Hey there musicians. Here’s your weekly reminder that it’s important to set aside a little time to take care of your body.
This week’s musician specific movements focus on breathwork, healthy hands, and shoulder mobility.
Remember, reading about exercises and thinking about doing them is better than nothing, but nothing is actually going to change unless you take some action. If you’re not ready to do everything on the list, that’s ok, but try to pick something and get moving. Your body will thank you!
Reset Your Nervous System
Breathing is one of the only ways that we can consciously change the state of our nervous system, but most don’t take advantage of this. Here’s a breathwork protocol that can be helpful prior to entering a stressful situation, or if you find that you are feeling stressed out or anxious. It can help you improve your focus, boost your energy or act like a control+alt+delete for your nervous system. Watch the video here then try to protocol below.
- Cadence breathing: Slow breath in, slow breath out. Set your metronome to 60 bpm (1 click per second) and breath in for 3 seconds, out for 3 seconds. Repeat 5 times. Note: If you want to customize the times for your body, you can use the SH//FT breath calculator.
- Superventilation: Full/forceful breath in through the nose, full/forceful breath out through the nose. 20 times immediately after the 5 cadence breaths.
- Breath hold: On the exhale of the last superventilation breath, hold your breath for 30 seconds. If you can’t hold 30 seconds, that is ok, just move on to the next step when you feel the urge to breath.
- Round 2: Increase the cadence to 4 seconds in, 4 seconds out. 5 cadence breaths, 20 superventilation, 30 sec breath hold.
- Round 3: Increase the cadence to 5 seconds in, 5 seconds out. 5 cadence breaths, 20 superventilation, 30 sec breath hold.
- Round 4 (optional): Increase the cadence to 6 seconds in, 6 seconds out. 5 cadence breaths, 20 superventilation, 30 sec breath hold.
- Round 5 (optional): Increase the cadence to 7 seconds in, 7 seconds out. 5 cadence breaths, 20 superventilation, 30 sec breath hold.
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8 Exercises for Healthy Hands
It should be obvious that musicians need to take care of their hands. For most of you, no hand…no music. Here’s a great routine that you can use before playing, exercising, or as evening recovery work to give your hands a little love from violist/yoga-instructor/movement-teacher/breathwork-coach Kimberly Hankins of The Aligned Musician. Watch part 1 here and part 2 here to learn the movements, then try the routine below.
- Wrist Circles: 5 in each direction.
- Hand Shakes: 15-20 seconds.
- Wrist Stretchs: 15-20 sec per side pulling the fingers back. Another 15-20 sec per side pulling the fingers down.
- Splaying Out the Fingers: 10 times.
- Hands Together Wrist Rolls: 5 in each direction.
- The Wave: 15-20 seconds. Don’t worry if the coordination isn’t perfect. Just do your best.
- Hands and Knees Rocking With Palms on Floor: 10-15 seconds with fingers pointing out, then 15-20 more with fingers pointing towards you. Go light and easy with these.
- Hands and Knees Rocking With Back of hands on Floor: 10-15 seconds with fingers pointing in, then 15-20 more with fingers pointing towards you. Again, go light and easy with these.
I would also encourage you to check out Kimberly’s breathwork series as well. She offers a free session to get an idea what it’s all about. I’ve covered breathwork in past newsletters, and think it could potentially be very beneficial for musicians.
Hand Stretches Part 1 | Hand Stretches Part 2 | The Aligned Musician via Instagram
How is Your Shoulder Mobility?
Having good shoulder mobility can help prevent shoulder, neck, mid-back and even forearm problems. Here’s a nice self test to help you catch any sneaky stiffness and several exercises to improve how easily your shoulders move. Watch the video here, then try the routine below.
- Aply’s Scratch Test: Check both sides. It’s normal for your dominant side to be a little stiffer, but notice if there’s a greater than 2″ difference side to side.
- Cross Body Stretch with Tennis Ball Release: 60 seconds per side. Enough pressure to feel it, but not so much that you can’t keep a relaxed face and breathe.
- IR Strap Stretch: 30 seconds per side. Go gentle here. Less intensity leads to better gains with this stretch in my experience.
- Shoulder Extension with Cane: 10 times slow with a 1-2 second pause and 3-4 seconds to lower.
- Crab Walk Shoulder Extension: 30 sec hold. Again, go easy on how deeply you stretch.
- TRX Shoulder Extension Stretch: 30 sec hold. No TRX? No problem. Just stand in a doorway, put you one hand on each side, and lean forward until you feel the stretch.
- Quadruped Shoulder CARS: 5 per side.
- Sleeper Stretch: 30 sec per side. Once again, less is more. Go eash.
- Repeat the Aply’s Scratch test: Is it any easier after loosening things up?
Seven exercises is a lot, so if you don’t have the time, I would focus on the cross body stretch with tennis ball, shoulder extension with cane, shoulder CARS and the sleeper stretch.
Shoulder Mobility Self Assess | Josh Elzey, PT, DPT
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