Lifting weights and drumming

drummermatt93

Junior Member
Hello everyone,

I've been working out for the past few months. I work out rather often, let's say 3 times a week.. My actual question is: Will drumming affect my gains while I'm on my restdays, since it's quite an intense activity in which you use most of your muscles?
 
Depends. If you are lifting weights to "Bulk up" then lots of drumming will probably not be a good fit. It probably wont help your drumming either as your muscles will be fatigued from the weights session.

If you are working out for general fitness then it wont be a problem.
 
Weights for endurance and drumming OK. Weights for strength and drumming. Wasted time. Drum sticks weigh 2 ounces. Bass drum pedal springs need about 2 pounds to compress, give or take. Ankle weights and the like for drumming are a waste of time.
 
Ankle weights and the like for drumming are a waste of time.
But you said it yourself - what if ankle weights are used to increase endurance? That's what they are designed for - be it in a running or drumming context. You wear them, the body gets adjusted to moving more mass, preferably at the same speed as you'd do without. Then you remove the weights and enjoy the perceived ease (which will decrease after a while of course. I do have 2 sets of ankle weights but rarely use them. From having used them a few times I can confirm they do have a nice effect, definitely not a waste of time, at least in my experience.

I think it's somewhat different as for sticks though. Any 'increase' in heavier sticks must be utilized for your 'normal' playing. Also, heavier sticks won't do anything for developing more touch.

I agree drumming is way more about endurance (and speed, and control) than sheer power.

If you feel tired after a workout - don't focus on speed or pushing yourself but on timing, precision, reading exercises or creativity.
 
I've been working out again for the past 7 weeks (very intensely, 5-6 days a week) - alternating cardio and weight training to tone. It's given my endurance and drumming a massive boost, everything has been improved quite a bit.
 
I've been working out again for the past 7 weeks (very intensely, 5-6 days a week) - alternating cardio and weight training to tone. It's given my endurance and drumming a massive boost, everything has been improved quite a bit.

I tend to agree. I don't work out with any intense regimen, but have always noticed good effects for drumming with any kind of exercise - cardio or muscle development.
 
I tend to agree. I don't work out with any intense regimen, but have always noticed good effects for drumming with any kind of exercise - cardio or muscle development.

Especially the cross trainer, even just 15-20 minutes 3-4 times a week, with the incline set quite high, my blast beat endurance has absolutely exploded. And I'm also losing weight quite nicely. Great boost!
 
I believe the best benefits of strength training, as it relates to drumming, is that you will be able to set up/ tear down your gear relatively injury free. That's where I notice the most improvements. I know that when I'm on a gig schlepping my gear and my back starts to get sore, it usually means I have slipped a little in my core training.

As much bending, pushing, pulling, twisting, crouching, etc. that we do on gigs, it's a good idea to strengthen our core, do squats, or pretty much anything that involves larger muscle groups. Not necessarily muscles to help us play faster. As mentioned that is just a waste of time.
 
But you said it yourself - what if ankle weights are used to increase endurance? That's what they are designed for - be it in a running or drumming context. You wear them, the body gets adjusted to moving more mass, preferably at the same speed as you'd do without. Then you remove the weights and enjoy the perceived ease (which will decrease after a while of course. I do have 2 sets of ankle weights but rarely use them. From having used them a few times I can confirm they do have a nice effect, definitely not a waste of time, at least in my experience.

I think it's somewhat different as for sticks though. Any 'increase' in heavier sticks must be utilized for your 'normal' playing. Also, heavier sticks won't do anything for developing more touch.

I agree drumming is way more about endurance (and speed, and control) than sheer power.

If you feel tired after a workout - don't focus on speed or pushing yourself but on timing, precision, reading exercises or creativity.

