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Operating and hip pain


Mike Marriage

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Colleagues,

 

I'm getting PMs about this thread, so I'll make my position clear publicly. I'm with Eric and Alfeo (and possibly Ron too). Let's not take ourselves too seriously. We lift heavy weights and point them accurately. So do workers on production lines, and we don't see them developing special exercises to build up their strength. There's no forum for bricklayers on how to best to train that 'hod' muscle. If anything, after a hard week's work, we probably need to rest our working muscles and stretch them out. Go for a walk, a swim, do yoga, have a spectacularly good ––––, whatever.

 

What we do is wonderfully energetic and fluid. We load our core posture muscles with a suspended weight that is insulated against shock loading by a $10k+ shock absorber, and then dance around with it. You can't recreate this in the gym, unless you bring in your rig and film people. Operating Steadicam will exercise and stretch out not only posture muscles, but a vast 3D network of supporting muscle and tissue too. In contrast, many exercises and exercise machines are planar, and may actively shorten your muscles.

 

And remember, strength isn't important compared to technique. In workshops, it's the lightly-built women that put us all to shame with their staying power. The muscle-bound guys often have the hardest time, because they try to use all that expensive muscle out front, instead of the perfectly adequate support system we all have out back. I enclose a photo (courtesy of Daniel Waite) of Gemma Probst carrying a rig that is more than half her body weight. Most other beginners are glad to hit the stand with a rig like this. Not Gemma. You practically have to wrench the rig off her. Her secret? She's a dancer, and knows how to use her body.

 

post-1134-0-73162700-1359653791_thumb.jpg

 

But of course if what you really want is look good naked, by all means, go out and pump depleted uranium till your heart's content.

 

All the best,

 

Chris

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chris;

 

As always we agree on some points.

 

Danielle is amazing but I cant believe she does 15 hr days with that weight ratio. I know I have a lot better ratio and 15 hr days are very very hard let alone if I weighed that little or did them many days in a row.

 

I will tell you its amazing what she does to even do Steadicam but its all core strength. All dancers have tremendous core strength and I've spent years shooting dancers so I'm speaking from experience. They're amazing.

 

Here are my main points;

 

1) how is being in good shape/flexible going to hurt you as an operator in improved concentration and long days stamina?

2) specific exercises? Not many jobs have them but common sense would say we know the muscles we use and could improve and when we find one we know it.

3) its a new world operators are expected to work harder, shoot rehearsals, longer days, longer lenses; why wouldn't an operator want to give him/herself exactly what Danielle has, better core strength?

4) we notice the Danielle's of the world because they're noticeable but I'm telling you it is harder if you don't have as good as muscle development as possible. Think about it maybe that's why there are so few woman that stuck it out to get those back and other muscles developed to finally make Steadicam pleasant over the long haul.

5) So in summary lets welcome any new thinking about being in shape etc. and see what the new level of Steadicam develops into.

 

 

Peace too.

 

Janice

 

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... so do as much or as little of exercise as you want, swim, bike, run, gym, P90X, yoga, basketball, beer drinking... But most of all go out and keep on shooting... and if you feel a sharp pain somewhere and not a muscle fatigue, it might be because of your posture/settings.

From here, someone will say go take a workshop ;) and go out and shoot some more!

 

Fly safe!

V.

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Danielle is amazing but I cant believe she does 15 hr days with that weight ratio.

3) its a new world operators are expected to work harder, shoot rehearsals, longer days, longer lenses; why wouldn't an operator want to give him/herself exactly what Danielle has, better core strength?

4) we notice the Danielle's

 

 

Who the hell is Danielle? She shot the still of the operator GEMMA PROBST.

 

and yes I'm betting that she could do a 15 hour day, Just because you might not be able to at your "Better Ratio" doesn't mean that others can't

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Hi guys;

 

Sorry thought Daniel was Danielle my mistake.

 

The others yes, Chris we agree a bunch.

 

Ratio, yes I'm fine, thanks for your concern. I'm still good with 15 hr days but they're just different. Glad you didn't make that a personal attack, that would be in bad taste and I'm sure not intentional.

 

Peace to all.

 

Janice.

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I think there is always a benefit from warming up your muscles regularly and staying stretched out. Even if you don't operate a steadicam. The guys that don't do anything won't know the benefits they could be getting out of some very simple and less than 15 minute warm ups every day in life. No matter what you do, keep it simple but do something. I only stretch on operating days, but on all other practice days, I warm up exercise and stretch for 15 minutes before putting on the vest. Make a huge difference!

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when i noticed a bit of hip pain i adjusted the vest to sit higher on my body. i pretty much dont have hips, so they werent really supporting the vest much anyways.

im not a big dude, so the center of gravity sits somewhere between me and the rig, not in my belly, so my ratio is smaller and my back mite be doing a bit more work.

im pretty athletic with the rig and tend to drop to my knees then stand up, etc, so simple back stretches and warm ups, plug legs, but again, not overkill. more than anything im trying to stretch the sore out of me from jiu jitsu.

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