Performing Like an Athlete

I have mentioned before that playing an instrument is a very physical activity and have stressed the importance of maintaining adequate physical health to support your efforts in the practice room. As I am currently preparing for my recital (April 9th at 6PM EDT), I have been experimenting and exploring ways to combine my knowledge as a certified personal trainer to the practice room. Each of the following 4 areas are simply my theories behind applying standard resistance training principles to training for a performance.

(Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional nor do I seek to give medical advice. Please consult your primary care physician prior to making any significant changes in your life.)

1. Rest

In resistance training, rest is one of the most important aspects of achieving your goals with a specific program. Short rest periods are used for muscle hypertrophy or endurance whereas longer rest periods are used to increase strength. During rest periods, your muscles are replenishing their ATP stores from the burst of activity. For brass playing, our embouchure is the muscle group that we're working out so rest periods should be considered. If you are focusing on accuracy of a specific passage, you are focusing on the strength of your embouchure to play those notes in sequence. Consequently, longer rest periods could be beneficial to allowing your muscles to strengthen in a way that enables you to play the passage. When focusing on consistency and endurance, the shorter rest periods are your friends. Shorter rest periods challenge your muscles to work with less energy immediately available to them.

Another thing to consider with rest is the importance of rest days. For some reason, there is a prevailing attitude that it is expected for musicians to play their instruments every single day. I had fallen victim to this thinking in the last few months until I hit a wall, took two days off, and then saw all the progress that had been hiding behind my overworked face return. Your body needs time off in order to truly make progress in muscle development through repairing damaged tissue, so do not deny it this opportunity!

2. Building Endurance

Before every endurance event, an athlete has to train to work up to it. In the same way, before a recital, musicians need to build the endurance to perform for an hour straight. This does not come easy, as even with practicing several hours a day, putting on a full performance is a whole different animal that presents many physical and mental challenges. As musicians, we must gradually increase our capacities to perform demanding programs to avoid injuring ourselves in the process. Just as athletes injure themselves when they push harder than what they trained for, musicians will have the same issues.

My process for this recital had been daily practice of 4 hours up to a month before. Then, starting a month before, I began to add in a run of the program once a week with a light day of practice before it. Last week, 2 weeks out, I ran the program every other day, taking the day off in-between runs. This week, I will be running the program two days before and then keeping my practice time light until warming up the day of. I have asked a number of my colleagues for advice on how to approach preparing for this difficult program, and this is the routine I have developed using their knowledge and what I know from being a personal trainer. Try a few things, figure out what works for you, and stick to it!

3. Proper Form

The body is incredibly good at finding ways to make things happen in ways they shouldn’t. It’s very easy to do exercises with terrible form because your body doesn’t want to disappoint your brain. However, when we train with poor form, we can develop muscle imbalances that may lead to injury in the future. This same concept applies to playing an instrument. If you don’t have proper breath support or a solid embouchure, your body will naturally find ways to compensate for this—even if they are not the best thing for you. For example, while preparing for this recital, a new issue appeared in which air leaked from my nose while I played. The consequences of my years playing without proper upper register technique finally appeared, and I was very much regretting not taking it seriously sooner. As you gear up for a performance, ensure that you are utilizing the best technique at all times. Beware of the small compensations your body will make to force things to happen.

4. Mindset

If you have read any of my other posts, you know how much I love to stress the importance of a proper mindset when looking at health and wellness. The same thing goes for preparing for a recital. Your body’s mind-muscle connection is one of the strongest factors to determine the results of your training. When playing an instrument, we are completing an intellectual task along with a physical one, so it is even more important here. Go into your practice sessions ready to learn, grow, and make progress—this mindset shift will allow these things to happen. Often times, if I am in a miserable state when I go to practice, and I reflect this with thoughts of failure, difficulty, and resistance, the practice session ends up embodying those feelings. Consequently, I create a self-fulfilling prophecy because I thought I would fail and I do. While it is natural to not want to practice at times, try to view each practice session as an opportunity for growth. With that thought process, even the most mentally painful sessions can yield progress. Additionally, the value of mental practice should not be underestimated. Simply looking over your music and fingering through phrases will solidify the mental connection you have to the piece you’re playing.

Bonus Theory: Potential Benefits of supplementing creatine monohydrate

(I want to do an unofficial study on this, so if you play a brass instrument and do not currently use creatine, please contact me!) Creatine monohydrate is the one supplement that has been proven to increase performance in the gym. Creatine is naturally found in your muscles and contributes to the amount of ATP they have access too. By supplementing creatine, one can expect fuller muscles, increased performance, and more strength in the gym. I take creatine to help fuel my workouts, and I believe it has contributed to my stamina during playing as well. As brass players, we utilize our face muscles in ways that most people do not. As I mentioned before with the importance of rest to allow your body to replenish its ATP stores, I believe there may be similar benefits in increasing the ATP stores through supplementing creatine. It should enable us to have more endurance and less muscle soreness post-practice.

I hope this post can give you some new things to consider when preparing for your next big performance. If anything resonates with you or you have additional thoughts on performance preparation, let me know.