Well the past week has defintiely been more of a struggle holding the chopstick for a minute. I realised that because i was using a wooden chopstick that is heavier and has a smaller diameter than a pencil that my lips were being worked too hard. The end of the chopstick with its small diameter was digging into my lips. I fixed this with some duct tape wound around the end so that it equals the standard pencil diameter.
This week i will be holding the pencil for 1:30 seconds for three sessions with a 5 minutes break between each.
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Hi Robert,
ReplyDeleteEric is pretty much alone among the CG guys, in endorsing the pencil exercise (check out the TH archives in the CG forum). Most will tell you not to do it.. some are passionately against it (eg. Mohan), and Claude himself ridiculed it.
I have to confess, I've tried it. I even bought Pops McLaughlin's book. He has a course with week by week instructions, starting with a half length pencil, which is mandatory for the first 2 weeks regardless of current strength. Pops has copious warnings throughout the book, cautioning that it can cause stiffness, and not to overdo it.
According to Claude, it's a misconception to think that muscularity is an important element. Of course we need some muscular strength but, he says, we will get more than enough of that from the routine itself. Furthermore, it's the tongue and the air, not the lips, that matter. He says repeatedly... "don't think about the lip".
Brett