- - Please visit: Legacy Horn Experience - -
Among those that follow professional football, you might have noted some of the discussion related to the return of Tom Brady this season. For those that don’t know, he is the 45-year-old quarterback of the Buccaneers, and 45 is ancient in NFL years. He credits his longevity to an exercise routine that focuses on flexibility training instead of strength training. I found this concise write-up on this from a physical therapy website:
While NFL players are known for size and strength, Brady swears by a fitness regimen that focuses on “pliability” – a term he and his fitness guru coined – to keep moving. Pliability is a combination of muscle strength, endurance and, most importantly flexibility. As physical therapists, we could not agree more with Brady’s philosophy that muscular flexibility is key to mobility as we age. We often work with patients to educate them on the importance of muscular flexibility and offer exercises and stretches they can take with them following treatment in order to maintain a comfortable level of movement.
“Pliability” and the horn player
Where this ties into horn playing is a larger topic that I’ve been thinking about these past few years. Your warmup and practice can focus on flexibility, or it can focus on strength training. Let me explain.
Strength training for horn?
The classic example of what strength training would look like for the horn or brass player would be a focus on long tones, with Caruso studies being possibly another type of strength training, depending on how you apply the exercises.
With long tones for sure part of what you are doing is very much like lifting weights, with an idea of that work will build endurance too. But the actual result I worry about is the chops getting very stiff, which will eventually limit you as you age and grow as a player.
Focus on flexibility in your warmup — for success
Exercises that focus on arpeggios and going in and out of the low and high range are ideal, and I feel have benefitted my playing over the years a great deal. You will likely still need to start out with a few mid-range long tones to get the chops going, but the key things you will do that benefit your chops are flexibility studies and pedal tones.
If you are looking for some examples of what I do in this regard, my warmup book (only $8.99!) is on Amazon, more info here.