Ankle weights are the number one source of Achilles tendon issues. The amount of endurance you will gain with that small amount of weight is minimal. And again they do as much to help play as it does to swing two baseball bats before stepping into the batters box. As soon as you foul tip that first pitch off you have lost any of that extra weight feel
 
Doing calf presses, and then using a double bass pedal, is the only workout issue I have.
Achilles tendon acts up, and I have to take a break from both for a bit.
Other than that, never had a problem.
 
Especially the cross trainer, even just 15-20 minutes 3-4 times a week, with the incline set quite high, my blast beat endurance has absolutely exploded. And I'm also losing weight quite nicely. Great boost!

Yeah, that's one of the things I have; one from Bayou Fitness. I love the thing.

Any group of muscles you work will help with endurance. The heart and lungs are all about that. Speed, not really. Power, only if you need to break sticks. For those genres that require some endurance, though, working out can benefit that.

Very true about the core, too.
 
I never noticed my gym having any effect on my drumming.

The only time I have had issues was when I went snowboarding or hiking, that did affect my legs a bit.

It's possible that I'm just being ignorant though. I would be interested to know if my drumming affects my gym performance.

I think a drummers muscles are more attuned to longevity, more reps and light weights (as is the case with drumming), I wonder if this affects our ability to lift heavy weights in fewer reps, or some other thing.
 
I worked out in my thirties and it never affected my drumming. I always did heavy weight too where I am straining to get that 7th or 8th rep in. I have no endurance issue or back problem or hand and arm problems. I think all that lifting has paid dividends well into my 40's. I'd like to get back into it, but my social anxiety and general dislike of crowds keeps me away now. Plus, those memberships cost too much money.
 
I worked out in my thirties and it never affected my drumming. I always did heavy weight too where I am straining to get that 7th or 8th rep in. I have no endurance issue or back problem or hand and arm problems. I think all that lifting has paid dividends well into my 40's. I'd like to get back into it, but my social anxiety and general dislike of crowds keeps me away now. Plus, those memberships cost too much money.

You could find a quiet gym though. I'm joining a new one soon, I'm gonna find the most deserted place I can.
 
Skeletal muscles consist of fast twitch (which easily fatigue) and slow twitch muscles (slow to fatigue great for postural muscles). When you lift weights you increase the muscle size-hypertrophy. This is caused by more contractile proteins per cell but also satellite cells are recruited to make new muscle cells. Activity of muscle influences this building-few repetitions and heavy weights-more slow fibers, and faster activity with lighter weights-more fast fibers. A sprinter will have more fast fibers than an olympic weight lifter. I use to play football in high school and I was bulked up like the Hulk-I had no speed I discovered. I took up martial arts and lost 60 pounds and I was a gazelle.
 
You could find a quiet gym though. I'm joining a new one soon, I'm gonna find the most deserted place I can.

It's a little hard around here, but I'm sure it's possible. I got to thinking about this a little more. What I said was based on my drumming back then when I didn't play so much and my wife took a lot of my time. These days though, my arms are so sore from all the drumming I do that I'm not sure I'd even want to work on my arms. But there's plenty of other things to work on. When I work out, I go hard, or I used to. My muscles would get very sore. Most of that goes away when you get into the swing of things, but when I drum a lot my arms are really sore and need that time to heal.
 
Yeah, that's one of the things I have; one from Bayou Fitness. I love the thing.

Any group of muscles you work will help with endurance. The heart and lungs are all about that. Speed, not really. Power, only if you need to break sticks. For those genres that require some endurance, though, working out can benefit that.

Very true about the core, too.

Yeah, I'm doing black metal - there's a lot of blast beats and fast drumming, definitely helps for that.
 
Working out has always helped me, when I was playing hard rock/metal in my late 40's, a 4 hour night of playing that type of music required a lot of stamina. It would of been much harder if I didn't work out regularly.
 
Hard to gneralize about weights as there are many ways to incorporate them. If the goal is just to bulk up and doing stuff that isn't healthy and balanced maybe not so good, but anything else should be a positive thing.
 
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