Efficacy of Resistance Training in Reducing Injury Risk and Managing Performance-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders in Instrumental Musicians

And it's interesting.

I was telling you that I played the trumpet in high school, so I don't think I'm speaking ill of a specific group of people.

But, you know, you hear of the terminology in high school of band geeks and the people who aren't athletic, they go do marching band or concert band and the athletes go do that.

And that really isn't the case, as you're describing.

I'm curious, one of the things that came up in my mind as we're talking, to be at that elite level, you're practicing 12, 14 hours a day.

Is that going to require to really get an individual or a get the norm to become involving strength and conditioning activities is that going to require a paradigm shift where okay we need to practice a little bit less to do the strength and conditioning and that's going to be beneficial for our performance rather than we always run into this in the sports field of oh we need to do strength and conditioning we'll pile that on top of the practice schedule already

yeah that's that's right on point um Let me just say from the outset, when I was doing 14 hours a day, I was inefficient, right? That should not be necessary.

That is too much practicing.

Unfortunately, it's not atypical.

So the answer is yes, we should be carving out space within a finite period of dedicated physical investment in the instrument for the actual strength and conditioning training to occur.

And in my deep dive into the literature, one of the limiting factors I encountered really is time.

Many musicians are busy, especially those who play, for example, in an orchestra.

I live in Chicago, so I know a lot of members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

They're amazing players.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra schedule is grueling, and their performances are all at night.

And so, you know, their circadian rhythms are completely skewed.

They, you know, leading up to a performance, they really need to focus and they need to practice and they need to be getting in whatever meals they can.

And training is hard to even consider on a day like that.

And those days are just rinse and repeat.

It's all the time.

So yeah.

You're absolutely right.

It's like finding the time is one of the key variables here.

And I think there is a paradigm shift that needs to happen.

And I think it needs to happen earlier than the point at which someone is already an established professional.