Why Musicians Need a Strong Core

When someone says to you “you need a strong core” or “you need to train your core”, does that leave you scratching your head in confusion?  I mean, what IS your core, anyway, and what on earth does it do? Is it your insides?  The middle of your body?  Your diaphragm?  Let me help you clear up all the confusion.

The core, in its simplest form, is actually the area of your body called the torso – therefore, not your arms, legs or head.  These aren’t just your abdominal muscles; there are LOTS of other muscles that make up the core.  In fact, some of the key players to core strength are in your back and lower back.

There are an awful lot of muscles in your core, and each one plays a role in how well you play your flute.  Yes, that’s right, your hip flexors, your back muscles, your abs; all those muscles have an impact on how you play.  How is that, you ask?  Well, the easy way to explain it is that all your muscles work together in any activity you do.

• Standing uses your core muscles to keep you balanced and from falling over.
• Driving uses more than your arms; your core is heavily involved. An indication of core weakness is pain in your hips or low back when you get out of the car.

The muscles in the front (your abs) serve to pull your body forward. These are the muscles with which you are probably most familiar, and as you know, spending most of our day in a bent over position works them plenty.  What this shows is that your back muscles may become weak from the forward-pulling motion of your abs. To have a strong core, this means that you must train your body to resist forward flexion and side to side twisting.

So how does this relate to playing your flute?  Like I mentioned before, you don’t just use your arms to play the flute.  Remember that old song “the head bone’s connected to the….neck bone” etc.?  It’s true.  Your body works as a whole.  It takes lots of different muscles to lift your arms, turn your head, hold up a flute and breathe to play.  And some of those muscles will get tired.  When this happens, other muscles take over.  If this goes on too long, you get what are called muscle compensations and imbalances, meaning that some muscles become weaker and allow other muscles to do their jobs for them.  This can lead to pain.

Each muscle is made to do a job whether that is its own job, the job of being a synergist (helping other muscles do their jobs) or an antagonist (the opposite of a muscle).  For example, your hip flexors are antagonists to your gluteus muscles.  If your hip flexors get too tight with too much sitting, your gluteus muscles become weak, eventually allowing other muscles (your hamstrings) to do the job of the glutes.  What happens then?  Your knees could hurt, or maybe your low back hurts from the stress of too much tightness in the front.  When your low back hurts because it is weak, this can translate to a weak upper back.  If your upper back is weak, it cannot support your arms which are doing a really hard job of holding up your flute, so when your arms tire, you’re just in pain everywhere, all because your hips are too tight, and guess what?  They’re part of the core!
So what to do?  I think by now we’ve established why you need a strong core to play.  When the body works well as a whole, you can play longer without compensating.  There are lots of good exercises to help with core strength.  My favorite exercise is the plank.

This can be progressed by lifting an arm or a leg, putting your feet on a bench or arms on a ball, or adding weight on your back, and can even be done on your side.  The goal is to keep your hips in line with your shoulders, so your body looks just like a plank; a board.  Even with the progressions: do not twist your hips or sag in the middle.  Hold for 30 seconds or longer, rest, and repeat.

Another of my favorite core exercises are 1) The Anti-Rotation Static Hold and its variation 2) Pallof Presses.  These are just fun, and it’s a great way to work your entire core without having to do a single crunch, or sit-up and if you have bad shoulders, these are an excellent choice without putting your shoulders into a compromising position.

To set up for both: 

Stand perpendicular to a cable station with a weight stack or a pole to which you’ve wrapped around a band.  Grasp the band or handle, pull it in front of you and then push it out in front of you, without twisting.  If you hold that position, that’s the static hold.  If you push it out and bring it back, those are Pallof Presses.  The goal with both of these is to avoid twisting (hence: anti-rotation) which you’ll feel all down the middle of your body. Make sure to choose a heavy enough weight so that the exercise is challenging.

This is a video of the Pallof Press:

http://youtu.be/JmcH0UsXRVw

If you hold the weight out without bringing it back, again, that is the Anti-Rotation Press.

If you are looking for a program of strength training that will train your core from every conceivable angle and get your entire body stronger in the process, I highly recommend a book called “The New Rules of Lifting for Abs” by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove.  I’ve done the whole program myself and not only was it fun, I saw my strength increase by leaps and bounds!  They actually have a brand new book out called the “The New Rules of Lifting For Life”.  I just got it today and intend to read through it soon, but the gyst of it is that it is geared for non 20-yr olds, more towards middle agers and people who want to learn how to program their own workouts.

