Will Lifting Weights Improve Drumming?
Hey, Brendan Jones from H91 Drum School in Galway City, providing both online and private drum coaching. Many years ago I was hitting a dead end trying to speed up my double bass pedal playing. No matter what i did i couldn’t get past a certain tempo, I started researching leg exercises to increase speed. Either the exercises were not that good or i didn’t have the patience to stay at it, (id imagine the latter) whatever the reason, It resulted in me hitting the same wall with virtually no improvement.
Recently, i’ve been looking into gym exercises that help improve the muscles that are used in drumming. But most of the articles i’ve research recommend a full body workout. But why would you work your full body if you wanted to improve only the muscles used in drumming? So, what are the muscles that are actively in use when we are drumming? And if we work on them in the gym, will it be a contributing factor in the improvement of our drumming?
The muscles that are actively in use when a drummer is drumming are Shoulders, Tricep, Forearms, Calves and Shin muscles. Focusing on the these areas of the body with weights in the gym will increase the strength of the muscles a drummer uses when drumming.
But will you get better at drumming? I will argue tooth and nail over the truth of the following two statements. 1. It will improve a drummers resistance to fatigue at the end of a long show. 2. The exercises in the video will aid a drummer in avoiding drumming injury.
My main point in the video is that when working on a area of our drumming we wish to improve, the speed in which the improvement happens is down to a drummers muscle memory. If you don’t know, muscles are very slow learners. So the idea is that working these muscles makes them more active. Therefore when you are working on that area you wish to improve on the drum kit combined with this gym workout it will increase the speed of the improvement. Of course this is open to argument. See the video below.
Shoulders: Front lateral Raise / Side lateral Raise: 3 sets/5-8KG/8-10 Reps
Forearms: Picking Cherries: 30 sec- 1 minute/3 sets Dumbbell Roll: 3 sets/LOW WEIGHT 2KG/ 30 SEC - 1 MIN
Back: Lat Pulldown/Seated Row: 3 sets/comfortable weight/ 8-10 Reps
Tricep: Over Head Extension/ Kickbacks: 3 sets/comfortable weight/ 8-10 Reps
Calf: Calf Raise: 3 sets/weight if desired / 8-10 Reps
Shin: Towel Exercise: 30 sec- 1 minute/3 sets
Do you need to work out in the gym to become a better drummer? Maybe. In my opinion, working with these key muscles in the gym combine with with correct practice of the instrument, will speed up improvement as well as pushing off fatigue and strengthening the muscle to avoid injury.
I hope you enjoyed this blog and hope it helped you. Please let me know if it did and if you have any question get in contact with me.
For more drumming related videos you might think of subscribing to my Youtube channel and connect with me on social media. (Brendrum_jones)
Look after yourself and be nice to one another.
