Does anybody know if weight lifting significantly affects one's ability to play? Rabbath says to avoid weight lifting because it hardens the muscles. Does this have any truth to it? Joe Conyers is a bodybuilder and look where he is! Anyone have any experience with this?
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Double Bass Weight lifting affecting technique?
- Thread starter samshreves
- Start date
Power lifting is hard on your tendons and joints. Massage your forearms and keep the muscles loose. I think it depends on the person. When I was boxing and beating on the bags I noticed my playing suffered if I overdid it. You'll probably notice before anyone else if it starts affecting your playing.
I spent a few years powerlifting competatively and have been a heavy lifter for maybe 40 years. Only negative effects I have noticed is less practice time because I am in the gym or less play time because something is injured. I’d have to say not to worry about it and if lifting is part of your health strategy- keep it up. Competition to injury is another story though......
Thanks for the replies guys! Yeah, I've only been doing it for about a week, but I highly doubt I'm going to injure myself - I really try to concentrate on proper form. I'm on the Athlean-X plan made by Jeff Cavaliere, a physiotherapist and former trainer/physio for the NY Mets. So if it's anything that I trust to not hurt me, it's this. So far, I feel great.
My double bass teacher is attending the gym regularly and has one of the biggest biceps I've seen in my life. Still, his technique is impressive so I think it does not take such a big role.
I've been weight lifting for 30 years and it has not affected my technique.
I never did it to get big. Just for health reasons. In fact it really helped my lower back.
I think the bass is a very physical instrument and it helps if you are in good shape.
As with everything in life, don't over do it!
I never did it to get big. Just for health reasons. In fact it really helped my lower back.
I think the bass is a very physical instrument and it helps if you are in good shape.
As with everything in life, don't over do it!
I think you may have misunderstood him. He was a serious lifter back in the days. I have come back from a shoulder/neck problem and find that I need atleast one day at the gym per week to stay painfree and flexible.
There is a long time member of the forum who has dealt with the bass and bodybuilding at the same time. I don’t want to speak for him, but perhaps he will chime in when he sees this.
Not that you could tell it to look at me, but I’ve also been involved in weight trining for 30 years. These days it’s mostly core training (Total Gym, pushups, medicine ball stretches, dumbbell presses, etc), and that doesn’t hurt technique at all; Like @Bijoux , I think it actually helps for the reasons he stated above.
There was a time about 20 years ago when I was lifting to gain size and strength where I found arm exercises like curls and anything specifically involving forearms and gripping would make my hands feel stiff afterward. I stopped doing that once I figured that out.
As we age as bass players, I think it’s a good idea to keep our cores strong and flexible, and to keep the ends of our limbs supple and flexible.
Not that you could tell it to look at me, but I’ve also been involved in weight trining for 30 years. These days it’s mostly core training (Total Gym, pushups, medicine ball stretches, dumbbell presses, etc), and that doesn’t hurt technique at all; Like @Bijoux , I think it actually helps for the reasons he stated above.
There was a time about 20 years ago when I was lifting to gain size and strength where I found arm exercises like curls and anything specifically involving forearms and gripping would make my hands feel stiff afterward. I stopped doing that once I figured that out.
As we age as bass players, I think it’s a good idea to keep our cores strong and flexible, and to keep the ends of our limbs supple and flexible.
Perhaps your weights program could include starting and finishing with stretches. For the rest of us players there are good reasons to consider them too, especially as we get older and not just for our upper body and arms. Sam, I will PM some material to you when I can find it (we have builders here at present, causing us to shunt boxes around).
