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From The Desk Of Lost In The Trees: 5/3/1

LostInTheTreesLogoAri Picker felt exhausted and burned out by Lost In The TreesA Church That Fits Our Needs. The 2012 album memorialized Picker’s mother, who committed suicide in 2008. The project was deeply personal and deeply ambitious. It made many critics’ 2012 top-10 lists (including the top spot for the Wall Street Journal), and it led the North Carolina band to appear at New York’s Lincoln Center for the American Songbook Series. But the tour that preceded that show was fraught with challenges: Rock clubs weren’t the ideal venues for the band’s delicate dynamics and string arrangements for cellos and violins. After all that, Picker questioned his desire to make another album. But he has made another. Past Life (Anti-) jettisons many of Church’s identifying markers: It’s abstract and impressionistic rather than overtly personal, and it’s minimalist rather than maximalist. Picker will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Lost In The Trees feature.

JimWendler

Picker: I know it’s probably lame to write about weightlifting in a music magazine, but for me, exercise is meditation. I’d go crazy if I did not exercise, and unfortunately touring is not conducive to getting exercise, and generally I go crazy on tour. I’m no personal trainer, and I don’t mean to bore you with gym talk, but if you’re interested in getting strong and gaining muscle mass, try this program out:

 5/3/1 is Jim Wendler‘s strength-building program. Basically, it is a four-week cycle where the first week you do three sets of five reps at 65-75-85{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191} of your max; the second week you do three sets of three reps at 70-80-90{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191} of your max; and the third week you do a sets of five reps, three reps and one rep at 75-85-95{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191} of your max And the fourth week is a de-load week. I’d just go to his site and let him explain it further. He is a witty no-nonsense dude, and his book is fun to read. In the past I had always gone to the gym with loose goals, writing down what I did and trying to beat it the next time. This is fine, I guess, but I found it much more exciting and effective to go to the gym with a simple and concrete goal in mind.

Video after the jump.