Hello and welcome back to Musician’s Maintenance Weekly, where it’s my job to take a break from focusing on the COVID-19 situation and get back to offering up some actionable advice on how to keep your body maintained at least as well as your instrument.
This week I’ve been working on improving the 10 exercise injury prevention program and have added a follow-along video, which is the feature of the week. Along with that, I’ve got 3 more resources for you: 1) More on cold exposure (this time from a musician) 2) Improving postural pain 3) Why pain might actually be your friend.
(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 crazy musician you know talking about cold showers!)
Onwards…
Feature: Routine Maintenance Exercise Program
I’ve taken the exercises from the 10 Exercise Injury Prevention Program and put them together into a really basic workout that you can turn on and follow along with.
In the video, I guide you through 1 set or each of the 10 exercises, which gets you through the whole program in under 15 minutes. It’s meant to be done 2-3 times per week for 8-12 weeks. It’s not the most exciting program, but it’s simple and effective.
To make the video short and efficient, I move through the exercises fairly quickly, so make sure you look over the exercise page before you get started so you’re not trying to learn it on the fly.
Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Watch: Routine Maintenance Version of the Musician’s Injury Prevention Program
Resources
1) More on Cold Exposure (this time from a musician)
I wrote a few weeks back about cold exposure’s positive effect on immune function in the face of COVID-19 and I’m betting not many people took these up. But it’s come up again, this time from a musician.
I featured Karen Cubidas’ take on sleep hygiene a while back, and recently she released a podcast on cold exposure and other immune boosting behaviors as well.
It’s only 7 minutes, so give it a quick listen. That’s just a little longer than the 5 minute cold shower she mentioned. Five minutes can feel like an eternity in a cold shower, so if you want a more graded approach, check out this 40 day challenge from the “Iceman” himself, Wim Hof, that very gradually takes you from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
Listen: Apple or Spotify | The Musician’s Guide to Being Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise
2) Improve Postural Pain
If you want to improve postural pain, the key isn’t to have “perfect” posture. It’s to move often. Here’s a nice article with several exercises from fellow physical therapists The Prehab Guys.
Take an exercise from the article and start trying to use it as a microbreak (you are using microbreaks, righ!?) while you are practicing. Then try another and see if you find one that is the most helpful for you.
Read/Watch: Improve Postural Pain | The Prehab Guys
3) Why Pain Might Actually Be Your Friend
I spend a lot of my day trying to reframe pain from something that needs to be “killed” to a message from your body that something needs to change. So I really enjoyed this article from violinist Jennifer Roig-Fracoli of The Art of Freedom for Musicians. It’s a nicely written piece, from a musicians perspective asking you to look at your pain from a slightly different angle.
If you enjoy it, also check out her piece I featured in a past newsletter on practicing while injured.