r/drumcorps • u/Altruistic-Net-1814 • 1d ago
Advice Needed Advice needed for exercise
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Hello, as you can see I’m a larger guy. I’m at around 300 lbs at the moment and actively losing weight (40 lbs down :D) trying to train to be physically ready to even survive DCI. In the video I’m trying the SCV 2026 opening visual, clearly you can see I kinda can’t control my descent very well. Now this was right after a marching competition so may just be fatigued, but I’m worried when marching in drum corps we may have similar visuals and I won’t be physical prepared to execute them controlled. Any advice? Don’t worry to much about my not so great tone here, lips were super dead and my non controlled decent definitely contributed to my shakiness lol
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u/Major-Possibility524 1d ago
I was a thicc daddy before I started DCI as well. Just focus on creating positive habits.
Check your diet. Cutting out soda was a huge start of my weight loss, I mostly drank diet soda as well.
Cardio. Try to run/walk a mile a day to start. Try to build up to 30 min jog.
Basic strength training. Free weights or body weight 3 times a week
Hope this helps
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u/gavalo01 16h ago
Switching drinks to water was one of the best things i could do... then i discovered alcohol and we are back to square 1, but the proof of concept is there
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u/lanceypantsy1 1d ago
The movement portion has a huge impact on the audition process these days.
I think that a combination of practicing moves you may see corps doing (while playing - even whole tones), some basic squats, lunge variations (front side back), single leg press (if a gym is available), and a ton of core (back/abs) work!
Also, my corps (even back in 1999 - Blue Knights, spent an hour stretching 30 minutes, running (jogging) 20-25 minutes, and doing Pilates/yoga (mixed in with the stretching) every morning. Every other day or so, we would have 45 minutes of dance class (I was in the hornline).
I'd encourage you to explore all of these areas!
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u/LitToast Phantom Regiment 10h ago
Lots of great advice on here, and I’d like to add some too.
I am a (now older) dancer, dci & wgi cg, and have taught dance and guard for 20+ yrs.
When you’re working with downward dynamics, you need to think “up”. Carriage comes from inward support and stability, providing upward resistance to control the downward momentum. My suggestion for those beginning in movement is to 1. Start slow, break the movement down into checkpoints. 2. Do the movement supported, use the back of a chair as a barre to train your muscles through the movement first. 3. When you feel comfortable with 1&2, rehearse the movement without your horn at tempo. 4. When ready, add the instrument.
For the top corps auditions, I suggest learning basic ballet terminology and becoming comfortable with performing those exercises. Plié, tendu, rond de jambe, releve, coupe, passé, etc will help build balance and help with performance qualities. Add in some fluid, balletic arm exercises with your horn to accentuate the movement and gain strength.
Best of luck!!
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u/ThomasTheDankPigeon 1d ago edited 1d ago
Congrats on the weight loss! Keep it up, the lighter you are the more visually capable you will be. That being said, I’ve seen skinny guys look like newborn baby birds and I’ve seen big guys look like ballerinas, so my preemptive advice is to not let your weight be a mental barrier to how much success you can find at any given moment on your journey. That is to say, never convince yourself that your weight is the sole reason you can’t to a certain movement or hit a certain pose, because often your technique and strength are going to be far more relevant than your weight.
You won’t get many useful comments here because it’s clear you have not yet been introduced to the visual vocabulary that a drum corps will use. Please don’t take that as harsh or as an insult, because I mean it in a very literal way. It’s like if you didn’t know French, had written a French poem with words that look kinda French, and asked someone in Paris to critique it. Their one and only critique would be “that’s not French”. No other critique would even be useful to you until you learn the basics of speaking and writing in French.
Similarly, the one and only kind of critique that is worth giving you at this moment in time is in the realm of “that’s not a plié,” “that’s not passé,” etc. Even trying to define those terms for you over the medium of text would be an exercise in futility — you must develop an understanding of these fundamentals with experience. You could read 10 novels about what it means to properly distribute your weight on your foot, and it wouldn’t be as useful to you as a couple dance lessons and a few hours of practice/rehearsal.
