At a time when we are using our bodies in overdrive for technology, it’s important we consider how we maintain a healthy physiology. When we compound keyboarding on devices with keyboarding on musical instruments (of course many other types of instruments and jargon to describe their uses), we must consider our bodies like high level athletes.

When musicians train, we learn specific movements, endurance, speed and strength. We are basically Olympic Athletes using finer motor skills. Like all athletes, we need to train. We warm up with stretching, exercises (both isometric and isotonic) including away from at and at the instrument, resistance training, working with repetition on speed, strength and endurance. We spend many hours in often very uncomfortable positions. Injuries happen frequently and musicians are often not trained to deal with them or trained how to prevent them.

I encourage all musicians to get to the gym, explore overall fitness but also learn exercises to help with countering specific repetitive movements we use playing our instruments. Exercise is key to both a healthy body and a healthy mind!