogen stored in your muscles much more, requiring your body to refuel with more glycogen, thus filling up your muscles more and making them bigger. I wake up feeling sore because I feel like my muscles are empty. After a hearty breakfast, I'm back to normal. The funny thing is, I realize now the benefits of this workout and to be honest, from a strength point of view, this isn't the best choice because I'm neglecting my fast-twitch fibers and eventually I'll be weaker than before. Partly because I'm lifting lighter weights and doing it slower. As they say, lift slow and become slow. But aren't your muscles getting bigger? Yes, that's true, but they're getting less efficient, in other words, my mind-muscle connection isn't being trained. Tell me to punch a guy, and I'll probably not be too forceful. It's a funny reality we live in.

I've found the best way I can improve is to understanding why I improve. Much like how I spent time learning about muscle-memory, I've seen my drumming skills improve a lot ever since I conciously understood why I was practicing a certain way. Sure I wish I had more than 30mins to an hour a day (at most) to practice, but it's still good enough. Oddly, drumming is all about the mind-muscle connection so training my muscles to get bigger helps my drumming in almost no way if you ask me, however, it does help boost my self-confidence, which in turn will boost my on-stage image/vibe and thus probably help my drumming in the end. However, it still comes down to plain ol' practicing in this field.

For comedy, this is yet another thing, body language, voice, tone, expression, etc. all combined! I'm hoping to do a one-man English show this year and it'll probably be at the end of August. I'm not sure if I can make it by then, but that's the goal for now. I've got 10 days to confirm this with myself and get to it. I've been constantly gathering ideas and stuff but haven't had a chance to refine any of them, but it's alright, an idea-gathering phase is very important in itself anyway. So I'll let you know what's going on there in my next post.

And this brings me to my point of being in the middle of 2009. I can see where I was on 1 Jan and where I am on 2 June. It's a good progress, kind of like this year has been a time for me to answer all my "why is it like this" questions, and hopefully the rest of 2009 will be for me to fulfill the "do it like this" part. :) So here's to another 10 days of achievements and successes to everyone :) Enjoy!

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4 Comments:

Anonymous mina said...

hahah
你真係好鐘意健身....睇你日記,做健身都有可以有咁多學問...勁^^

你成日on diet,你真係好有自制能力,我就唔得啦...見到好野就係咁食...

係啦,你暑假有乜做???會唔會plan吓去旅行??

08 June, 2009 02:59  
Blogger Vivek Mahbubani said...

Thanks for your comments Mina. Well I'm not "on a diet" in the sense I'm trying to stop myself from eating, it's just I like to know what I eat all the time :P As they say "you are what you eat" ;)

Though I have a weakness for desserts, I can't say no! Hhehe.

Oh this summer? Actually I'll be going to Europe, my cousin is getting married! Wahoo, Europe here I come!! :D What about you?

08 June, 2009 14:52  
Anonymous mina said...

"you are what you eat" 我乜都食,咁我真係唔知自己係乜啦= =

恭喜哂你cousin呀!!!我哥哥都係今年結婚!
你去到賀,駛唔駛做人情???

去歐洲邊個國家? 我一直都好想去梵蒂岡~~(vatican city)

咁你幾時出發同去幾耐??小心豬流感喔~~我會為你祈禱的...玩得開心啲!

我岩岩考哂試,暑假岩岩開始咗,依家籌備71 march主題,8月中會去澳門開1個為期1星期的conference,去到8月尾我要幫手搞學校份學生報,成個假期都係要不斷開會,得閒我會去睇戲,hea揾part time囉,haha

11 June, 2009 00:16  
Blogger Vivek Mahbubani said...

Ahaha well then I guess if you eat tasty food you are... tasty ;)
Ohh vatican city, I saw it in the movie "angels and demons" looks very grand, but i guess one day. I do want to travel around the world!! I guess I'm starting with my trip to Spain in the beginning of August. It's going to be a 3 week trip! Woah!!
Well good, it's good summer hlidays have started, everyone's mood changes because everyone is relaxed ahah and enjoy the hot hot hot hot (too hot) sun!
Ahah yea, do a bit of part-time, make some money so you can really enjoy the summer :)

12 June, 2009 07:18  

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