Strength Training for Singers: Still Breathing
Strength Training for Singers? Strength Training AND Singers? I’ll let you dice it however you choose. Anyway, I wanted to do follow up to my previous post about breathing. I had mentioned that during one of my lifting sessions I found that my shoulders were rising more than usual when I initiated the jerk. This was something I saw when watching the video; not something I felt in the moment. This could be due to fatigue. I was not purposely thinking that I must raise the shoulders up as I inhaled. I wanted to revisit this because in actuality, I was trying to focus on expanding the ribs OUT as the chest remained lifted. It was challenging for me to feel the rib cage expand as I maintained hold of the barbell in the front rack position. This got me thinking about how else I can create the effect I’m working towards with my breath.
Today I decided I would use one of my vocal breathing exercises as a warmup prior to my lifting session. What I do is place my hands one on each side of my rib cage and I breath into my hands. As I sing, I brace to keep the ribs expanded as I sing. Yes, the ribs will begin to lower and draw inward as the air is released but the goal is to slow down the rate in which this happens. (Come on intercostals, keep that rib cage expanded!) The use of this exercise allowed me to better bring attention to my breath during my lifting. This time around, when I started the jerk portion of my session I honed in on keeping the lower part of my ribs expanded as I initiated the lift. Essentially, keeping the ribs buoyant as I decent into a jerk dip (tailbone straight down, knees out, chest lifted). I felt this was more successful than previously since I was able to keep my core engaged while maintaining the chest lifted and the ribs expanded through the entire lift. I’m not sure I had done that before. Or maybe I had but this time I was aware of it. I worked up to 93% for a set of 1 repetition, so I’d call that a success. Please note, I will use a weightlifting belt for heavy lifts in training and for competition, but in general I do not use that equipment and I did not use that item during this training session. All this to say, the way I was bracing for my breath was created on my own and not with aid from equipment.
I’d say overall, I think this experiment I’m conducting in regards to breathing like an opera singer is proving to be useful for my sport specific training. I am curious to know if you have taken the time to analyze your breathing. Are there areas you think you can improve? Are there exercises that have helped improve your breathing and recognition of breath? If you’re having trouble body mapping the movement of your rib cage you can try out my simple breathing warmup exercise listed above. I’ve also found that thoracic CARS (Controlled Articular Rotations) are very beneficial. Let me know if you’ve found a breathing exercise or concept that works well for you.
Until next time
-Laura
