Pilates and violin
You may have noticed that I do Pilates regularly. It's been probably at least 10 years if not longer since I first started. When I was watching a family video when I was 2 or 3 years old, I noticed that I really didn't have good core control of the body. My daughter happened to have pretty good core, so the difference was pretty distinct. My theory is that when you don't have enough time to crawl, you may not develop strong enough core when you start walking.
Anyhow, as a result, I didn't have a very good posture. When I was actively playing the violin/viola, I always wondered why I needed to adjust the shoulder rest height almost to the limit. I told myself that I had a long neck which is partially true, but the actual truth is that my posture is so bad that my collarbones are lower than they were supposed to be with my neck sticking forward, the distance between my chin and shoulder were longer.
Pilates was the exercise that made me aware that I significantly lacked the core muscles to the point that I could not maintain the proper posture at all. People comment on how good my posture is these days, but it's earned. I am still not satisfied with my posture at all. But maybe it is now good enough to be able to play the violin properly. Should I try again?
I started with regular Pilates sessions. Nowadays I do Pilates on a Lagree machine. It is so hard my body constantly shake during a 40-minute session and as a result it trains my body very efficiently.
Part of me wants to do more intense sessions like Barry's but maybe I should just do this every other day like a maniac.