{"id":3999,"date":"2018-04-04T13:20:23","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T17:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.music.mcgill.ca\/mpbs\/?page_id=3999"},"modified":"2018-04-16T20:53:54","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T00:53:54","slug":"tune-up","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.music.mcgill.ca\/mpbs\/no-pain-no-gain\/tune-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Tune up!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Performers alike<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Musicians and athletes are not as different as it can seem on the surface. Musicians have realized the use of sports psychology to help with performance anxiety for a while now (Bellon, 2006)<\/a>, but I have a feeling that the physical demands of playing an instrument are often overlooked in the comparison people make between athletes and musicians. Though musicians might not seem like they do as much physical work as athletes, we still place an incredible amount of stress on our bodies, and yet music students are barely trained on how to cope with these demands. Any student attending a university with a place on an athletics team would be offered a personal trainer with very careful instruction on how to be in the best physical shape to perform… so why are music students left in the dark?<\/p>\n

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\u201cUSC cheerleaders and marching band\u201d by Eric Chan is licensed under CC BY 2.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What can I do?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This needs to change, and the change starts with educational institutions implementing mandatory anatomy and physical health courses for music students. Among those musicians who have taken things into their own hands in preventing injury, there seems to be a lot of confusion about what kind of training is recommended for musicians. Strength training in particular seems to spark controversial conversations among those planning their fitness regimes (Ackermann et al., 2002<\/a>). The purpose of this post is to explore the pros and cons of strength training for musicians in order to help clarify when and how it is appropriate to include in a musician\u2019s fitness regime. In order to understand how the multiple types of exercise affect the body differently, I\u2019ve included a short description of each type of training with a few examples of exercise and their benefits.<\/p>\n

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\n[tab title=”Strength training”]<\/p>\n

Strength training, also regularly called resistance training, is not only for body builders. Strength training can isolate single muscles or muscle groups in a way that might be lacking in other types of training, and which can benefit musicians in ways that might not be as obvious as aerobic exercise. Working on the postural muscles, for instance, is something that every musician would benefit from in the prevention of injury due to the strange postures required by us in order to play our instruments (Watson, 2009<\/a>). Strength training at a very delicate level is also regularly recommended by physiotherapists in the healing of musculoskeletal disorders (Uhl, 2001<\/a>), yet many musicians claim that doing strength training was detrimental to their playing. The claims I’ve most often heard are that there was a loss of sensitivity to pressure in the hands and fingers (which is obviously not ideal for many instrumentalists), or that there was a loss in overall flexibility.<\/p>\n

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\n[tab title=”Aerobic exercise”]<\/p>\n

Aerobic exercise encourages an increase in breathing and heart rate, which causes the heart to pump more oxygenated blood into the muscles through the respiratory and circulatory systems. This conditions the muscles to work more efficiently, and increases overall endurance. Examples of aerobic exercise include running, swimming, cycling, and dancing (Blair et al., 2017<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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\n[tab title=”Anaerobic exercise”]<\/p>\n

Unlike aerobic exercise, in which the muscles get a steady supply of oxygen as they continue to work, anaerobic exercise is so high-intensity that the amount of oxygen required to sustain the activity through increased breathing and heart rate is insufficient. As a result, anaerobic exercises are short-lasting in duration. This type of exercise reinforces muscular strength, and research shows that along with aerobic training, it has positive effects on well-being and in reducing psychological stress (Norris et al., 1990<\/a>). Examples of anaerobic exercise include sprinting, heavy weight lifting, and sports such as soccer, football, or basketball.<\/p>\n

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\n[tab title=”Balance exercise”]<\/p>\n

Balance exercises may not seem very important when compared with other types of exercise, but they do have their benefits. Balance exercises strengthen the core, help to improve body awareness, and have been proven to reduce the likelihood of injury (Hrysomallis, 2007<\/a>). Examples of balance exercises include tai chi, yoga, or various exercises like heel-to-toe walking or leg swings.<\/p>\n

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\n[tab title=”Flexibility exercise”]<\/p>\n

Flexibility exercises are extremely important for musicians, who often hold static positions for hours on end, which can easily lead to musculoskeletal injury (Zaza, 1998<\/a>). (For more information about the different kinds of injuries that musicians are prone to, check this page<\/a><\/strong> out!) Flexibility exercises promote an ease of motion to combat the stiffness that can ensue after playing an instrument by increasing the range of motion of a joint (Blair et al., 2017<\/a>). There is some controversy about when it is productive to do this type of training, and there are different types of flexibility exercises to take into account, but the importance of flexibility training (especially when paired with other forms of training) is undeniable. This blog<\/a><\/strong> provides great information about flexibility and stretching exercises for string players, with emphasis on bass players.
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Musculoskeletal system<\/h3>\n
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It\u2019s important going on with this topic to know what muscles are, and how muscles work. There are three different types of muscle: smooth muscle, skeletal muscle, and cardiac muscle (Dowshen, 2015<\/a>). I\u2019ll be focusing mostly on skeletal muscle, which are the muscles you can control voluntarily. Our skeleton provides us with a rigid base to support our muscles, and our joints provide us with the possibility for movement, but our muscles (working through our nerves with the motor cortex) make that possibility for movement a reality. Muscles and bones are connected by tendons, which are made of a very tough connective tissue (Alexander et al., 2017<\/a>). If you would like to learn more about this system, I highly recommend this video for both educational and entertainment value:<\/div>\n
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