body and arm muscles/ligaments exercises - Fit & Groovy

[GuruPimpi]

Hello!

After a long time...

I'm wondering if any of you guys dedicates some special attention to stay fit - if anyone of you is occupied with some sports or other body exercises.

I see that many of percussionist, especcially drummers are very fit and muscled. Does anyone know any extra ARM, HAND exercises or sports for getting stamina, strength besides warm ups and building chops? I know that practise of technique is making the ligaments stronger...

In short, what is your sport if any?

I am fan of bycicle...

Primoz

[ABAKUA]

Been involved in various Martial Arts from age 4.
Been instructing for approx 10 years.
Also involved in legal drag racing, and circuit racing, good for the reflexes!

[Jesus Muñoz]

play & play more It's a good exercise anymore, but all of the percussionist that i know are or very thin or fat, it's true that they are muscle the drummers... if you want after to play go to him... jejejeje Best regards!!!

[yoni]

About 20 years ago I used to compete some 4 years intensively as an amateur flyweight boxer in the U.S. Thankfully, I eventually got smart and left that sport, though it was the only one I did well (In any ball sport I always dropped the ball). I loved being quick and unpredictable and love often to play that way on percussion (I play best when I'm not thinking).

I still love moving quite a bit, swimming, walking, and for the past couple years have a part time janitor job which keeps me moving a good bit daily.

When rolling on congas I used to play mainly single rolls and tried to get them to sound like doubles, before I had the honor of meeting Giovanni Hidalgo at a jazz fest I played and realizing it was doubles he was doing.

Playing single rolls so hard and long (to duplicate the sustain afforded by the double) eventually led to some wrist problems (and I have tiny bird bones). So eventually getting the doubles down (though of course I am no Gio) was a technical advance that also saved me from blowing out my wrists totally. Still use singles also, but nice to have other ways of rolling, too.

In the times when I over-stressed my wrists I found that other manual activities besides drumming did help (though not stuff too hard or heavy that can have the opposite effect and stiffen me up).

Trying to eat healthily probably also helps - but, along with drumming itself, the activity I find most helpful is stretching the hands, wrists & arms (and whole body, for that matter).

Stretching - just like athletes and dancers do before and after events - I forget to do it at times but can't overstress its importance.

All the best,
yoni

[Jongo]

I have found that playing basketball was and still is helpful to me. I am right handed but through playing basketball I developed my left hand. I can pass, dribble and shoot left-handed so I had more coordination in that hand than did some of my friends that were starting to play congas with me. Basketball helps develop hands, wrists and forearms but is not too taxing on them, unless you are playing out on the playground and getting hacked a lot. Then it can be a little rough. Yoga is not really a sport but it is something that I have started doing that I really enjoy. You stretch your body, relax your mind and get your bodies energy centered, and rejuventated. It's great, I highly recommend it, for real.
Juan

[GuruPimpi]

Waw!

Real Sporties here! Thanks for replying!
I agree with Yoni about stretching and warming up and 'cooling down', i recently had pains in my wrists; mainly because of the not warming up enough combined with playing in cold shelter, where i practise with my band.

BTW: got myself a Giovanni's compact conga at last yiha, my room is much warmer to practise...

Keep groovin' and stay groovy!

p.

[yoni]

Hi GuruPimpi!

That must be such a help to play in a warm room! Sometimes I've had to play in cold places and can't stand it. Got to feel warm to play like I want to, even then it can take a while to warm up.

Keep groovin' too,
yoni

[JohnnyConga]

Well for me growing up in the Bronx, in the 60's we played a LOT of Handball, and I mean like all day and there were even interborough meets. I didn't go that far, but after playing an afternoon of handball, my hands felt "ripe" for "hittin some skins". Sometimes we took our drums to the handball courts and "jammed" while people were playing....and oh the girls.....they loved them drums....... "JC" Johnny Conga

[Héctor]

Hello everyone!

I'm so glad this subject came up. It's exactly what I've been wanting to ask you fellows for quite a while but actually never have. So that I've read all your replies with great interest, eagerly to see what Johnny Conga had written, when I saw that the last reply was his.

And indeed I can imagine the impact handball and conga playing must have had on the girls. But Johnny, please, be so kind and let us know a bit more. Any practical advises on this subject?

