Clef_de_fa said:
Stamina can only be obtained be playing, put more time each week then you will be able to play 5 hours straight ! Of cours if you only played 30 minutes a day for 9 years I don't think you could play more than 1 or 2 hours max.
Of course eating well, hydrated and sleep well too.
Sort of true, but stamina can be better worked on off the bass. What is needed on the bass is the co-ordination between the hands to work...a different task to stamina.
Stamina can be improved simply by understanding what stamina is.
Stamina is the bodies ability to hold off loss or breakdown of function and or speed the recovery of the function.
As far as playing is concerned it is the bodies ability to stay physically and mentally alert for short bursts over a longer defined periods of time.
If we consider that the actual physical movement is a muscular one. The definition of it is a mental one. It is our brain that defines the task and such can assign attributes to it that do not exist. To our hands and fingers the movement is based in the physical mechanics of most muscular movement that creates motion.
So if we play a bass, a piano, use a keyboard, a game controller, a remote etc, it is all the same related body mechanics, it is the brain that defines the worth of the tasks motion.
Since the use of muscles in playing bass is anaerobic then the muscle fuel has to come via the blood stream through foods, hydration because there is no aerobic influence on the use. So we need a good diet and to be hydrated well...also smoking with affect the bloods ability to carry oxygen
When we exercise that is aerobic, the heat beats quicker and the breathing deepens and quickens so the blood can bring oxygen to the muscles being used and to remove any waste product created.
That waste product as far as muscles are concerned is Lactic Acid. It is the presence of high levels of Lactic Acid in the muscles that induces the slow down/loss of performance and then cramp due to its effects on our muscles PH balance.
The reason this happens is to "shut down" the muscle use to prevent damage and allow it time to recover and refuel.
So in playing we have this increased muscle use, but the heart rate does not quicken, so the breathing does not deepen or quicken, so no extra oxygen is taken to the muscles via the blood and of course the waste is not removed.
Muscles use a combination of chemical, electrical stimulation so this is a basic description of what happens in simplified terms.
During the first few seconds of exercise, muscles use internal stores of ATP and with maximal exercise this is supplemented by high energy phosphate compounds (CP) as exercise continues this is also supplemented by burning of glucose which is converted from muscle glycogen and burned in the mitochondria. If the rate at which energy is demanded is low then energy production is 'aerobic' utilising oxygen.
If the rate at which energy is demanded is high then increasingly this is supplemented by contributions from anaerobic metabolism. The immediate consequence is the production of lactic acid in the muscle which immediately breaks down to lactate and hydrogen ions. Lactate provides a huge fuel source and hydrogen ions can contribute to fatigue by interfering with contractile processes and by changing the pH of the muscle cell. The tolerance for lactate, or more specifically for its attendant hydrogen ions and decreasing pH is limited. This is a protection mechanism, as if pH inside the muscle drops too low damage can occur. However, training can improve tolerance of pH and maintenance of it within an appropriate range which can allow exercise to continue. Because tolerance of lactate and its attendant challenges very high intensity ('anaerobic') exercise is of limited duration..
Training can increase both your capacity for aerobic exercise. Repeated bursts of anaerobic exercise can increase the ability to tolerate and metabolize lactate, and can therefore increase the intensity and duration of maximum work.
So here is a basic exercise to develop and increase stamina in both hands
1/ Hold the fingers out straight and together.
2/ Bend the fingers from the middle knuckle so the fingertips touch the base of the fingers on the palm ( or a close to them as you can )
3/ Now straighten the fingers back up still keeping them together.
4/ Now repeat this as fast as you can for exactly one minute and count how many (reps) you can do. Rest for five minutes and repeat.
Next one.
1/Spread out the fingers straight and wide.
2/Close them into a fist with the thumbs to the outside of the fist.
3/ Open them back out so they are spread straight and wide as in point 1
4/ Now repeat this as fast as you can for exactly on minute and count how many (reps) you can do. Rest for five mins and repeat.
These two exercises are designed to use the same motions of fretting and plucking but exaggerated to give the hands and fingers back the full use of the muscle motions used to fret and pluck.
These exercise will help increase stamina because that one minute of use will cause the muscles to react in the same way that playing steady for hours and hours on end does. So the task is not to increase the time it takes do do these exercises, but increase the amount you can do within that time. In order to do more, the muscles have to work harder. Normal results are to be able to double what you started with. Simple reason is that fatigue does not happen so easily towards the middle and end so that rapid use at the start is sustained for longer.
Now these exercises are to build stamina, but usually the question of speed come up. Speed is a reaction of the muscle, so for speed we need to use the exact same exercises but in a different way. The reason is muscles are composed of different types of muscle fibre do to different jobs around the body. The same muscle groups that allow us to stand are the same ones that allow us to walk and run. So in standing upright and relaxed it is the same muscle groups, but different fibres being used. What we are getting into is "Twitch Response in Muscles". Rather than me explain this, search on-line or Google the phrase.
So it is the same exercises, the same motions, but we do them for 15 seconds each time rather than a minute. Now the muscles are working in increasing reaction not sustaining it.
Again because these exercises are exaggerations of the playing actions, when we do play, the hands are better equipped to handle it because the hands never get such intense use, so are in a way under using the motion the have been developing so they do not tire easily.
To compare stamina times, just multiply by four, your speed/reaction times. This is why exactly a minute and exactly 15 seconds is important.
You should find when developed correctly, your speed/reactions over 15 seconds is always, that is always, faster than your stamina time. Also the exercises are a great warm up if done for minute alternating between the two of them, but done slowly and really stretching out the fingers and really closing them tight.
