The Bobby Rock Newsletter #107 (9-20-23) - Get Your "Activation" On!
The Bobby Rock Newsletter #107 (9-20-23) - Get Your "Activation" On!
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Hey Kids -
Checking in from the road this week, somewhere in Pennsylvania, right in the middle of that 8-shows-in-10-days run I mentioned last week. Is it a grind? Sure. But it's a familiar grind, and I still find the lifestyle as exhilarating as I did 40 years ago. I don't take that lightly!
We have a full edition for you this week, so let's jump right into it...
In This Issue:
- Activation! What is it, and why do so many high-performers live by it?
- Celebrating 47 years of sobriety: Yes, it's been a minute since I've indulged.... but I personally wouldn't have it any other way.
- On the Road with Lita Ford: A few highlights from this current run...
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Get Your "Activation" On!
I've always found the journeys of pro athletes and touring musicians to be similar: we have to show up, at a particular place on a specific date, and deliver a top-notch, professional performance that involves highly-tuned skills of both mind and body… whether we happen to feel like it or not. For this reason, I've studied the training protocols and rituals of athletes through the years, then integrated some of those ideas—and that ethos—into my own trip: especially since my lifestyle tends to walk the line between athletics and musicianship.
A few weeks back, I was out with Lita and the gang, playing a show in Idaho. The band, Vixen, was also on the bill, and during my first workout of the day at the hotel, I saw both Lorraine Lewis (lead vocals) and Britt Lightning (guitar) at the gym. No surprise there: the Vixen girls don't fuck around. I've seen them at other hotel gyms through the years. But it was just the three of us in the place, and after a quick hello, we all put in our earbuds and got into our respective workouts.
I was listening to a YouTube lecture from author/speaker, Bo Eason—a former pro football player who knows a thing or two about peak performance. (Check out his kick-ass book, There's No Plan B For Your A-Game. The audiobook, in particular, is exceptional.) He was talking about how pro football players don't usually make the big bank until their second or third contract, but that, statistically speaking, there was one key factor that separated the highest earners from the rest of the pack: they all got to the workout facility earlier than everyone else... sometimes even before it officially opened.
Why? So they could get a jump on their activation: that magical state of physical awakening when the blood starts flowing, the neurons start firing, and the lungs start churning... as the synovial fluid lubes the joints, the muscles heat up, and that blissful cocktail of brain drugs (including dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine) rushes through the veins.
This level of activation… of thorough engagement and full-body preparation, is a prerequisite to peak performance… to doing our absolute best. It is well documented how many of the greatest athletes in the world get a jump on their activation so they can stay ahead of the curve for the day’s activities. Big ballers like (football great) Jerry Rice and (basketball great) Kobe Bryant would often snag a two-plus hour, sweat-soaked leap on their teammates before they all showed up to practice or a game "on time." By then, Rice and Bryant were already deep into their activation process, and usually outperforming their sluggish compadres who were just beginning theirs.
So, as I was listening to this, it hit me: we are several hours away from soundcheck, and seven or eight hours away from showtime... and yet.... look at us: the Vixen girls and I were already activating! I had to say something, so I pulled out my buds and told Britt and Lorraine about what I was listening to. We all got a big kick out of the serendipity at hand, so we took a quick pic to document the moment, then carried on with our workouts.
Activation buddies!: Lorraine on the left, Britt on the right...
The Activation Process
I have several different activation routines I rotate on show days, depending on a number of factors: Is it a travel day? Is it a running day? Which body parts will I be hitting at the gym? Is it a decent hotel gym (where I can easily enjoy multiple visits) or will I have to seek out a different gym elsewhere? And, of course, how fried am I? (Yes, sleep and recovery are also critical, so on some days, the "activation" begins a bit later!)
Also, there's usually a lot of practice pad work thrown in leading up to the downbeat of a show. I use 3S sized drumsticks (the largest available) with stick-weights on them, and start swinging those big bitches around from the moment I roll out of bed. This continues intermittently throughout the day, as I'll do both rudimental work on the pad, but also lots of "air drumming" movements to get the arms and shoulders loose. It's not uncommon for me to accrue a couple hours of this kind of practice before a show.
A familiar sight on the road...
At the gym, I like to ease into the training with some light dumbbells and other easy movements, until I break a light sweat, and then I'll do a little stretching. (I never stretch "cold" muscles: Always better to do some light lifting or cardio first, if only for five or ten minutes.) From there, I will sometimes go into my full lifting routine, or I might come back and lift later if it's going to be a daytime run. Every day is a little different.
Activation: In Context
On this day in question, I happened to document my other two workouts via video (for social). First, I did a light workout in the gym (with Britt and Lorraine), then did a 6-mile run:
Played the show that evening. (Here's a taste of the solo that night...):
After the show, I returned to the gym sometime after midnight and did chest, triceps, shoulders, and abs:
It was a good day!
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What About You?
In developing your own "Activation" protocol, here are a few questions to ask:
- What are my top warm-up activities for both mind and body? (And yes, caffeine counts here if you are a coffee or energy drink person.)
- What are those activation activities I can do even if there are no facilities available (gym gear, etc.)?
- What is my quickest or most efficient path to activation if I'm short on time?
- If I have to activate in the early AM (which we musicians typically do not!), what can I do the night before to ensure maximum quality sleep/recovery? (Ex: Shut off all electronics at least an hour before bedtime, go to bed on an empty stomach, etc.)
Final Thought
You don't have to be an athlete, musician, or stage performer to work on your activation game. This idea of kick-starting your mind and body into peak state can serve you well in virtually any profession. Scope it out!