If you would like more exercises and more information, I actually have a longer blog post I’ve written about it with videos here: http://fluteangel.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/3-exercises-1-for-core-strength-and-stability/

As always, I have spots available for long distance training where I can write you a program to strengthen your core, improve your endurance and help you learn to play without pain.  You can find me via my website: www.MusicStrong.com and I’m always around on Face book: www.facebook.com/MusicStrong.  Come by and say hello, or send me an email with your comments and questions to angela@musicstrong.com  I look forward to hearing from you!

Creating a new identity in the performing arts

The title of this post is my vision statement. My 5 year goal is to create a new identity for myself as a physical therapist, Andover Educator, flutist, teacher and writer. How did I get on this path and how do I plan to do it all?

Musicians are quite accustomed to wearing many hats. In addition to just loving music and wanting to engage with it for a living, I’m also attracted to how my routine isn’t so routine. I can be doing any number of different things in a normal day, and I love that. It keeps things fresh.

So maybe you’re saying, “OK. I get that you’re a flutist, teacher and writer but what’s an Andover Educator and how is physical therapy related?”

Free Alexander Technique to Your Email: Sarah Chatwin’s Seven Steps to Less Pain, More Poise

While there is no substitute for hands-on work and individual attention, these free 7 steps of smart Alexander Technique “reminders” make it worth it to subscribe.  The free e-course is called Seven Steps to Less Pain, More Poise. Put your name and email into the boxes on Alexander Technique teacher Sarah Chatwin’s site and the course is delivered straight to your in-box.

This is Your Brain on Music

I usually don’t pay attention to fitness magazines, but I flipped through this one the other day and came across some information I thought would be good to share.  This came from Self Magazine September 2011 and is copied verbatim.

Shoulder Circuit for Improved Flute Playing – Courtesy of Nick Tuminello

Today I bring you a post from Coach Nick Tuminello. He has written a whole series on the rhomboids, lower traps, and all those key areas that can be problem spots to musicians and desk jockeys alike. Whether you spend your day locked in a practice room or locked behind a desk and yearn to have strong shoulders and a pain-free back, this article is for you.

I can’t highly recommend this series enough. The rhomboids are a muscle that has become chronically stretched and weakened in our “bent over” society: when one bends over a steering wheel, table, computer or music stand the arms pull forward stretching the upper back muscles (and the rhomboids) forward when their main job is to contract and pull the shoulder blades BACK. This can cause weakness, pain and ultimately lead to injury.

The YTWL is a warm-up that I have been seeing and using for quite a long time, sadly, I hardly ever see anyone in the weight room using these movements and if I do, they do them incorrectly. Read and learn and if you want more detailed information he has a whole series on his blog, but he sums it up pretty nicely here.

Play it Safe – From Making Music Magazine

I recently subscribed to an excellent magazine called “Making Music“.  The magazine is geared towards all musicians, from classically trained to rock bands and everyone in between.  They have several features in their current issue I found to be very helpful – an article about Operation Happy Note, which is a program sending musical instruments to troops overseas, an overuse injury prevention article by Janet Horvath and this little blurb regarding tips for recreational musicians:

 

Recreational musicians will often comment that playing an instrument keeps them active.  However, this is not as healthy as it sounds  Most adults need more – moderate physical activity every day.  And, it may even improve your playing and protect you from injury.

According to the National Institute for Health, regular exercise is a critical part of staying healthy.  People who are active live longer and feel  better.  Most adults should get at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five days a week.

 

While this may not be ground-breaking, earth shattering news, it does highlight the importance of more strenuous activity being important for overall health, in addition to what most musicians already know: that playing an instrument can be a sport in and of itself.  Playing an instrument demands a lot of the body and if you are using your instrument for exercise to “keep you active” you may be doing yourself more harm than good.  With musicians having the highest rate of work related injuries, picking up an instrument and getting serious about it as a hobby is not necessarily a well-balanced activity diet.  It’s like someone who works at a desk hunched over a computer all day collapsing in front of the TV on the  couch for several hours for “recreation and relaxation” ; it’s counterproductive and actually harmful.

If you are a recreational musician, and a “desk jockey” to boot, make sure you include regular activity in your DAILY life.  Yes, I said daily.  Playing ultimate frisbee once a week is not healthy, just as it is not healthy to work at your desk all week and then spend 3 hours practicing guitar.  The 30 minutes 5x’s a week guideline is a good place to start; running, walking, hiking, biking, weight lifting, anything that has you moving your body in multiple planes of motion.

