Plateau Busting Workout Regimen
Terence
Moderator, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 601
In a rut and feel like you've plateaued? Here's a workout regimen that worked for me to bust through the flatline. Prereq: You've been through volumes 3, 4, and 5, have the correct form for each, and 2.5 to 3 hours set aside to sing.
1) Sing all Volume 3 exercises, no cheating, making sure to rest between exercises to reset your stamina. Taking 1 or 2 minutes to rest or just slowing down to ensure my voice benefits from each intended exercise for the day can make my Vol 3's go to 1 hour, 20-30 minutes. Doing a complete and adequate Vol 3 always feels like an accomplishment.
2) Wait no longer than 5-7 minutes and Sing all Volume 4 exercises the same way as above.
3) Wait no longer than 5-7 minutes and Sing all Volume 5 exercises the same way as above.
Depending on the day, doing the above has taken from 2 hours 30 min to 3 hours, five minutes. I don't care as long as I'm not straining and getting the intended benefit of EACH exercise.
4) REST for three entire days, no singing. Drink a Collagen shake on each rest day.
5) Start over at 1) and Do it again!
It feels like being on tour, and each concert date is four days apart with three days rest between (except your "concert" is 3 hours of an ideal KTVA workout!)
If you can do all three volumes in a day like this, then your voice will not degrade during a three-day rest period. On the contrary, I get a complete vocal rest, and the muscles repair, recuperate, and rebuild to make each workout noticeably better.
1) Sing all Volume 3 exercises, no cheating, making sure to rest between exercises to reset your stamina. Taking 1 or 2 minutes to rest or just slowing down to ensure my voice benefits from each intended exercise for the day can make my Vol 3's go to 1 hour, 20-30 minutes. Doing a complete and adequate Vol 3 always feels like an accomplishment.
2) Wait no longer than 5-7 minutes and Sing all Volume 4 exercises the same way as above.
3) Wait no longer than 5-7 minutes and Sing all Volume 5 exercises the same way as above.
Depending on the day, doing the above has taken from 2 hours 30 min to 3 hours, five minutes. I don't care as long as I'm not straining and getting the intended benefit of EACH exercise.
4) REST for three entire days, no singing. Drink a Collagen shake on each rest day.
5) Start over at 1) and Do it again!
It feels like being on tour, and each concert date is four days apart with three days rest between (except your "concert" is 3 hours of an ideal KTVA workout!)
If you can do all three volumes in a day like this, then your voice will not degrade during a three-day rest period. On the contrary, I get a complete vocal rest, and the muscles repair, recuperate, and rebuild to make each workout noticeably better.
Comments
Sixty days on this regimen and will be continuing indefinitly unless some obstacle appears. Issues I've brought to Ken on webinars are solved and it's now all about gaining comfort and artistic control rather than glaring obstacles to range. Your mileage may vary, of course.
The KTVA 3-4-5 (in that order) workout session varies between 2.5 to 3.5 hours depending on vocal challenges of the day. Three days rest (maybe 2 if performing) and time to work out again.
I kept adding rest days to fully recover and get the best workout possible on the next workout. Three days rest was the best. When I have a gig I'll shorten it to 2 days or just add another days rest and workout afterwards, Collagen shakes on rest days helps, too.
The amount of rest between sessions involves factors that only you might know. My experience has been that gains are not lost by resting for a week. How many days beyond that I'm not sure, yet. When in doubt, go with Ken's 5 or 6 days a week. I experimented with more rest days to break through a plateau and it worked and also fits perfectly with my weekly schedule and performance days.
Hoping this helps some of my fellow students and may you all rock onwards!
My latest workouts are focused around songs and working through their most challenging parts. However, it's still similar to the routine in this thread because it's intense enough that a few days off between workouts leads to progress, and zero degradation.
The warm-up part of the routine is about 5-8 minutes of lip trills, then into AH and AY Long scales, followed by a daily choice of the most demanding exercises from all volumes. Then, it's on to Songwork.