Recovery month continues. We looked at sleep earlier this month, last week was self-mobilization and this week I want to dive into the breath.
It may seem like a funny topic to dedicate a newsletter to. After all, if you are reading this, you are at least breathing effectively. But I keep hearing very smart people in the areas of injury prevention and sports performance mention that breathing is a commonly overlooked, but very powerful tool.
The way that I look at it is that breathing is one of the only ways that we have to consciously and purposefully move ourselves between our sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest, digest, heal and recover) nervous systems.
Recovery can’t happen in a fight or flight state, so if you want to actively and purposefully get into a recovery state, breath work can be a useful tool. Luckily I don’t think there’s a “right” way to do breathwork and lots of options are out there. So this week’s resources provide several options from yoga based, to more scientifically minded, to breathwork for altered states of consciousness.
I’ve also got a freebie for you. Meditation is a great form of breathwork and I’ve managed to get my hands on an extended trial for a nice meditation app. Check it out below.
Finally, I’ve got a thoracic mobility exercise to round things out. Thoracic mobility is a great recovery movement and it pairs well with paced breathing.
Don’t Just Read, Do Something!
Take a look at the 4 breathwork resources, pick the one that resonates with you. Give it a try and see how you feel afterwards. Then get on the ground or your bed and do 5 reps on each side of the thoracic mobility exercise. If it feels good, do it again tomorrow!
Everything is below.
Enjoy!
P.S. As always if you have questions, feedback, requests for topics you are interested in, or just want to say hi, go ahead and hit reply and your message will go straight to my inbox!
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Musician Specific Mindfulness (8.5 min video)
A cornerstone of breathwork is a mindfulness practice. Amelia is a trombonist and yoga instructor doing some great work in the yoga for musicians space. Here’s an 8.5 min video where she goes through the benefits of mindfulness from a musician’s perspective, then guides you through a 5 min, breath based meditation. It’s a nice intro to mindfulness based breath work, specifically for musicians like you.
Intro to Meditation for Musicians | Music Body Mind via YouTube
Test Your CO2 Tolerance (text, test and video)
If yoga and mindfulness feel a little to “woo woo” for you, then you may be interested in a more science based-approach to breathwork. Brian MacKenzie is an endurance athlete and coach who created Crossfit Endurance and his recent work has been in the area of breathwork. At his website, there is a breath test that looks at your CO2 tolerance. He argues that CO2 tolerance is a good indicator of how your body can handle stress and how well it is capable of recovering from stress. As a musician, you are going to need to tolerate a significant amount of stress, so hit the link below and see how you do. You can also get 8 different paced breathing exercises, customized to your breath test results, that you can start using to improve your CO2 tolerance.
Breath Test | PowerSpeedEndurance
Breathe to Make Your Body Tingle (20 min video)
If you feel like slow breathing is a waste of time or you’re just someone who needs to work for your relaxation then Wim Hof style breathing may be for you. It’s essentially superventiliation (big breaths in and out, kind of like hyperventilation, but done on purpose) to blow off a lot of your CO2, followed by progressively longer breath holds. It’s a lot of work doing these big breaths, but if you go through several rounds of it, you can get a crazy, tingly body high and feel really relaxed by the end. I found a video of him guiding someone through it for a few rounds that you can follow along with to try it out.
Wim Hof Demonstrates His Breathing Technique | Wim Hof with School of Greatness via YouTube
Tools: 10% Happier Meditation App
We all know that we can train our bodies, but we forget that we can also train our minds. Meditation is a great tool for training the mind. But it can be difficult to know where to start and can often be a little too “woo woo” for people. The 10% Happier app does a great job teaching meditation, without all the “woo woo.” Their tagline is “Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics.” They’ve got a great intro course and several other really nice courses as well.
Like many apps, some of the content is free, then you pay a monthly or yearly fee to get access to everything. It turns out that the husband of one of my former colleagues is the CEO of the company, and so they gave me a code to give people a free month of their premium content.
So if you’ve been thinking about meditation, check out 10% Happier. My recommendation is to start with the free lessons in their “Basics” course and if you like it, use the coupon code below to get access to the full course, or explore others.
A Free Month of Full Access to Meditations Courses | 10% Happier
Exercises for Musicians: Sidelying Thoracic Rotation with Hand Behind Head
For musicians, one of the first areas of your body to learn to maintain is your thoracic spine.
Thoracic mobility is like green, leafy vegetables. You can always have more.
This is one of my go-to thoracic and upper body mobility exercises. It puts you in a position to limit the strain on your low back while also linking in a stretch of your shoulder, pec, ribs and chest wall.
How to Do It
Begin lying on your side. Get a pillow to support your neck.
Bend your hips a little more than 90 degrees. Your knees should be a little above your hips.
Take your bottom hand and put it on your top knee.
Take your other hand and put it behind your head.
From there you rotate your trunk, keeping the hand behind the head and knees together.
Tips and Recommendations
Make sure you get the thighs up to a 90 degree angle or more. This position helps lock out the low back and keeps the movement in the upper back as intended.
Notice that the movement is coming through my thoracic spine. I’m not just pulling my elbow back and I’m not twisting my head.
The tempo I like to use is 3 seconds rotating as you exhale through the nose. Then 3 seconds to return as you inhale through the nose.
It’s a deceptively simple exercise. You’ll find that you want to hold your breath at the end. That defeats the purpose. Keep breathing, even if it means you don’t move quite as far.
5-10 repetitions per side tends to open things up nicely and it’s an exercise that you can do daily, or even a few times per day if it feels helpful.
Who Should Use It
Honestly, I think every musician should be doing something to keep their thoracic spine mobile and this is a simple, effective exercise to do it. It’s a great one to add into your daily routine.
More specifically though, improving thoracic spine mobility can be very helpful if you have neck pain, shoulder pain, and any pain related to a nerve problem (like carpal tunnel). It’s nice because it acts like a pressure relief without ever having to move the painful body area.
Be careful if you’re using it with shoulder pain though. If it hurts having the top hand behind your head, just place it comfortably across your chest instead.
Find a comfortable spot and give it a try!
Sharing
Please forward this issue of Musician’s Maintenance on to a friend, teacher, colleague, or any other musician you think may be interested. Thank you!