If you do nothing else to combat your lifestyle, grab a foam roller and roll yourself out once or twice a day, incorporate some stretches and THEN go play your instrument or jam with your band.  Just be aware of the balance in the rest of your life.  Just like 1 hour in the gym cannot overcome the other 23 hours a day of overeating and bad postural habits, once or twice a day of foam rolling and instrument playing cannot countact the 23 hours a day that you spend in other bad positions.

 

 

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• Movement Quality = Performance Quality (innovativeperformanceandpedagogy.wordpress.com)

Movement Quality = Performance Quality

Sound emanates from the movement of air.  Approaching music-making from this same perspective, movement, offers solutions to the playing obstacles we encounter.

When the musician’s movements are free and fluid, the music will embody these same qualities.  In music-making, they translate into expression and facility.  In your next practice session ask yourself, “What are the movements I need to play/sing this?”  The answer to this simple question is not a complex mathematical equation, it is simply movement which agrees with the body’s anatomical design.  Moving according to design allows elegant and expressive coordination, which is the ideal quality of movement for music-making.

Barbara Conable’s ground-breaking resource, What Every Musician Needs to Know About the Body (GIA), along with companion books authored for specific instruments offer musicians the information to reclaim natural free movement for music-making and life.

I invite you to allow movement to be the foundation to your music-making.  Movement provides the solution to playing obstacles, physical discomforts along with access to expressive freedom.

Hanging Elbows

I recently worked with a flute student who was playing with a nice sound which changed into a fuzzy unfocused sound as she continued.  As I observed her playing I noticed that she raised her left elbow away from her body as the music became more demanding. The location of the elbows as you play is a one indication of how much effort is going into playing.

What is your habit?

Investigate by watching yourself in a mirror or by watching a short video recording of your playing.  Moving the elbows away from the body as you play does not need to be part of your playing.  In order for the elbows to move away from the body, muscles in the torso and arms engage which causes tension that will affect the other muscles that you need to play.  If the elbow(s) is held chronically higher, the muscular effort not only limits rib movement which affects the breath but causes discomfort which can lead to habits that aren’t in line with how the body is designed to move.

I think of the elbows as hanging from the arm/shoulderblade joint on one end and from the hands on the other.  This is a good way to invite the arm muscles to release.  One image I suggest is to imagine that light weights hang from the tips of the elbows to remind you to simple let the elbows and arms hang.

What to do?

First find out if you move your elbows out farther when the technical, sound or endurance demands of the music increase.  If you do, it is time to map the movements you need to play the passage.  Any change in how the elbows hang could be a sign of compensation for limitation in other aspect of your playing.  Two of my favorite Body Mapping resources on arms are Lea Pearson’s “Body Mapping for Flutists” (GIA), and David Vining’s “What Every Trombonist Needs to Know About the Body” (Kagrice Brass Editions).

NFA Recap

So I’ve been back from the convention for a few weeks already, and I haven’t found the time to be able to write anything!  My head has been swimming with thoughts and ideas, but, fortunately for me, business has picked up in a big way and, well, I had a lot to catch up on.  You see, the last day of the convention, an article about me and my boot camp class was run in the Sunday paper.  A full page full color spread in the Lifestyle section!  I’ve seen an increase in personal training clients from that, so I’ve been up to my eye balls in writing plans, training clients, running my boot camp classes and responding to the emails and questions I got from NFA.  I have put out a newsletter since then, which gave a big update on the convention, and if you aren’t signed up for my mailing list, you can do so in the bar to your right where it says “sign up for our newsletter” and I will send you the latest one!

Oh yes, and if you want more information about my boot camp classes (the one to the right was taken at our beach location) you can check out the new website! It’s at www.PCBeachBootCamp.com  I’d love it if you left a comment and can give me your feedback.

So what happened at the NFA?
Presentations!!!!
As stated in previous blog posts, I was very blessed to have been able to give two presentations.  The first was on Friday at 5 PM and was a panel discussion titled “Injury Prevention and Pain Management”.  My fellow panel members, Dr. Susan Fain, Karen Lonsdale and Lea Pearson along with myself all spoke on different topics relating to playing the flute and some suggestions on overcoming the special health challenges it presented.  Lea talked about breathing and body mapping, Karen talked about the ergonomics of the flute and how to set up for practicing be it solo or in a band setting and Susan talked about some common injuries and solutions to them with posture and stretching.  I, of course, gave a quick overview on the benefits of strength training for flutists.  I had so much to say and sadly, I ran out of time – 10 minutes just isn’t long enough!