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47 Years Sober!
Last week, on September 14th, I had the good fortune to celebrate another year of sobriety. 47 is not a particularly sexy benchmark (compared to 40, 45, or especially 50!), but hey, I do like to acknowledge the date and reflect on how different my life would be—or if I would even still be around—had things gone another way.
For both my 40th and 45th sobriety anniversaries, I took some time to more fully document my sobriety journey on my blog. So today, I will share a few links and brief excerpts from the 40th, as it provides the most detailed overview of the journey...
Posted on September 14, 2016
King Edward cigars ...because just smoking cigarettes wasn't bad enough for my young lungs!
I sobered up at a place called the Palmer Drug Abuse Program (PDAP) in Houston, TX. It was a transformative experience for me. Here's an excerpt on that:
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A Life Anew
I went to at least two meetings a week and was an active member of the group for a solid four years. About 10 months in, somewhere around my 14th birthday, I was asked to be on the Steering Committee, which meant that I would actually be involved with leading some of the “breakaway” meetings on Wednesdays. It also involved a deeper dive into one’s internal psyche, as we would all meet twice a month for a more intense “purpose” meeting amongst ourselves and the counselors.
Around this time was also my first foray into public speaking. Occasionally, a few of us would accompany one of our counselors to an area junior high or high school and speak before an assembly. We would tell our personal stories and make a case for the sober lifestyle. (I would go on to do a number of these kinds of talks through the years.)
Here I am in 10th grade, with a PDAP Absolutely Free T-shirt and my ever-present monkey’s fist necklace; the iconic PDAP symbol of sobriety (awarded to members after 30 days clean). We would also tie additional knots in them to denote each successive month of sobriety:
In retrospect, being that heavily involved in PDAP was a rare opportunity for accelerated personal growth, the likes of which is almost unexplainable… unless you were actually there. I mean, this was the 70s, the apex of the personal development movement, where we were evolving beyond the pseudo-hippy, Eastern-tinged philosophies of the 60s, and now into a more streamlined stew of spirituality, psychology, and self-help that was rocketing into the mainstream. And here we all were, at fucking 14, 15, and 16 years of age, really and truly entrenched in this material for real; challenging ourselves and each other to walk the talk, to live these philosophies; to journal, meditate, seek deeper spiritual understandings; to commune with the Divine in ways that defied some of the rigid religious precepts most of us had grown up with; and even to try and forgive – an especially tough challenge for some of the members who had really fucked-up home lives.
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And here's a case for sober living:
Making the case...
...speaking from the perspective of my personal journey – being sober has been the single most critical game-changer for me. Why? Because without the distraction of partying through the years, I have naturally focused all of my turbo-charged addictive-personality energy into more positive pursuits: serious amounts of practice, weight-training and running, a healthy diet, lots of reading, and other activities that have played a key role in my personal evolution. I just don’t know how you can effectively engage in a lot of these kinds of things while getting blitzed all the time… especially in the meditation/self-reflection realm.
“…an evening of positive messages and blazing drum solos!” That’s what the fuck I’m talking about, people!
On that note, I guess I would have to mention this idea that, indeed, “the mind is a terrible thing to waste.” It is, quite literally, your most valuable asset. So why would we want to fry all of those brain cells and jumble up all of those precious neural connections? I mean, if we watched someone at a dojo or boxing gym regularly spar without headgear, and observed them taking blow after blow to the head, we would wonder what the fuck their problem was. Why are you taking all of those senseless shots to the head in training? Protect yourself, idiot! And yet, to some degree, this is what we are doing with long-term use of drugs and alcohol.
The same could be said for the body. Man, I’ve led a life of serious physical exertion. The training, the touring, the toils of road living… often on minimal sleep and whacked traveling conditions. Again, I don’t see how this happens when you’re ingesting a lot of toxins.
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Read the entire post HERE.
And you can scope my 45-year sobriety blog here:
Posted on September 14, 2021
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On the Road with Lita Ford
We've been having a blast out here this summer! I'll leave you with a few random clips and pics from this past week:
Soundcheck view from the Plymouth Motor Speedway near South Bend, IN last Friday:
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And here's a short solo excerpt from that show. (By the way, whenever you see me posting vids or pics of the audience during the drum solo.... this is what it looks like on-site!)
(shot by Teddy Allison)
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End-of-Show perspective last Sat. night at the Brown County Music Center in Nashville, IN. This was a rockin’ crowd!
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Closing out a little “Close My Eyes Forever” action from Sunday night's hit at the Greenwich Odeum in Rhode Island. Another classic old theater, packed out with a bunch of rowdy New England rock fans. We love it!
Click on pic to see vid
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And here’s a little free-form improv from the opening section of Sunday night’s solo. I wound up tapping into some funk, Latin, and rock flavors… although, in the moment, I don’t really make any kind of stylistic distinctions. I just let that shit flow, and always try to mix things up a bit so each solo is a little different. I’m grateful that I get to stretch out like this every show. Lita loves to let her band guys throw down!
(shot by Teddy Allison)
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Speaking of Lita... yesterday, 9-19, was her birthday. We played a show in Horseheads, NY. But that afternoon, she and security guy/photographer extraordinaire, Teddy Allison, surprised me with some Bazooka Joe soda in the hotel parking lot. (There's a whole inside joke backstory on this, of course...) I've only had one of these in my life, and I haven't cracked this one open yet, but yes: the shit tastes exactly like the bubble gum. Super-trippy! (But for special occasions only!)
And on that note... we out!
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Thanks again, everybody. Connect soon!
Until then,
BR
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