Specificity and Wandering
I thought I would include a few of my specific creative sessions over the years. I will share them in their original form, so you can see how things unspooled, and have extra commentary in a highlighted color. If you are wondering what it looks like when I do it. It is not meant to be dogma, but my own personal flavor. I hope everyone eventually learns to follow their own creative impulses. Be wary of making anyone but yourself a guru of your growth.
As I started into messing around in this creative space, this is what came out.
Body Story of Wandering
-two roads diverged in a wood, do we celebrate or criticize the wanderer? Do we find value in wandering spiritually, or do we take the path we are told is the one all should take? My father, wanderer of waste places(desert), wandering around the gym space versus a concrete plan, discovery and autonomy…
There you go. I just sat down and did a little musing before I wandered. The word wander came to me, and I followed it. How did that end up going physically? As I carried plates around the room, I would stop and see two roads before me, take a big breath, and take the path, not the road. As I did the chest fly, I would occasionally allow one arm to wander left without having the other arm go right. I did the leg press and looked up at the ceiling and let my vision wander over the ceiling, pipes, fans, etc. All the while I am doing the reps. I would carry a kettle bell somewhere, place it down, pick it up, and immediately wander somewhere else to do the same. I put a ten pound plate on a smaller bar, carefully adjusted it onto my right shoulder, and imagined it was one of those hobo knapsacks you used to see in cartoons. I walked around. I just kept good posture and slow walked, almost sauntered in slow motion. At some point the knapsack became a weapon of some sort that I held and moved in front of me. I forgot the theme, and just started messing around. That’s what play should look like. I worked out for 75 minutes and had a smile on my face by the end. Creativity brings rewards that 3 sets of 15 reps does not bring, and I was for sure sore the next day. I did what I wanted to do, and there was discovery of using familiar equipment in a new way. When in doubt I just wandered to a piece of equipment, didn’t question why I went to it, and figured out how to use it and play with it.
Where would specificity come in? My wandering tramp didn’t have a name. Could I have given him one while I walked? Could I have been wandering down a railroad track? Specificity can make the stakes higher and environment more rich. Which in turn can have subtle, nuanced effects on the muscles used and how they are used.
This has been the case throughout my own sessions. Doing an exercise on the cable machines feels different when the story behind it is control versus freedom, and padding the imagery with specifics heightens the experience itself. The body always comes along.
Case in point. One day, I decided to do the body story of crime. This is what it looked like.
Body Story of Crime
-arsonist of the original temple of Artemis, crime as fame(Chicago murderesses, OJ Simpson), Jean Valjean, pickpockets, safecracker, cat burglars, cyber crime?, crime paying dividends, sneaking up on something, planning a heist, moving with frightening calm, like a cat.
So that is what came out when I mused on it. In practice, I pretended to sneak up, light a torch, and light something on fire. I pretending I was climbing the outside of a mansion or art gallery to pilfer something. I would kneel down while I had cables in my hands and lean in to listen while I tried to crack an imaginary safe. With dumbbells in push-up position I tried sneaking cautiously across the floor(under the lasers). I tried to make some of my movements feline. I set a kettle bell around a corner and practiced trying to retrieve it gently. As Jean Valjean, I carried my loaf of bread. Holding a plate over my head, I practiced getting in and out of a car(weight bench), and walking through a door quickly, as though I were someone famous being arraigned in court. I sat in a wall squat as though I was in jail suffering from the consequences of bad choices. At one point I just did chest presses, but imagined that I was a mob assassin. I remembered when I myself had sat in jail years ago and I reflected on the powerlessness and fear I felt. I pretended I was trying to take tires off a car, the tires being a 45 pound plate. All the while, I was getting really great physical work done. The creativity made it refreshing and stimulating. Do I plan on committing crimes? No, it was just a way to explore physical movement.
Finally, here are a few more examples I will just leave without explanations, in the form they started with. Come join me to discover more.
Body Story of Reach
-lots of reasons for reaching, a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, reaching a decision, heroic reaching, crisis reaching, reaching to catch something or to catch onto something, all sorts of great storytelling, reaching a destination, reaching the end, reaching the point of no return, reaching a high shelf, reaching Mt. Doom, reaching the promised land.
Body Story of Protest
-watching John Lewis on tv and remembering my own walk across the Edmund Pettis bridge, advancing and retreating, only to advance again, facing out and into danger, pressure and drive, solo protests, Greta Thunberg, the Capitol riots, les miserables, my protest of the church at times, arms raised, fists pumping, gathering together, forces working against you, quiet protests, sitting, occupying space, holding signs, throwing rocks/Molotov cocktails,
