Any athletic pianist in here?

[danny elfboy]

In my experience is very hard to find athletic pianists.
Pianists are usually a sedentary nerdy bunch and there's even the unsaid premise
that if you have time to build a strong body you can't have enough time to play the piano. So what we see are young kids who hit the gym, do gymnastics, soccer, volleyball, martial arts becoming athletes and young kids who have weekly piano lessons becoming pianists.

I'm definitely an exception.
I train intensively with weight 4 times a week and do interval training 3 times a week.
I maintain year round a body fat percentage of 8% and started a supervised weight lifiting program at 11. I have been involved in swimming and gymnastic national contests plus cycling, sprinting and soccer. Clearly I eat by consequence and my diet is 33/33/33 fat/carb/proteins and definitely clean except for once a week when I allow myself a pizza. I'm definitely a fitness nut by definition and yet I'm a pianist with a strong (so I'm said) music sensitivity and instinct.

As much as I have the admiration of other people I have the contempt of other musicians and piano students who either don't understand how can I reconcile sport and music or are just jealous. Anyway I was there thinking that I feel a bit isolated being so different from the typical sport guy and the typical pianist and would love to know someone I can share both my fitness passion and my music passion with and not just one or the other.

So fitness pianists of the world UNITE!

[ahinton]

In my experience is very hard to find athletic pianists.
Pianists are usually a sedentary nerdy bunch and there's even the unsaid premise
that if you have time to build a strong body you can't have enough time to play the piano. So what we see are young kids who hit the gym, do gymnastics, soccer, volleyball, martial arts becoming athletes and young kids who have weekly piano lessons becoming pianists.

I'm definitely an exception.
I train intensively with weight 4 times a week and do interval training 3 times a week.
I maintain year round a body fat percentage of 8% and started a supervised weight lifiting program at 11. I have been involved in swimming and gymnastic national contests plus cycling, sprinting and soccer. Clearly I eat by consequence and my diet is 33/33/33 fat/carb/proteins and definitely clean except for once a week when I allow myself a pizza. I'm definitely a fitness nut by definition and yet I'm a pianist with a strong (so I'm said) music sensitivity and instinct.

As much as I have the admiration of other people I have the contempt of other musicians and piano students who either don't understand how can I reconcile sport and music or are just jealous. Anyway I was there thinking that I feel a bit isolated being so different from the typical sport guy and the typical pianist and would love to know someone I can share both my fitness passion and my music passion with and not just one or the other.

So fitness pianists of the world UNITE!

And I thought that Percy Grainger was dead!...

Best,

Alistair

[franz_]

Check Gen on youtube.

[dnephi]

Koji is ripped...

[danny elfboy]

Check Gen on youtube.

Finally a pianist with muscles!
And I like how he avoids jacket, tie and all the other nonsense.
Now my connection is so slow I could only see the first 3 second so I'm not
sure whether he has talent or just muscles.

[irss]

I got black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Is it considered as athletic too? I play tenis and badminton as well.

Does anyone here know Maksim? He avoid wearing tie and blazer when performing. Not sure whether he is athletic or not.

[mephisto]

I play football and train judo aswell.

Became norwegian champion a few years ago. I guess if you play the piano 8 hours a day, you won't have time for much more.

[danny elfboy]

I play football and train judo aswell.

Became norwegian champion a few years ago. I guess if you play the piano 8 hours a day, you won't have time for much more.

But playing the piano 8 hours a day is useless and not just for a common sense factor but because of specific physiological and neurological raeasons. The fact that many people swear by those amount of hours spent at the piano as the reason of their skill is that they have never tried to practice less than that and more efficiently for a long period of time, if they did they would have noticed that cutting practice time doesn't decrease their progresses and proficency. There's a threshold by which the body stops and the brain stops being in a learning mode and are actually neurologically physiologically stressed and need time to elaborate the data, turn them into long term memory and make sense of them. That threshold is way below the 8 hours mark. I have time for more than piano and sport in my life as I have many passions like drawings, reading, listening to music, composing, travelling, collecting and watching movies ...

[danny elfboy]

I got black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Is it considered as athletic too? I play tenis and badminton as well.

Of course that's athleticism.
Even backpacking on sunday is "athleticism" compared to the strong sedentarity habits of the average pianist.

[Petter]

I don´t see why it should be a contradiction to do both sports and playing an instruments. Even ol´ Leonard Da Vinci recommended moderate physical exercise. Another thing that impress me about elite athlets (even very young ones) is their ability to analyze themself after a race, match etc. That´s something I think musicians benifit from aswell.

[gyzzzmo]

Used to play in the national basketball team, but had to give that up for serious pianoplaying. Basketbal+piano is a bad combo :p

[danny elfboy]

I don´t see why it should be a contradiction to do both sports and playing an instruments.

If you think about it though many people are biased against a pianist with muscles.
They see an athletic lean girls or guy with muscles and they think he/she must be superficial all muscle and no brain. Then you see them playing the piano with passion and skill and still, I'm sure, something just seems "out of place" to these people.
It's the problem of appareance which is the worst illusion ever.

[Petter]

I´m assuming it would be jelousy then. And if a predjudice against pianist with muscles exist I´m pretty sure it´s because of reversed psychology. After all the predjudice against people with no great looks is far more common.

[thalbergmad]

If you think about it though many people are biased against a pianist with muscles.
They see an athletic lean girls or guy with muscles and they think he/she must be superficial all muscle and no brain.

The conception that you cannot have muscles and brain seems to never go away. I have never understood it myself, as in order to train your body, you must train your mind as well or much effort will be wasted.

Whilst i have been athletic in the past, i never played the piano much when i was hard training. This is not because the two were contradictory, but because i always felt that both required and deserved 100% attention.

I see no reason why a pianist should not have great bodies, but due to the desire and effort required by both disciplines, I do not ever forsee anyone winning the Tscaikovsky and the Mr Olympia in the same year. Saying that, if memory serves, the great Albert Beckles was a rather good pianist and almost won the Olympia.

Thal

[pies]

a

[danny elfboy]

That's great!
We are a rare breed and we need an organization that protects us like the WWF for the fit pianists! Keep sharing your experiences, training, nutrition, sport successes and what not.

[timothy42b]

I don´t see why it should be a contradiction to do both sports and playing an instruments.

Ha!

Pianists are such snobs that a classically trained one won't even play jazz.

And you think they wouldn't be prejudiced against getting all muddy and sweaty? 

Doh! 

[pies]

a

[pies]

a

[dnephi]

How are your thoracic trapezii?

And can you clearly distinguish between  Pec Minor N Major, etc.?

[pies]

a