Violinists, Muscles and Dangerous Exercises: Five Exercises to Avoid
There is no doubt that the combination of the relatively unnatural position used to play the violin and the demands of long hours of rehearsal on inappropriate seating take their toll on violinists, making professional injuries the proverbial elephant in the room.
Certainly, to negate these problems, the modern player is often smart enough to seek out the optimal way of playing, do Alexander technique, some kind of stretching routine or whatever. So far so good.
However, this is really only half of the picture. The other half concerns growing old itself, which may be less tangibly related to players up until the age of around 40 when they start to notice problems...
It is now being widely argued that the single most important yardstick for longevity in general (as opposed to violin playing life span) is muscle mass. It seems that muscle has a hugely complex relationship with things like immunity, mental health and the like which had not previously been considered. Unfortunately there is a problem. Beginning at 30, the body naturally starts to lose at least three to five percent of muscle mass per decade. By the time one gets older, we are quite likely to be in the 20 percent of adults suffering from a condition known as as Sarcopenia (not an Italian violin maker), which is basically a severe loss of muscle mass and strength. That’s why old people can’t walk, get up off the floor, go shopping or twist the lid off the sauerkraut jar.
Fortunately there is a solution: weight training (of any kind). Please don’t switch off here if you automatically picture weight training as simply muscle-hounds in Gold’s gym, world’s apart from the gentle art of violin playing. Apart from this over-narrow view of weight training, people often switch off here because they are already doing a lot of exercise of some form or another. That’s great. So am I. And whether it’s walking, swimming, jogging, yoga, a light routine with dumbbells every morning or whatever, it is tremendously beneficial for health and one should give oneself a well deserved pat on the back!
However, we do have to face reality: not one of these or similar activities will prevent muscle loss. We need to lift pretty heavy weights and gradually increase the poundage to preserve our muscle mass for our old age. (This does not necessarily have to be with weights, since there are plenty of books out there describing good ways of using our own body weight to do weight training. I am ignoring these.) ) We certainly do not need to spend a long time in the gym, but the work out needs to be quite intense, focused on basic exercises with free weights or kettlebells.(try to avoid machines).
If we do add this training to our lifestyle as best we can then long rehearsals, hours of practice and nagging injuries can be avoided well into our old age as violinists. Optimal is a short but heavy session three times a week. For many, this is simply not possible, but a heavy kettle bell kept in the kitchen for a five minute morning routine is pretty good. We have to do what we can!
Having said that, I will finally get to a list of exercises which violinists should avoid like crazy. There are five.
- If you are weight training, never do a behind-the-neck press. It will wreck your neck and spine. Period. This is well-known and yet we still see many people doing it in gyms.
- Barbell pull-ups: hands are close together and weight is pulled to chin so arms are parallel while elbows rise up parallel to floor. This finish position has the shoulder joint rotated inwards and is quite likely to cause rotator cuff injuries which could end your playing career.
- Back extensions where you lie on your stomach and raise your chest and your feet together. This wrecks the back. Not to be confused with the cobra in yoga which is relatively safe if done properly and with caution.
- Crunches. This exercise will give you some development of abdominals which has minimal effect on posture compared to for example, kettle bell work which develops the anterior posture. It is not a means of preventing or curing back ache, as many trainers/doctors still believe.
- Neck rolls. When you do a neck roll you can hear a very satisfying crunch a lot of the time. Don’t be satisfied! This is actually all the vertebrae in the top of the neck grinding against each in completely abnormal usage and is causing serious damage to your neck. The neck does not multi task! Instead, tilt the head forward/backwards/turn left and right and lean it over to the sides. These single direction movements are natural, healthy and much more effective than career ending neck rolls.
Nothing about spiccato but I hope it gives some of us a nudge. Happy practicing,
Buri
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yep. I do yoga with Adrienne and although I suspect she is a little wary of them (she suggests you rotate leading from the nose) I am surprised they are still around.
Good luck with the rehab,
Buri
Leave it to you to say something that so needed to be said, so well and so particularly usefully. Thanks!
That list looks the same as what is on a youtube clip from a physical therapist; what exercises Not to do after age 50. Instead of neck rolls do the neck stretches in 3 lateral directions; back-front, side to side, right-left. For weights err on the light side. our joints are fragile and take many months to heal from impact or repetitive motion injuries. Fatigued muscles only need one day's rest.
A great article by Buri. Joel, I like the points you have added above. Would it be possible for you to give a link to the YouTube physio vid?
Hi Richard,
Here is the link:
https://youtu.be/RhwLxtMbWHY?si=V2MOdsMi4L5XfC8a
Joel, I agree with ‘erring on the light side’ in the sense of starting carefully and not going to the extremes we often se ein gyms. However, having found what is right for us we should not be doing the 12-15 rep good but lightish range. We need to go a little heavier and work in the 8-10 rep range. There is no reason to get repetitive stress injuries from weight training.
Cheers,
Buri
Many thanks!
Edited to add: the rolling neck is popular among choir directors. I've been warned to avoid it, and replace it with slow nodding and gentle side to side movement L and R.
Ah, choir directors... They are probably secretly doing it for revenge.
BTW this guY7s book is worth reading.
i'm doing some specific weight exercises (and fisiotherapy) for my arms because i have short nerves on my left hand and must compensate with stronger muscles. sadly i will never be able to do a good vibrato (my vibrato is forever like a beginner one, very narrow and weak). i hope people doesn't judge me when i play some great concerto pieces with little or no vibrato at all. they don't know about my condition :(
Thank you, Buri. And I admire your perseverance doing yoga with Adriene.
Thanks but think of poor old Adriene connecting with me at 4:30 every morning for the last four years.
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November 29, 2023 at 02:50 AM · Thanks Buri. I have been doing light weight training, abdominal and balance exercises to help recover from surgery two years ago. I usually end up with the standard yoga neck rolls. I was just thinking the last few days about the efficacy of these as they just don't feel right. I will sub your suggestion.