I am not an experienced drummer, I've only been playing for a year and a half, but that regularly, almost everyday, at least 30 to 40 minutes, allowing occasionally some two to three-day-breaks in between for hand skin and ligaments to regenerate. As I'm righthanded, however, my right wrist is my problem. Sometimes it hurts badly after playing, and that for a few days. I've noticed that warming up seriously is "vital" before going on to playing. Also, the more experienced I get the more I notice that you don't have to play that hard at all. Technique, that's the key. If you have the technique you can play gently without hurting your hands too badly. However, once a week I play with other players (drums, djembe and bongos) and that for several hours, so that no matter how gently I play, as I tend to play a bit harder than usual to hear myself despite of the drum kit, after a while my right wrist usually hurts.

I know that everybody is different and my ligaments are different to everybody else's but, does anybody have any good ideas? Johnny, please help!?

Thank you and jolly good drumming to you all!

Héctor



Edited By Héctor on 1107934713

[Colacao]

Hi all,

Jongo nice analogy.

The basket ball movement is similar whit that to play the slap on congas.

It's a good idea to show the beginners how to do the movement.

What do you think ?

Of course stretch the body, the back, the arms, the wrist and the hands. Hands massage is very relaxing, it's like feet very good.

saludos

[yoni]

Hi all,

Nice to see a post from you, Johnny Conga, it's been a while. I bet the handball courts had nice acoustics along with the nice women watching.

Hector, if you're playing along with another person on drum kit, you've GOT to mic your congas or you won't be heard, and can bust up your hands along the way... unless the kit player can keep the volume low. Djembe can also overpower congas easily in volume.

all the best,
yoni

[Simon B]

I am a martial arts nut and practise Shaolin Kung Fu or T'ai Chi most days. I find that the exercises and stretches found in these two systems keep my wrists and tendons in good order. I will nearly always warm up before a gig on congas. Good technique is, as others have said, also key. Before I learnt the 'way' of the doubles, I used to spend hours a day on them with a duff technique learned by inadequately trying to copy Giovanni videos (his technique I think is so highly developed that it confuses beginners by not revealing the stages he has gone through to get that far), and suffered general wrist pain as a result. Learnt better technique and these disappeared!

Simon B

[yoni]

Hi Simon B!

Long time no hear from! I hope all is well with you. I see what you mean in your post here, and concurred (is that the right word?) in my post under "open discussion" - "pain in hands the day after". Martial arts sounds fun, I once did a year of Tae Kwan Do before I got dumb and went into amateur boxing for a while. Hope you're saving most of your KOs for the congas.

All the best,
yoni

[Héctor]

Shalom Yoni and thanks for your reply.

Yes using a mic would be better for my hands and wrists but what we have here is a sort of "unplugged" situation. I ask the girl who plays the drum to use brushes, what she does most of the time, but even so, acoustically you still have the cymbals to fight against, and believe me, she does like using them! The djembes and bongos are not a problem at all. The guys play gently, it's the "bloody" drum kit! Anyhow, we played last night for 3 1/2hrs, I did at least 40 minutes of gentle warming up on my own beforehand, used the whole time a wrist bandage (one of those elastic ones that allow you to regulate the pressure), taped up my finger tips (since two of them had open injuries from the night before) and tried to concentrate on skills rather than on power. Today my arms and hands are very tired but no major pains are to be felt. I'll give them a rest for a couple of days.

Thank you and till next time

Héctor



Edited By Héctor on 1108052587

[yoni]

You're most welcome, Hector!

If only the right wrist is hurting, maybe the hand position is wrong... I find least stress on my wrists when they continue in a straight line from the arm when looking down at them, hands not turned to one side or the other, as I do at times.

In another post, I think under "open discussion", I mentioned a hand cream that worked amazingly for me... it's called "Corn Husker's Lotion" and I used to be able to find it at many pharmacies years ago when I lived in the US. Don't know if they still make it or if it can be found in Germany, but that stuff was super for keeping hand skin tough, flexible and for preventing cuts. Had much glycerin in it.

If you already have open cuts, best to let them rest and heal a while - aloe vera should help healing (the gel from the plant itself, not store-bought cream), maybe also the arnica cream that Obie mentioned somewhere here...

cool knocking,
yoni



Edited By yoni on 1108056705