Your Body is Your Instrument
Rehearsing /Performing Keeping in great physical shape is not a vanity activity for the singer. It is not a luxury. It is a professional necessity. But where are you going to find the time and energy? After going crazy at your day job, gobbling a fast bite on the way to a night rehearsal, you're strapped at both ends. But you've got to carve it out somewhere, even sacrifice 30 minutes of rehearsal if you must, to make the rest of the rehearsal a killer. Anyway, couldn't the musicians stand to tighten up their parts with a run-through before you show up? In my experience, the singer has to do too much work at arehearsal, singing over and over again just for the instrumentalist to get it right, while you wear out your voice.
Exercise improves singing by way of increasing your cardiovascular strength and breath stamina, by stimulating your endorphins (natural opiates released by exercise) and by strengthening your overall muscle tone. It can help you sing higher, clearer, with less strain, and more energy and emotion. If you chose the right kind of exercise at the right time of day, you will feel relaxed, clearheaded, invigorated, and more capable of facing the pressures of your overloaded schedule. Plus, I guarantee you will definitely sing better. Definitely.
To make sure you'll stick to your routine, choose activities that suit your lifestyle, climate and geography.
Something you can't get out of just because your gym is closed or your trainer is booked.
Rotate different activities throughout the week, & respect any medical conditions you may have.
Something you can keep up even when traveling.
Something (or a melange of things) you can enjoy at any age.
Marta's PICKS:
The best exercise for singers is endurance swimming. Whether in a pool, lake or ocean, swimming conditions your heart and lungs, tightens your stomach, expands your back, strengthens your tiny rib muscles, increases you breath capacity, and stretches your throat. Before performing, a vigorous 30-minute swim will settle your nerves, pump up your lungs, and kick your endorphins into gear. Follow with a 30-minute vocal warm-up, and you're ready.
Swimming Precautions: Protect your ears, nose, and throat from infections. Wear water-resistant earplugs (I like the waxy kind) and use after-swim ear drops, available over the counter. Avoid cold ocean water because you can develop bone growths know as surfer's ear.
If you are a land creature, Martial arts or Yoga will tune you in and help tremendously with stage fright, or pre-show hypers. Posture, alignment, breath control, power confidence and energy will also improve. Yoga develops strength, balance, breath coordination, mental clarity, concentration and relaxation. Tai Chi, a slow moving, fluid Chinese martial art, teaches you to "center" your energy, while building a sense of connection to the breath. Karate, Tai Kwon Do, and Aikido are also good if you don't do the guttural screaming.
Try Bicycling, running, hiking, brisk walks, skating, basketball, aerobic machines. I like the elliptical cross trainers. Don't hunch your shoulders on the Stair Master!
Marta's RED Flags:
Excessive weight training is a drawback for male singers because it develops the posture incorrectly. Male weight lifters develop rounded backs, necks that slope forward, tense shoulders, inflexible abs and rigid ribs. The result is limited range, decreased lung capacity and decreased resonance. Men should keep their weight training to a balanced workout that creates muscle tone, not mass in the neck and shoulders. However for female singers, moderate weight training is a good idea, because female singers tend to have looser abs from all the breathing expansion. A little tightening up will help.
You may look cute, but you will sing all wrong (unless you only do the sports and mouth the words) and you'll have a very short career - if any at all.
I have taught singing to aerobics instructors and ten-hour per week class addicts: all of them had decreased resonance and range, like the pro dancers. Never get your body as rock hard as a gym instructor if you want to save your voice. Ever notice how they all talk horse with their neck veins popping out? I rest my case.
Causes dehydration, hoarseness, decreased muscle tissue and low body weight.
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