Hi my well maintained musician friends.
I’m trying a new format this week.
Rather than several links with a quick blurb for each, I’ve got three features for you.
In the first feature I take a musician’s health research study and try to summarize and interpret it for you in a way that hopefully makes it readable and useful.
This week’s article is about what happens if your playing time drastically increases.
The second is a resource that I think you might find helpful.
Finally I have the exercise of the week. I’ve started putting together what I think are basic, easy, foundational exercises for musicians, based on the 7 main areas I think should be maintained.
This week is a basic exercise to find your mid back and shoulder blade muscles.
Check ‘em out and if you have a minute, hit reply and let me know if you like this format, or if you liked the other one better.
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!
P.P.S. Did someone forward this issue of Musician’s Maintenance to you? I’d love to have you join us by signing up here.
Does a Big Increase in Playing Really Lead to More Injuries?
And if it does, how big is the increase?
This is the question that researchers in the Netherlands set out to explore.
They put together a simple study to see what happened to injury rates when they followed a group of very high-level student musicians.
Once per year the Dutch Student Orchestra and the Dutch Student Chamber Orchestra audition and select a group of the most skilled students in the country.
Then they have 10 days of rehearsal, each consisting of 9 hours per day of playing. After that they play 1-2 weeks of daily concerts.
That makes it an ideal setting to look at what happens when playing volume is drastically increased over a short time.
Here’s what they found.
Just before rehearsals began, 28% of the musicians reported pain. They defined playing related pain as “pain and other symptoms that are chronic, beyond your control and that interfere with your ability to play your instrument at the usual level.”
It’s important to note, that a 28% prevalence of pain is well below the more commonly cited stats that I’ve seen which place it closer to 50% (as an aside, prevalence is how many people a problem is affecting right now. Incidence is how many people will be affected by a problem in their lifetime, which is where the 80-90% numbers that you’ll commonly see quoted come from.)
They looked at it again at 10 weeks and that number jumped up to 80%.
The most commonly affected areas were the neck, shoulders, hands and wrists, upper back and lower back.
Takeaways
Number one, what a huge increase!
Nearly 4 times more musicians were hurting by the end of rehearsals.
That means that going into the performances, there were 4 times more musicians with injuries because of the rehearsals!
That’s crazy to me. I don’t see how that can improve the quality of the music played.
Secondly, I don’t think the number needs to be that high.
The obvious answer is to create a better rehearsal schedule.
But that isn’t always feasible. The culture in music is changing, but it’s changing slowly, so it’s very possible that you will find yourself in a situation with a sub-optimal rehearsal schedule.
Fortunately, I think there’s a lot that you can do if you find yourself in a similar situation.
Namely, make sure you are working your “empty the cup” strategies.
Here are a bunch of strategies…
Of course, one of the best strategies is to build a bigger cup during times of less intense playing and rehearsal using proven, science-based exercises directed towards any/all of the 7 key areas that are the most beneficial to musicians.
Remember, by the end of the rehearsals, the injury rate was high, but it wasn’t 100%.
20% of the musicians were able to tolerate that challenging schedule without pain. So it is possible to play for 9 hours a day, for 10 straight days and not get hurt.
In this case, I think it was just luck that determined who made it through. But I also think there’s a lot that you can proactively do to make sure that you are one of the lucky ones and are able to actually enjoy the experience.
Resources: Exercise Mat
I try to use exercises that require as little equipment as possible. Pretty much all of them can just be done on the floor. However, it can be nice to have a mat to exercise on. Partially because it can make it more comfortable. And partially because unrolling the mat can become part of the ritual that signals that it’s time to exercise.
Remember knowing what to do is the easy part. Doing it consistently enough for long enough to make something change is the hard part.
I’ve actually told people who are struggling with the behavior change aspect of starting an exercise program that they don’t have to do all the exercises if they don’t feel like it. They just have to unroll the mat and do one repetition. More often than not though, if the mat gets unrolled, the exercises get done.
So if you are looking for a mat, here’s the brand of the yoga mat that you’ll see in the videos (Affiliate). It’s fairly cheap ($15) and should last a long time.
Standard yoga mats are really thin. If you’re looking for something with a little more cushioning, here’s one by the same brand (Affiliate).
Lastly, if you’re someone who just likes to be different and you feel like your boring rectangular yoga mat forces you to move only linearly, instead of exploring all of those wonderful oblique angles and arcs that your body is capable of (and you have some extra $$$), then perhaps this mat from MovNat is for you.
Exercises for Musicians: Shoulder Blade Squeezes Lying on Stomach
Figuring out how to find those little muscles between your shoulder blades can be challenging.
Your shoulder and shoulder blades can move so much, in so many different directions and are controlled by so many different muscles that there are plenty of opportunities to hide those little, commonly underused muscles.
This exercise is one that has helped people I’ve worked with reconnect their brain to their shoulder blade muscles. It puts you in a position where it is just hard to cheat.
How to Do It
Begin lying on your stomach either with your forehead on the mat or on a towel.
Your arms should be by your sides. Palms facing the ceiling and thumbs in.
Begin by lifting the fronts of your shoulders up away from the ground as far as you can. You’ll find the best way to do this is by squeezing your shoulder blades together. Make sure you keep your elbows straight, hands down, and don’t lift your chest or head.
Once you’ve lifted the shoulders up, keep your elbows straight and lift your hands 1-2 inches.
Pause for about 2 seconds, then lower everything back down together.
Tips and Recommendations
I tend to recommend a slow tempo.
2 seconds to lift the shoulders.
2 seconds to lift the hands.
Pause.
2 seconds to lower.
The biggest goal of this exercise is to give you some awareness about where your shoulder blades are and how they move. If you move too fast, you can’t gain that awareness.
I typically recommend 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions.
Take 30 to 60 seconds between eah set.
3 days per week is plenty.
Who Should Use It
This is another foundational exercise for musicians.
The mid-back muscles are commonly weak and are associated with common painful problems encountered by musicians. This particular exercise was also included in a program that has been studied and proven to be effective in reducing the intensity and frequency of pain.
Plus, it’s quite easy to do, which makes it a great place to start or revisit frequently.
Don’t Just Read, Do Something!
Grab a towel and a piece of floor and give the mid back exercise a try.
If you have a little more time, take a look at your calendar and identify any times that look like the volume of your playing will drastically increase.
Take note and start planning how you will manage that time to make sure you end up one of the 20% who avoids injury and gets to fully enjoy the experience.
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!