*First of all, it is important to note that anyone planning to engage in regular exercise should seek permission from their physician to ensure they are ready for any potentially strenuous activities. Exercise that is tailored to musicians must emphasize full body muscular balance, endurance, mobility, and control. In addition, it is imperative that joints and musculature dedicated to achieving healthy posture be a prime focus of training. This exercise plan will incorporate low-resistance and full body mobility exercises for all the key postural muscle groups as well as a balanced general exercise regimen that will stress cardiovascular health, muscular endurance, and general functionality and fitness. The warm up component can be done by anyone and at any level of fitness. The full body workout that follows can be modified by rest times or frequency to fit the individual's current level of fitness. Equipment required: resistance bands, swiss ball, yoga mat, * Each exercise of the warm up component can be seen in the photos to the right to understand the initial movement. All exercises of the sample full body program can be easily found on various sources throughout the internet. Warm-Up Component: Begin with a general relaxed warm up phase for approximately 5-10 minutes that may or may not be accompanied by a period of "foam rolling". This includes neck and shoulder rolls, spinal curl-downs and maintaining deep diaphragmatic breathing throughout. After the initial warm-up, proceed to workout #1. This portion of the exercise program is very low resistance, focusing on proprioception and mobility. Because it is less stressful on the muscles of the body, these exercises can be performed much more often, even on a daily basis if desired. It may take time for the body to adapt to some of these movements and thus, several exercises have been broken down into stages that will gradually increase their level of difficulty. Once one stage of a exercise is able to be done proficiently, continue to the next stage and so on. Workout #1: Perform Each exercise for 1 minute, resting for 30 seconds between each exercise. -Bird Dogs Stage II: Instead of going back to starting position after each repetition, touch the active elbow to the active knee and resume to next repetition. Stage III: Instead of doing this exercise from the quadruped position, start from a push up position. This will increase the difficulty and stress more balance during the movement. -Thoracic Rotation in a Quadruped position Stage II: Start the movement from a push up position and instead of the elbow, reach across the body underneath with the moving arm at the first part of the movement. Finish the movement by transitioning into a side plank position with both arms extended and reach upward. -Fire Hydrants Stage II: Extend the knee at end of movement -Pelvic Clock on Swiss Ball Stage II: March in place while sitting on the swiss ball Stage III: Bounce on the swiss ball and raise an arm and opposite leg after each bounce. (Shafer-Crane, 2006) -Swiss Ball wall circles Stage II: Walk the ball in a square on the wall Stage III: Write your name in cursive with the ball movement on the wall -Cats and Dogs -Shoulder Clock -Neck flexion, extension, and rotation in quadruped position |
Thoracic RotationFire HydrantPelvic ClockSwiss Ball Wall Circles
Cats & dogsShoulder clockLay on your side with your neck supported in a neutral position and a padded support or pillow between the knees to lock the hips in place. Have your arms extended perpendicular in front of you and slowly bring the top arm upward and around in a full circle. Imagine your shoulder is the center of a clock face and you are winding one clock hand up and around the face until it reaches the initial position.
Neck extension & rotation in |
end positionend positionImagine you have a clock with the center on your belly button. Now using just your abdominal muscles rock your pelvis towards 12 o'clock and then to 6, 11 o'clock and then to 5 and so on in diagonal patterns. (Shafer-Crane, 2006) Using a swiss ball against a wall, extend both arms and slowly walk the ball in small circular patterns with your hands. Be sure to keep the shoulder blades back and in a stable position. Over time you can increase the amount of resistance by leaning more of your body weight into the ball. This is a great exercise that can add stability to the scapula.
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Main Workout:
This is a sample full body exercise program that is designed to build muscular endurance and encourage general functionality as well as musculoskeletal balance. It is much more rigorous and as such should be performed approximately 2-3 times per week depending on the intensity of the individual and to avoid over-training of any muscle groups. Musicians often practice on a daily basis and it may sometimes be difficult to fit in time to exercise, especially when it should not be near practice times to avoid excessive stress on playing muscles and tissues such as in the hands and wrists. This program was designed to use the entire body so that if one is not able to fit in several sessions of the exercise program during the week, there will be no disparities among the muscle
groups that are exercised.
This is a sample full body exercise program that is designed to build muscular endurance and encourage general functionality as well as musculoskeletal balance. It is much more rigorous and as such should be performed approximately 2-3 times per week depending on the intensity of the individual and to avoid over-training of any muscle groups. Musicians often practice on a daily basis and it may sometimes be difficult to fit in time to exercise, especially when it should not be near practice times to avoid excessive stress on playing muscles and tissues such as in the hands and wrists. This program was designed to use the entire body so that if one is not able to fit in several sessions of the exercise program during the week, there will be no disparities among the muscle
groups that are exercised.
Circuit #1:
Perform Each exercise for 30 seconds, resting for 30 seconds between each exercise. Perform 2 circuits -v-ups -Swiss Ball Pikes -Push up position on Swiss Ball with side leg raise -Lying down torso rotations with Swiss Ball held between legs -Walk sideways with hands and feet in a plank position |
Circuit #2:
Perform Each exercise for 30 seconds, resting for 30 seconds between each exercise. Perform 2 circuits -BW lunges in all directions (front back left right diagonal) -BW squats -Glute bridges -Split jumps -bicep curls with resistance bands -tricep extensions with resistance bands -Swiss Ball leg curls -Bent over rows with resistance bands -Alternating push ups: close grip, wide-grip, normal grip, off-set grip (one hand farther forward and one hand farther back, then switch hands) Circulate through this order with one rep at a time of each before moving to next position. -Overhead press with resistance bands -Reverse Flies with resistance bands -Swimming motion with arms while lying face down on the swiss ball. (Arms should stay mostly parallel to the ground during this exercise) -Burpees |
Cool-down:
The cool-down segment includes a variety of stretches that can be done on a yoga mat. These stretches should be performed fluidly, holding each stretch for about 10 seconds and relaxing for 10 seconds before repeating. Spend approximately 1 minute on each stretch. -toe touch -alternating upward dog to downward dog -child's pose -pigeon pose -butterfly stretch -fingers interlocked above head -neck rolls -arm across chest shoulder stretch *Some of the exercises used on this site have been found within research studies on this topic. Others follow the required principles for musician preventative exercise and have been gathered from experience with Rocky Snyder during my internship at Rocky's Fitness center in Capitola, Ca. |