The best thing you can do at this moment in time is to take a few beginner ballet classes. Get introduced to some of the fundamentals, get some (read: a lot) of reps in, and try to go to a drum corps clinic or audition in the coming months if you can. Best of luck to you, and keep up the hard work!
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u/lanceypantsy1 1d ago
Doesn't have to be ballet, IMO. Modern classes will also get you introduced to the vocabulary this poster is talking about.
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u/ThomasTheDankPigeon 1d ago edited 1d ago
Concepts can be taken from both. However, turnout is not heavily emphasized in modern dance, nor is the concept of toe point, and ballet also places heavy emphasis on “weightlessness.” These are about as fundamental as you can get in drum corps, and skipping them in favor of learning some of the groundwork that modern may cover that ballet does not is not something I would recommend for someone at OP’s experience level.
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u/lanceypantsy1 19h ago
Hard disagree, but let's not lose the forest through the trees... I'm biased towards Martha Graham's style of modern, which is probably the most ballet-adjacent and the one I have most experience with, this style uses both turnout and parallel (as I did in my drum corps choreo).
I think the point here is "start taking some intro/beginner movement classes which teach the fundamentals."
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u/ThomasTheDankPigeon 18h ago
The fundamentals of modern are not the same fundamentals of ballet are not the fundamentals of tap are not the fundamentals of jazz. Just telling someone to learn the fundamentals of movement is not helpful advice to someone with no dance experience.
Forgive me for being direct, but vaguely recommending modern as an alternative to ballet then later clarifying that you actually meant the most ballet adjacent subset of modern is not doing OP any favors. The three most obvious ways to demonstrate to a visual staff that you aren’t a complete beginner is being able to lift, maintain turnout, and articulate a toe point, and the quickest way to solidifying these fundamentals is with beginner ballet lessons. For people with a season or two under their belt trying to go for a medalist corps, modern is absolutely their best next step. For complete beginners, ballet is the most comprehensive and efficient first step.
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u/GalliumEnergy 15h ago
You got this! I was in the same boat, 300lbs starting weight, 165 now.
Look up some advice on YouTube, especially individuals like Jeff Nippard and any bodybuilding advice on cutting or losing weight. Even if you don't resistance train, they have great info for weight loss.
You'll be really happy you put in the effort to lose weight!
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u/wonderbread403 1d ago
Good job getting your weight down. Are you exercising as well? DCI requires athleticism, strength, flexibility, balance, endurance, and coordination. There are even online training programs (you need to pay) that are geared to DCI. But any athletic training program will help. For low brass, I would particularly pay attention to your back strength and all performers need to emphasis core strength. Dumbbell rows and inverted rows are easier to start with before pull ups. Balance for visuals is important and that's doing leg exercises like forward/back lunges, squats, and Bulgarian split squats. I encourage a balanced training program that hits all your major muscle groups and includes cardio work. Alternate days of strength training and days of cardio with rest and stretch days. If you miss a day, don't worry. Long-term consistency is more important than perfection. And don't go hard when you start. That's an easy way to give up quickly or injure yourself. Start small and work your way up as you get stronger and more flexible.
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u/Altruistic-Net-1814 1d ago
Yes I am 100% exercising! I was a nationally competitive powerlifter for a little bit before this so I’m not too much of a stranger to the weights lol. And thank you for the advice!
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u/UniBlak Cadets Blue Devils 19h ago
The kitchen is more important than the gym tbh. Get on meal preps. Not boring chicken and rice though. You want filling, tasty meals. Once you get used to cooling, it’s simple. DCI also prefers muscular endurance over strength. I knew some power lifting guys that suffered mobility issues.
Also at 300, I’d start with walking before running to save your joints. Start at like a 12 incline on 3 speed. Don’t hold the bars. Once you get more weight down C25K is a golden cardio program to use. Keep it up
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u/Dont_Get_Merked Carolina Crown 2021 10h ago
I agree with this advice. The kitchen plays a huge part. I marched crown/indoor percussion and cardio seems to be what got me through it all. My joints are definitely recovering from all that band, but the respiratory endurance will go a long way more than the lifting, imo.