We had a really wonderful turnout and I did not have enough handouts for everyone to get one, so if you would like a copy of my handout for this presentation and did not receive one, you can download it here:

Using Strength Training to Prevent Injury and Improve Pain

My second presentation was just me and it was on Sunday at 8 AM.  I went far more into depth about the benefits of strength training for flutists, and then demonstrated proper weight lifting form (which we all did together), did a little body mapping in finding where our hips are (here’s a hint, it’s not the bone that sticks out) and then we did some sample stretches and some activation exercises.  It was a lot of fun, and again, I ran out of time.
The easiest way to for me to remedy my problem is for flute clubs and associations to hire me to come out for a day or a weekend to give a workshop and then we can really go  in-depth about how things work, and do some exercises together!  In fact, I had a few people approach me about doing that very thing so be on the lookout to see me coming to your area and if you would like me to come to your area, you can get in touch with me by emailing me at angela@musicstrong.com or via the contact link on my website: www.musicstrong.com

Again I had a great turn out and ran out of handouts so if you would like a handout and didn’t get one, you can download it here:

Lift, Play, Love : Basic Weight Lifting for Efficient Flute Playing

I also had a “muscle man” image that I used that went along with both handouts. You can get him here:

Career Development Workshop

I am very grateful to have been selected as a participant in the 2nd Annual Career and Artistic Development Committee’s Career Development Workshop.  The room was not nearly big enough to hold all the people and we had people spilling out into the hallway trying to get in!  We learned a lot of things: from how to write a mission statement, to a bio, to a cover letter, to how to take a good publicity photo and what NOT to do.

In addition, I and two other people got to present our business ideas to the group and ask for help on certain parts of our projects.  I presented my business Music Strong, and while it is not exactly in its fledgling stages and I have a lot of the work done, my biggest problem is in reaching my audience.  I needed help finding out how to go to where the flutists are and where the people who need me are.

I got a LOT of positive feedback from people who heard me; compliments on the business concept, comments on how excited people were that I was doing this and overall enthusiasm for my business.  I also got asked to come give a presentation in Texas, so be on the lookout for information there!

Other wonderful happenings

I had a lot of great things happen at the convention.  Besides my name getting out there and being recognized, I was also asked to help man the Performance Health Committee’s booth.  I was more than happy to do so – not only for the opportunity to socialize and network with my fellow health professionals, but to answer questions and help the myriad of people who came by with health questions.  It is so rewarding to be able to look at someone, listen to their problems and even if you cannot diagnose or fix their problems, you can give them HOPE and that is super exciting.

I made a lot of new connections, new friends and got a lot of great music I hope to be performing soon.  The convention was a success in every way and I’m very blessed to be able to have been a part of it. Now I’m working on presentation proposals for next year for Vegas!

If you went to the convention, if you got the chance to come to these presentations, workshops or even if you didn’t, I’d love to hear your comments about it and if you have suggestions on future articles or presentations, I am welcome to those as well.

Meanwhile, here are some pictures from the convention.  I hope you enjoy!

See you in Vegas!

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When Was the Last Time You Took A Break?

Like most siblings, I grew up driving my brother crazy, and him doing the same to me. He’d try to hug me, I’d get grossed out, he’d get mad, I’d cry, you know, the usual. Then I went to college and left him at home with mom and dad and the coolest thing happened: we became friends.

I count my brother among one of my best friends now. He knows me unlike few others (save my husband and parents) and can relate to me on a large scale. We both love music (though in different ways), LOVE lifting and can talk for hours about nutrition, psychology and our workouts.

One of the funniest things that happens between us happens over and over again. One of us will call the other looking for advice about some aspect of nutrition or asking some question about “why is my strength stalling? I can’t bust through my plateau!” etc. and invariably, one of us will ask the other

“When was the last time you took a break?”

It never fails, give us a few months and one of us will be calling the other complaining about something and that question will arise from the other one of us. That’s one of the neat things about having a sibling with which you share a lot of common traits: we undersand that both of us

• overanalyze things to death
• are dead-set of getting things right the first time
• When we get into something we go in 110% – we don’t dabble….which invariably leads to burnout

All of these traits can be seen in a positive or negative light. On the positive side, the analyzation leads to greater self-awareness and discovery with deeper understanding for future struggles and the perfectionism and enthusiasm belie a FANTASTIC work ethic. On the negative, the analyzing will drive our friends and/or significant others crazy, we tend to lose out on the learning process by perfectionism and by ceasing to dabble in something, burnout occurs a lot faster. I’m willing to bet that a lot of you reading this can relate to me on one, if not all of those personality traits.

