Hello and welcome back to Musician’s Maintenance where it’s my job to bring you the best tips, exercises and ideas to help make sure your body never limits your musical endeavors. I’m back from a short break and some of you are probably getting ready to go back to school.
Here’s what I’ve got to help you get back into the swing of consistent playing: 1) A back to practicing plan 2) Exercises to prevent overuse injuries 3) A not boring article on walking.
(Note: If you enjoy these newsletters, please consider forwarding this email to a friend, colleague, teacher or classmate. They can sign up here and then you won’t be the only one you know putting together a back to practice plan).
Onwards!
1) A back to practicing plan
From what I’ve heard in emails and social media, it seems like between COVID and summer break many of you have taken some time off away from your instruments. That can be a great thing, but make sure that you have a plan to let your body get used to the increased time on instrument gradually.
Recently Kimberly Hankins wrote an article on her website that detailed a 30 day return to play progression that will take you from 30 minutes per day all the way to playing 4 hours per day.
Check out the article, make a plan, and gradually get back to those long hours in the practice room.
Read: Back to Practicing! | The Aligned Musician
2) Exercises to prevent overuse injuries
Aside from musicians, do you know the other big group that tends to struggle with arm, wrist and hand injuries? Rock climbers. Yes, rock climbers and musicians perform in wildly different ways, but both need to keep their arms, wrists and hands healthy.
Here’s an article with 8 exercises for rock climbers that would also be great for musicians. I have also put together a general injury prevention program, but this one has a far greater focus on the arms, wrists and hands. Give some of the exercises a try and see what you think.
Move: Prevent Overuse Injuries with These Exercises | Outside Magazine
3) A not boring article on walking
Walking more is probably the single best thing you can do for your physical, mental and emotional health. It seems simple and we do it daily, but with a slightly different approach, you can get even more out of it.
Below is an article from the guys at GMB on walking and within it are 4 actionable tips to improve the quality of position, breathing and movement while walking. It just so happens that I think many of these tips will also carry over to your position on your instrument as well.