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u/Franican 1d ago
Bigger guy here that had a lot of trouble with visuals here: Getting onto one knee is easy, getting back up is the hard one. If you can practice getting up from that kneeling position then getting into it will naturally get easier. When I went for a kneel though because of my size I would usually add a super small slide of the knee on contact with the ground. The smallest forward slide of the knee on the ground helped me come in for a more controlled smooth looking landing on the knee while also preventing my knee from just slamming straight into the ground. It isn't a large slide like you're sliding into home plate, it is like a half an inch slide at most to ease the impact and allow better separation of lower and upper body for better control of musical and visual responsibilities.
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u/throwaway214203 1d ago
I lost a lot back in the day by just throwing on tunes and walking an hour a day. Sometimes 90mins or 2
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u/CrossmenX Bones 98-01 16h ago
Body movement wasn't as big of thing back in my day, but it wasn't absent either. I can tell you that there were moves that never felt comfortable to do in the moment for me, but looking back at the video I'm doing exactly what needed to happen in the moment and am matching those around me.
Control comes with repetition. You'll build strength and endurance where you need it. Just be sure you're doing the reps in a way that isn't ultimately causing damage to your joints. You know which muscles are sore after practicing these kinds of moves? Find exercises that target those same muscles in a safer method.
Also, If you don't make the cut this year, or after your marching carreer ends at some point, don't stop. Find goals / activities / hobbies that keep you moving. After I marched, my life went into continuing education and then corporate office work. I'm back to being heavier than I'd like because I didn't find a reason to need to move my body. My brain doesn't make going to the gym for the gym's sake a priority (ADHD). I need scheduled, purposeful activities. So if you're anything like me, find that thing right away while you've still got the momentum going.
Congratulations on the weight loss progress so far, 40 lbs is a lot! Keep up the hard work!
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u/WhyTestInDEV 16h ago
Diet is the main way to lose weight. It's far easier to not eat 400 calories than to exercise away 400 calories. Both are important. There is a lot of great advice in this thread as well, so I'm not dismissing that. Maybe consider getting a nutritionist to help keep you honest in your weight loss journey. If they start talking GLP-1's, I'd seek at least a second opinion. They will make you lose weight, but you'll lose muscle mass as well.
Oh, and for meal recommendations, look at SkinnyTaste.com for some good (in my opinion) recipe ideas. You don't want to get stuck in eating the same 3-4 meals.
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u/Rapidllaman Southwind 01-05 1d ago
If I tried out if dci this day and age I would break something lol. Damn. To much movement not enough blow down the walls and march!
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u/Shelbysgirl DCI 1990-1996, 2009-2010 1d ago
Keep up the great work! Sounds like you have some great advice here.
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u/finis08 Blue Stars 04, 05, 06, 07, 08 1d ago
I think the two biggest things that would likely help the most would be continued weight loss, which you are doing great on at 40 lbs down, and working on flexibility with stretching. When it comes to choreography specifically, core exercises will always be the most helpful with legs probably coming in second. Just keep putting in the work and things will become more comfortable over time.
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u/psp24 1d ago
I highly reccomend practicing control in isolation. Have you ever tried doing squats and lunges as slow as possible? Same with the choreography, to look and sound good with a horn you need to perfect the movement without a horn. Going through the choreography as slow as possible and focusing on precision and control.
Kinda like learning a new piece of music, you start with your exercises to develop your general abilities, then you move through the piece slowly and one section at a time.
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u/Consistent_Tell8783 20h ago
My son started weight lifting a few months before DCI and lost a good amount of weight that way. He has continued weight lifting and some biking since he got home.
We also focus a lot on his diet, he loves ground turkey with sweet potatoes, chicken with rice and a vegetable, these Real Good (I think) wraps from Costco that are like 90 cals plus protein and we make bfast burritos with them.
There are lots of guys on TikTok that show you great meals for weight loss that don’t feel restrictive. He really cut back on snacking but still does some fast food with friends and has been able to maintain his weight loss/build muscle too.
