Last month was all about recovery, but now I want to get into strategies to build a bigger cup. So over the next several weeks I’m going to feature one of the 7 areas that I think will give musicians the most benefit.
Last week I introduced a little on thoracic mobility. This week I want to get into basic rotator cuff strengthening.
The majority of musician’s injuries are neck, shoulder, forearm, wrist or hand. The shoulder is at the center of it all. If it’s not functioning well it can force your neck to do more work than it needs to, adding more to the cup than necessary.
Also, it’s responsible for creating a stable base for the rest of the muscles down your arm to work with. If it can’t do that, everything else has to work harder, again adding more to the cup than necessary.
All of this gets magnified if you hold your instrument out in front of you.
So shoulders are important! Let’s learn a little bit about how your shoulder and rotator cuff works, what tends to help it work better, and a simple exercise to get you going.
Don’t Just Read, Do Something!
If you do nothing else, fill up a water bottle, scroll down to the exercise below and try 10 reps on each side. Ask yourself: was it harder on one side (either more fatigue or less coordination? If so, do you have stiffness, ach or pain in your neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist or hand on that side?
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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Shoulder Anatomy 101 (7 min video)
Part of maintaining your body is understanding a little more about how it works. This short video is the best tour of the shoulder that I’ve found. The short version is that shoulders are complicated. It’s a ball and socket joint, but the socket is really shallow and the ball is really big. Kind of like a golf ball sitting on a golf tee. That means the joint has a huge range of movement, but it also means that it isn’t very stable. The rotator cuff is a group of 4 muscles that have the job of working together to create that stability and keep the golf ball on the center of the tee, while your bigger muscles move your arm all over the place.
Shoulder Anatomy Animated Tutorial | Randale Sechrest, MD
Should Musicians Even Bother with Strengthening? (Research)
You are busy. I’m sure you don’t want to waste your time on exercises that aren’t going to help support your playing. That’s why I’m making my recommendations based on what I’ve read in the musician’s health research. Here’s a study that is foundational to why I think this type of exercise is important. It’s behind a pay-wall, so if you are a student or affiliated with a university, you may be able to get it. Otherwise, here’s the short version.
Researchers took a group of musicians and had half do specific injury prevention exercises (including rotator cuff exercises) for 10 weeks while the others just carried on with life as usual. They measured the frequency and intensity of playing related pain at the start, after the 10 week program and again 6 months later. The result was that the group that did the exercises had less pain at 10 weeks and maintained that improvement at 6 months. The bottom line: exercise is a science based way to reduce pain associated with playing.
The Effect of a Musicians Exercise Intervention of Performance-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders | Chan and Ackermann via Medical Problems of Performing Artists
Interview with a Musician’s Health Superstar (1 hour podcast)
I’ve featured Bronwenn Ackermann before. I used her warm-up recommendations as the base for a warm-up that I put together. She is also a co-author of the study I mentioned above, the editor of Medical Problems of Performing Artists and she has spent a lot of time working with orchestral musicians in Australia. I think that she should be a household name among musicians since she is doing some of the best work out there for musician’s health. So I was very pleased to see that Karen Bulmer from Music, Mind and Movement got her on the podcast. Karen is a great interviewer and this is a must listen.
Karen Bulmer Interviews Bronwenn Ackermann | Music, Mind and Movement
Exercises for Musicians: Sidelying Shoulder External Rotation
The back part of your rotator cuff (infraspinatus and teres minor if you want to be fancy and technical) has a tendency towards weakness but is often not that painful to exercise. That makes it an ideal place to start since you can make progress with less risk of flaring things up.
Here’s a simple but effective exercise that only requires a water bottle or small weight to do.
How to Do It
Start by lying on your side with a pillow under your head so your neck is comfortable.
Your top arm should be in line with your body and your elbow bent 90 degrees. Place a small towel between the elbow and your body.
Keep the elbow 90 degrees as you rotate your hand up and down. The movement should be isolated to the ball and socket of the shoulder joint.
Rotate up as high as you can without twisting your body or pulling your shoulder blade back. Pause then slowly lower.
Lower as far as you can without twisting your body forward or letting your shoulder blade roll forward.
You can do it without a weight, with a light dumbbell (1-5 lbs) or you can use a small water bottle to provide some resistance.
Tips and Recommendations
I recommend a tempo of 3 seconds up and 3 seconds down.
Link your breath to the movement so that you breathe out as you lift up and breathe in as you lower.
Do 3 sets of 8-12 reps.
This is a strengthening exercise, so 1 time per day and only 3 days per week is plenty to make progress.
Take 30-60 seconds off per set. You can either roll to your side, or it pairs really nicely with the thoracic rotation exercise from last week.
If you are using a weight, make sure you can lift your arm to the same height and with the same control as you can without it. For strengthening, you want to strengthen a clean movement, rather than just get better at compensating.
Who Should Use It
This is another exercise that I think should be a staple in a musician’s body maintenance program. I think it can be especially useful if you have active shoulder pain, stiffness or neck pain, especially during playing.
If you play flute, violin, viola, or any other instrument where you need one or both hands up at shoulder level for prolonged periods of time, then exercises like this one are especially important.
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!