I Need Fitness.

S

sufc.loyal

Guest
i am 40 something years old and 16 stone.

i am not fit, and after 3 hours playing i start to flounder and my playing starts to go to pot.

when playing in a pub this is not to good.

What good exercises do you use out there if any to keep your fitness levels up for drumming.

Kind Regards.
 
Well, drumming aside, the first thing you need to work on is your fitness.

I'd highly suggest you start a comprehensive fitness regime. This should include healthy food and some sort of steady work out routine.

There's a lot to be said for good health, and if you're a healthy human being you'll be better able to accomplish anything you want: whether that's playing a 3 hour pub gig without strain, or even mowing your lawn without taking rest breaks.

I'd also suggest a drum forum is not the best place to get exercises to maintain your fitness. Chat to a doctor or a personal trainer, it's worth the money.
 
I don't think you need to be in good physical shape to play drums. There's lots of fat drummers.
 
I think a lot is to do with arm muscle - strength and endurance as I wouldn't really class drumming as cardio work. I think the best way is just to keep drumming and strengthen the muscle.

Obviously though, overall better fitness would do no harm.
 
Monica McCoy said:
I don't think you need to be in good physical shape to play drums. There's lots of fat drummers.
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This is ridiculous. Sufc.loyal comes here asking for help and you post this?

No, you don't need to be in good physical shape to play drums. But if you treat your body like crap, how do you expect it to serve you well?

Here's a quote from Chuck Silverman (look him up if you don't know him):
"I realized, about 15 or more years ago, that I needed to get and stay in shape if I wanted to remain playing drums. The reasoning was that I knew lifting drums and cases required some strength and agility. And, as a working drummer here in LA, I had to lift and carry my drums around to gigs and sessions."

Read this article:
http://www.chucksilverman.com/exercise.html

I choose to take care of my body.
 
You need to be in great shape, but for reasons far more important than drumming.

If you're getting tired after 3 hours of playing, that's normal, an athlete would be just as tired. If you've gone even 20 minutes of solid drumming, your body can obviously keep up. Fatigue after multiple hours of playing is simply exhausted muscles, don't sweat it. No pun intended.

If you don't mind me asking, what are your "stats"?
 
Monica McCoy said:
I don't think you need to be in good physical shape to play drums. There's lots of fat drummers.
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This has to be one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read. And here, of all places!
Anyway, you need to be in good physical shape to do anything, trust me. I'm 56 years old and I've recently started getting my body good and limber by stretching, lifting and having a lot of sex. You need to be in good physical shape for that, that is if you want to do it right.
"You don't need to be in good physical shape to play drums." Man! Well, I'll give you points for boldness, however wrong you are.
 
Yeah, keeping fit is fairly easy, if you stick at it. You should be able to do that as you play drums!

Pretty much what 'oops' said. Good diet, daily fitness regime (4 times a week is plenty).

Also, mental fitness is just as important as the physical fitness in my opinion. Having those 'down' moments when you think you're not good at drums or won't be able to perfect a certain fill or groove are very cutting on your self-esteem. That then affects your motivation which then will stop you playing the drums altogether.
 
buddhainthesky said:
I think a lot is to do with arm muscle - strength and endurance as I wouldn't really class drumming as cardio work. I think the best way is just to keep drumming and strengthen the muscle.

Obviously though, overall better fitness would do no harm.
Click to expand...

Cardiovascular fitness is a huge part of muscular endurance. The ability of your body to get oxygen to your muscles, and remove waste products is essential to activities like drumming.
 
inflames said:
Yeah, keeping fit is fairly easy, if you stick at it. You should be able to do that as you play drums!

Pretty much what 'oops' said. Good diet, daily fitness regime (4 times a week is plenty).

Also, mental fitness is just as important as the physical fitness in my opinion. Having those 'down' moments when you think you're not good at drums or won't be able to perfect a certain fill or groove are very cutting on your self-esteem. That then affects your motivation which then will stop you playing the drums altogether.
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Your avatar is crazy... I seriously tried to chase the ant off my screen twice.
 
Swimming works magic on pretty much any muscle group. I suggest you try swimming every week. I try to swim each week (though I have been slacking off lately), and it really helps your overall health and fitness.
 
Well Thank You Gentleman.

Some comments made me feel good about myself, some not so good.

I just was not sure if i was doing something wrong or wheather it was just my general fitness level. Still not sure.

My stats are 42 years, 5'10, 16 stone, knacked, over worked, three over active kids, and live in London and drums being a very good outlet.

