“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” ~ Arnold Schwartzenegger

This quote sums up my thoughts on playing the guitar. You don’t “win” at guitar because playing guitar is an art of many styles, but you can win against yourself by working on your weak points or struggles. Arnold sums it up by implying that going through hardships develops your strength as a guitarist. I fully endorse this thought and I’m going to show you how to use body building techniques that Arnold used to improve your guitar playing.

Imagine this scenario. You want to learn a song. You decide to play it straight through seven times. You can practice this three ways: play it seven times in one day, play it once per day for seven days, or play it once per week for seven weeks. Which do you think is the most effective?

We’re going to use an acronym to answer all our questions in this article: W.W.A.S.D. If enough people read this article, I’ll even get it written on those little wristbands. It stands for, “What would Arnold Schwartzenegger Do?” and I will tell you what he’d do. He would practice that song once per day for seven days.

Playing once per week would mean that you’d forget it and have to relearn it from scratch every week. Neither your memory nor your muscle memory can remember the song from session to session. Playing seven times in one day would probably ensure that you learn the song and work out any kinks in the song, but you’ll probably forget it in a week or grow tired of playing the same thing every day (much like your muscles get tired from lifting the same muscle set seven times a day). The key is to play it every day for 7 days because you’ll review it daily. It will allow you to remember over the course of 7 days. It’s the perfect balance of repetition to help you remember what you need to play.

I mentioned two things in the last paragraph: memory and muscle memory. Memory is your ability to remember what to play, which can be achieved by playing something daily (according to Arnold). Muscle memory is your ability to play something without thinking about it. For example, you can probably nail an A power chord, but that G13 might be a little tough to hit every time. Now we need a way to work on building up muscle memory. Every great bodybuilder measures his progress by charting how much he lifts (including Arnold). So if Arnold were a guitar player, WWASD?

Give up? Arnold would measure and chart his progress. In lifting, bodybuilders write down how much they lift and try to increase that slightly every time they do that exercise. The guitar is no different. Guitarists should practice exercises or songs daily and measure them in beats per minute! Yes, I’m saying use a metronome. Find a song, exercise, or anything you wish to accomplish and start playing it slowly. Increase the speed daily. I guarantee that you will improve your muscle memory.

I hope this article will help you improve the way you approach your playing. If you utilize these techniques, I’m sure that you’ll be on your way to playing the guitar like Arnold Schwartzenegger.

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