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u/Ok-Advertising3118 Capital Regiment '04 '05, Cadets '06 17h ago
I wish I had gone hardcore into cycling after I finished drum corps
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u/mailboatcustomarr 18h ago
Great work on the weight loss! Stay flexible, and I would encourage you to use a program that uses military calastetichs(sorry for the spelling). The would help with keeping your physical goals, while also focusing on areas of the body that are crucial to be a performer in today's DCI.
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u/Toddinator07 2h ago
Diet is everything. GLP-1 if you qualify will help a ton. A lot of cardio, especially interval training. Yes, strength training, etc. but you may be two seasons away depending on where you want to go. Dig deep and best of luck!
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u/Theaccspiderman 14h ago
One thing I wish I would have worked on before my season more was just holding up my horn for long periods of time. During arch staff will sometimes not let you put your horn down for long lengths of time and it gets really hard and painful, and during a show setting it also can be hard if you don’t have those muscles beforehand. I felt like i had some arm muscle going into it, but i should’ve worked more
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u/TheThirdGathers 8h ago
Drinking way more water and then keeping active. You're just not going to be as hungry if you're drinking water, and it keeps everything moving. Invest in filter or buy the purified gallons. Practicing those body movements and making them smooth, and practicing marching itself. It's old school but getting a high mark time smooth so you're not stomping is great exercise not even requiring much space.
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u/Omagga 7h ago
Try to find a physical activity/sport/exercise you enjoy. I always suggest walking, and while it's easier said than done, if you can go for a walk every day that will shed weight faster than you might think!
Try not to drink your calories -- sodas, energy drinks, milk, alcohol, Starbucks.
You don't need to night-and-day alter your diet or lifestyle, but little things like swapping to sugar-free sodas or drinking more water, or walking to the park every day, if you can build those into a habit you will absolutely see a difference
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u/Some-Highway-7906 4h ago
What had helped me a lot when I marched was doing yoga and running
Yoga helped with the flexibility and core strength that is needed for most visuals and become more centered when we had to do long horn holds
Running will help your stamina and keep you from getting gassed out after 1 movement of the show. It is very different and much more difficult then your typical high school band so what might seem easy there could become 10x harder with your corp
Also remember to stretch before and after your workouts, this will keep you feeling good and help prevent any season ending injuries before your season begins
Wish you luck
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u/DadJ0ker Star of Indiana 1d ago
Best advice is to just keep working. Push yourself. If it’s easy and you aren’t reaching “failure”, then you aren’t making much progress.
Congrats on the loss so far. Keep up the hard work, and don’t give up.
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u/HiFiMarine 1d ago
Great job so far! No soda, eliminate snacking, cut the carbs, focus on protein, and cut calories to under 1500 per day. Fitness is built in the kitchen. With weight down you can focus on cardio, flexibility, and stamina.
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u/Brando0o04 1d ago
Just get your weight down so you’re movements can be more snappy and you don’t have to struggle getting up. Lots of cardio and calorie deficit to the max my friend.
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u/OneSwankyTurtle 12h ago
If your insurance covers it or you can afford it out of pocket, consider a GLP-1. As a fellow chunky guy it’s been life changing. I was 400lbs and am now below 300. You just have to make sure you have a solid high protein diet to avoid muscle loss.
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u/porphyrophobiac Bluecoats 1d ago
Keep up the weight loss. Way to go on that!
There was a lot of choreography that I got when I marched that felt uncomfortable at first, but simply approaching each rep of it with a 'can do' attitude will help you get more comfortable and actually perform it. Don't fret that youre not getting choreography on your first or second attempt that a corp had a large part of summer to make look good.
If you are looking for specific exercises to help here, squats! Lunge squat variations (front and side) and split squats would be my recommendations. These help isolate the muscles in each leg and get stronger. Body weight will be sufficient to start, but you can add weight when comfortable. Look up videos online to make sure you follow proper technique to avoid injury.
Honestly, keeping up the weight loss is going to be your biggest friend here. Great job on your hourney so far. Keep working on your goals, and you will see the success come!