Still not sure if you need to be fit or have good technique alone to play the drums.

Kind Regards Gentleman.
 
oops said:
Your avatar is crazy... I seriously tried to chase the ant off my screen twice.
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Exactly why i scabbed it off another forum!

Good technique will help you with your drumming as well sufc.loyal. You can develop wrist injuries which names escape me (carpoid syndrome?) and maybe cramps from long stretches of playing.

Could be contradicting my last post, but the most fitness required in drumming would be muscle endurance due to the amount of movement and use of certain mucles in your arms and legs. I for one, have my kick pedals placed with a certain throne height so that when i sit down, the angle at my knee is about 55degrees so i get more power, and less 'cramped' feeling. Hopefully that makes sense
 
I would say the best thing to do. Is if your overweight, it would be best to lose a few pounds, believe me from personally experience you will feel a lot healthier and your fitness will increase dramaticly.

I would suggest hitting a gym to get in all around shape, lifting weights doing cardio. But I would put most of the focus on cardiovascular and endurance training.

The best way to gain more endurance quick I would say is to start going for runs. Start off easy maybe doing only a half mile at a decent pace, then slowly add up the milage. I started off running only a mile once or twice a week. That was two years ago. Now I can run up 12 miles on long runs at decent pace. And I have noticed that this does help a lot on the kit.

In my opinion a healthy body and mind will definatlly improve your drumming.

I'm no PT stud, but if you would like me to help set you up a PT regimen I will be more than glad to help you.
 
inflames said:
Exactly why i scabbed it off another forum!

Good technique will help you with your drumming as well sufc.loyal. You can develop wrist injuries which names escape me (carpoid syndrome?) and maybe cramps from long stretches of playing.
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Awesome!

Carpal tunnel, Tendonitis, DeQuervain's Syndrome (something I'm particularly familiar with) COULD all be caused by a lack of fitness, bad technique or a mixture of the two.
 
ace76543 said:
uh, how so? are you saying there are no fat drummers? ....really?
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Nope, I agree there ARE fat drummers.

Sufc.loyal came on here asking for suggestions for fitness and Monica turns around and says he doesn't need to be fit because there are other unfit drummers in the world.

Just because there ARE unfit/overweight drummers doesn't make it right for you to treat your own body badly.

I think it's sad that a guy like Keith Carlock starts sweating 30 seconds into the first song of a 45 minute set. Sure he commits to playing his butt off, but 30 seconds indicates a slight lack of fitness to me.
 
This was asked to Bill Ward / Black Sabbath, during an interview:

AAJ: What kinds of things do you do to practice and to stay in shape as a drummer?

BW: To stay in shape, I walk. Right now we haven't been doing that many gigs. We've had a couple of problems on Ozzfest this year and hopefully now we're back in the groove and we're going to be able to rock out with the songs, with the shows. But usually, playing a tour as long as we've been on tour—we've been on tour now for a little while—that normally keeps my weight down just playing, regular playing. These days I don't eat, like, anything that I want. I can't eat anything that I want anymore. I have to eat things that are good for me (laughs), which has taken a lot of getting used to. And that, again, by changing those things another release of anger comes, because at first, whenever you can't have something, with me at least, I'm always angry about, like, how come I can't still have large pizzas and all this kind of stuff. Well, the bottom line is you can't have large pizzas because you're going to die if you don't change. So, I try to keep myself very fit. When I am at home I do a lot of walking, every other day, 10 mile walks, eight mile walks, and I walk in the sand five miles to keep my back legs nice and strong.

As a drummer I don't need to have a lot of muscle, but I do need to have stamina. So, to maintain stamina, that's why I do the five mile walks in the sand. They build up back muscles, they're good. Drummers need strong lower backs, as far as I'm concerned. We're sitting on drum stools all the time, you know. I do some very light weights just to keep my shoulders intact. Over the years, mate, there's been so much wear and tear on my body now that my shoulders have gone. I have had one operation on my left shoulder because it was so torn up. It's just gone from playing. You know, it's ripped to pieces. I think most of my fingers are broken except for a couple. With that comes arthritis. It's just the wear and tear of playing over the years. There are all kinds of things that I do though. I can't say enough about massage. I'm talking about sports massage, or Chinese massage, or Japanese massage, where I can keep myself supple and try to keep relaxed. Meditation is a good tool; relaxation is a good tool, learning to relax. All these things are essential.

I hope it helps...
 
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