When I was shooting the videos for Bulletproof Athlete (the Week 13 recovery video, to be exact), I made a promise:
When I was done creating and launching BPA, I was going to start taking guitar lessons.
Growing up, I played the piano for almost eight years, and I’d like to think I had gotten pretty darn good.
But as I approached high school and my love for athletics grew, my ability to get to piano lessons and practice as much as necessary just wasn’t happening.
That was almost 20 years ago, and while I haven’t picked up an instrument since, my love for music has never waned.
So last year, my awesome wife bought me a gift certificate for guitar lessons, and with everything we had going on life, I haven’t had time to cash it in until now.
I must say, the entire process has been eye opening for me.
There’s just so much overlap between playing the guitar and training, I could draw comparisons all day.
I think the best part for me, is that it’s reminded me of a lot of the lessons that I now take for granted.
It’s role reversal – the teacher/coach (me) is now the student, albeit in a different environment.
Here are a five lessons that I feel strongly correlate between physical preparation and playing the guitar.
Get a Coach
The first similarity is rather straightforward.
If you want to get better at something, find a quality coach.
Working with a coach fast-tracks your progress. In my case, if I’m going to do something I want to have the resources necessary to be successful.
I’m kind of OCD in that way – I really struggle to do things “for fun.” It’s great for business and personal development, as that constant drive is always there to push you to succeed.
But it can be a curse when it comes to more leisurely activities. That’s why I’ve never gotten serious about golf in the past – I’m so damn competitive I know it would consume my life!
When we talk about finding a coach, “the Internet” probably isn’t the best coach, either.
Can some people be successful learning how to play guitar or training via the Internet?
Absolutely!
But I would also argue that for every person who is successful learning in that fashion, 10-20 times more would plug along and not really see the type of progress they’d expect. Or they’d flat out quit because frustration would set in.
For example, last week I had a new couple start training with me at IFAST. There goal was to get stronger, and they were following one of your standard powerlifting programs.
While their technique was pretty good, within an hour we had made significant improvements in every big lift.
The bottom line is there’s really no substitute for live, in-person feedback.
And furthermore, there’s really no substitute for someone more knowledgeable than you showing you the ropes, so that you can get better, faster.
Practice, Practice, Practice
The second key is one I’m sure you’ve heard before.
Practice, practice, and more practice.
(Unless of course you’re Allen Iverson…)
But I digress.
There’s really no substitute for practice. And whether you believe in Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule or not is somewhat irrelevant.
The people that practice their skills the most will typically end up being the best in class.
If you want to be great at playing guitar, you need to play the guitar.
If you want to be great at squatting, bench or deadlifting, you need to get squat, bench or deadlift more.
If you want to get great at shooting a basketball, hitting a baseball, or throwing a football, you do those things as often as you can.
The tricky part when it comes to strength or power training is that while more exposure is good, there’s definitely a line in the sand where technique and performance will drop.
As Dan John says, “If it’s important, do it every day.”
This is where a Pavel “Grease the Groove” style workout would serve you well.
You can squat every day (and some can even squat “heavy” every day), but at least in the beginning start light and build up from there.
Fail Fast
When you’re practicing, you have to get comfortable with one ugly truth:
You’re going to fail.
In fact, you’re going to fail a lot.
And you have to be comfortable with that. Because if you don’t, it’s going to drastically halt your progress.
When you’re picking your guitar, you’re going to hit the wrong note. That’s ok. Go at it again. Keep working at it.
If you’re lifting weights or working on a move or skill, you’re going to screw up.
Technique is going to break down.
But you have to keep drilling, keep working at it, if you want to be successful.
Here’s another quote that I’ll paraphrase to build my point:
You’ll learn more from your failures than your successes.
If I’m learning a basic chord shape, and I hit every single not perfect, that’s awesome.
But if one of the notes is off, I know something is wrong with my hand placement, and I need to adjust or tweak something.
That kind of feedback is invaluable.
It’s the same way when working out. If you’re struggling with a specific lift, this is a great time to gather feedback and critically analyze what you’re doing wrong.
Don’t get me wrong – it feels awesome to just smoke a weight because you have everything dialed in and moving the way you want.
But often it’s the lifts that you struggle with, or downright screw up that give you the best feedback going forward.
And keep in mind, when I talk about “failing” I’m not talking about missing lifts. From a lifting perspective, what I’m more interested in is technical failure, versus muscular failure. (More on this topic in my previous Clean Volume Concept article.)
Build on the Basics
I really like my guitar teacher, personally.
He’s a tad eccentric, and has a story for everything, but he’s a really good guy and time flies when I’m working with him.
But you know the thing that really sold me on his approach?
It’s damn near identical to mine!
You know how I’m always on here talking about mobility, stability, quality movement, etc.?
It’s for a reason – because that’s how you build bigger movements like squats, deadlifts, and overhead presses.
Or taking that out to the field, those basics give you the ability to run, jump, and cut safely and effectively.
In my guitar lesson, the first three or four sessions have been geared around the fundamentals.
Chord shapes.
Scales.
All of the things that are absolutely critical for me to play well later on, we’re drilling time and again.
The concept I always come back to is building a foundation.
Just like you build a foundation in physical development, or playing the guitar, there’s an almost universal process to skill development.
Could he have just given me a sheet of music and had me start playing?
Sure – and I can see the immediate gratification in that approach.
But I wouldn’t have the necessary skills to build from that. I’d know how to play that one song, but I wouldn’t know how to read music, what other chord shapes are out there (or how to play them), and a host of other technical issues.
At it’s core, you need to break things down to their most fundamental level, and build back up from there.
Another analogy would be taking your care apart, laying all the pieces out on the floor, and then putting it back together to see how this works.
Doing this allows you to develop the foundation to not only be successful now, but well into the future.
You Can’t Replace Time
I’ve only been playing the guitar for four weeks now, but I’m really enjoying it thus far. It’s one of the few things I’ve found in my life that allows me a bit of peace; to really shut my brain down and just relax.
So obviously, I’m kicking myself for not starting to play sooner.
All this reminds me of a Chinese proverb that I love which goes something like this:
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today.”
If you’re serious about getting bigger, faster, stronger, or becoming a better athlete, starting 5-10 years ago would have been great.
But you can’t make up for that time. It’s gone, and you have to let it go.
Instead, focus on what you can control, which is the here, now and today.
I’m not beating myself up over not starting sooner. 5-10 years ago I was either working incessantly, or building a business.
Today, I realize that I need better balance in my life. So even though I have less time now than I did then, something like this is a bigger priority.
And while I won’t belabor the point here, that’s another big takeaway.
If it’s important to you, make it a habit. Do it everyday. Schedule time to get it done.
Summary
My quest to play the guitar is just beginning, but it’s been a great learning experience.
More importantly, it’s been incredibly gratifying.
Whether your goal is to play the guitar, get into ridiculous shape, or something in between, I hope you can take some of the universal principles I’ve outlined above to help you see faster and more lasting success.
All the best
MR