So the question invariably comes up

When was the last time you took a break?

From dieting?

From training?

From practicing?

etc.
The list can go on and on. We all need times of solitude, times of respite, of quiet. We need times to break out of our routines and habits – which is why we go on vacations. But sometimes, you don’t necessarily need a vacation from life, you need a vacation from your workout or your diet.

Two Take-Home Points

1. If you find yourself asking “when was the last time I took a break” and have a hard time answering definitively, that’s your first clue it’s time for a break

2. There are warning signs everywhere

• you are not sleeping well
• you have no desire to workout
• you are frequently tired
• You DREAD going to practice and when you are there, you get very little done, you have little stamina
• You are in pain more often
• The things that used to bring you joy now cause you dread
• just thinking about your workout makes you tired
• you suffer physically. This can be seen in any number of ways, be it lack of sleep, lack of interest in things, joint pain, muscle pain, headaches, feeling “wired but tired”, hair becomes dry or falls out, you get sick more often and take longer to recover (sick can mean anything from viruses to allergies, because your immune system becomes cocmpromised)

The gym is for tearing down, rest is for repair and building

When you lift weights, you aren’t going to build or strengthen your body, you are literally tearing your body down. You cause low-grade (sometimes mid-grade) inflammation and during REST is when your body repairs the damage you’ve done, creating new tissue, stronger or bigger tissue. If you are constantly working out, going heavy 6 days a week and not giving your body a chance to repair, pretty soon you’re going to hit a wall.

Rest is underrated and you desperately need it. If you’ve been lifting 5-6 days per week for years, I beg you to stop. Switch to 3 days a week and work your whole body. Do the big lifts: deadlifts, squats, bench press, pull ups or rows and throw in extra stuff for mobility and stability like lunges on top of it. It will feel weird at first, but I dare you to do it for 3 months and see if you don’t grow more during that time than you ever have since you started.

Sometimes, you need a break from your diet.

We have break times like this at Christmas, Thanksgiving and maybe your Grandma’s birthday party, but if you have been anal retentive about your diet or even been gung-ho and “on your diet” for months and can’t remember the last time you just let yourself eat….it’s time. You have to be willing to trust yourself that you will do yourself no harm by not tracking and weighing your food. If you’ve been dieting for months and can’t remember the last time you ate at maintenance calories, then today is the day. Stop today and take 2 weeks, starting today, and eat at maintenance calories.

What about practicing?

So what happens when you take a break?

You might find out that a host of good things happens. Not only does your enthusiasm for the sport or the instrument return, in regards to lifting: you might have gotten stronger, or bigger or even leaner, depending on what you were trying to accomplish in the first place. When the inflammation response goes down, water drops, muscle repairs and hormones stabilize, good things happen and suddenly, what you were training for, actually starts to work the way you were hoping.

Calves like these are grown OUT of the gym. Just ask my brother, they belong to him and he works out 2 DAYS A WEEK.

In regards to practicing, I assure you, your technique does not fly out the window, your tone does not disappear, nor do you simply lose everything you worked for in the last decade. On the contrary. Just like in lifting, good things can happen. Your tone, your technique, your memory, whatever you’ve been working on can actually IMPROVE!

Point in case…

Let me tell you a story. At some point during my first year of graduate school I said to myself “I want to be principal flute of USO” (the top university orchestra). I thought this thought once and filed it away in my subconscious. I worked very hard on my excerpts and worked all year to improve.

Then came the summer. I knew I should practice, and I did, in fact, but I practiced piccolo mostly. I didn’t practice that much. A few hours a week, maybe, not a few hours a day. I began practicing in earnest about a week or two before auditions for the next school year, just to see how things were.

I stepped into the practice room and to my amazement,

• my tone was better
• my technique was spot on, better than during the school year and more accurate
• my excerpts, while certainly not flawless, were better than I had ever played them, even without working on them all summer.

I went in to the audition room, played the Debussy the best I ever had (in one breath no less!) , nailed William Tell FLAWLESSLY, had FUN in the audition and guess what? I got 1st chair.
What happened?

What happened was that I gave my body, my mind and my abilities time to rest. I worked hard all year on improving my technique, my tone and my excerpts, then I basically took 2-3 months OFF. It allowed my brain and my body to actually absorb and process what I had learned. You see, you don’t necessarily get better when you are in the middle of practicing, the results show up later. What they forget to tell you is that it’s partly a result of rest.

So, take heart from my story, and take a break. Your body will thank you.

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