Musicians and Exercise a Case Study
posted in Musicians |Musicians don’t prepare their bodies, they just practise their technique. It’s as if a gymnast only practised spinning somersaults but didn’t do any weights or other training.
Treating Physician clinic at London College of Music
A common analogy seems to be highlighted regularly between professional Musicians and Athletes, as an Exercise Physiologist this interests me. The question I have is:
How accurate is this analogy? Are professional Musicians like Athletes?
Well they practice all the time, they have high performance expectations, they have definite benchmarks for success and failure and they are subject to high physical demands for set periods of time with a limited amount of time for rest and recovery.
The obvious comparisons are there; yes Musicians are required to perform like Athletes. The difference is Musicians have not had the same opportunities to learn about optimal performance like many Athletes have. Musicians practice does not contain the same vital and varied ingredients that Athletes training has involved for some time.
Athletes have been educated and developed by various professionals for many years. Hence Athletes have been taught that optimal performance requires a vast amount of training and preparation across a number of areas and not simply technique.
Athletes do not simply practice their skill, their technique. Athletes train their bodies to be fit, their minds to be positive and ready, and learn to effectively use rest and recovery to ensure that training and performance is optimised every time. Athletes have a very thorough understanding of how the fitness of their body relates to the strength of their performance. They have learned body awareness, recognising problems as they occur. Importantly many Athletes understand when something needs to be done in order to correct a problem and avoid injury. Coaches work to develop this understanding and awareness in Athletes throughout their career.
Finally the schedule of Athletes is carefully planned. An Athlete is not going to physically train during a competition. An Athlete will work up to a competition or performance, aiming to be in good condition when the competition starts. From that point on the Athlete will focus on performance (concentrating on technique), maintenance and recovery.
Can Musicians be like Athletes?
Absolutely and they should be. The first step for Musicians is the athletic mindset. Like Athletes, Musicians need to develop their body awareness. Through working on weaknesses, relieving tension, focusing on physical recovery, Musicians could improve their response to practice and performance. The opportunity through development and support, is that Musicians could in-deed, be like Athletes.
It is worthy of note that Athletes often have a relatively short career due to the physical demands of their sport compared with Musicians. This doesn’t change the point however, in fact it reinforces that Musicians must maintain and preserve a healthy body in order to withstand the long duress of top level orchestral music and not neglect these aspects.
The aim for Musicians is to experience a far more consistent state of optimal performance with less effort and pain and more enjoyment. It all comes down to recognising that performance relies on some fundamental building blocks of fitness and recovery and not just rehearsal.
Alex Cox-Taylor
Exercise Physiologist