I thought I'd share what I think is an interesting story about how our bodies are wired for tension and relaxation. A bit of background:
Most of us are aware of contract-relax stretching protocols - if you're not, read Relax Into Stretch by Pavel. Contracting your muscles then relaxing them and moving further into a stretch fools, and fools with, your stretch reflex. Contract-relax stretching is therefore not recommended before strength training. It can make you effectively weaker; the harder you intend to work your contract-relax stretches, the more ill-advised it is to perform them on a day in which you plan to train strength afterwards.
We also know, from reading the stories of a number of famous lifters, that practicing tension techniques throughout the day can make you stronger - no weights are needed for this kind of practice. I have found that relaxation can work the same way. It can be visualized and practiced without requiring a dedicated session.
So, what do stretching and playing the cello have in common? I began taking cello lesson 7 months ago, and my worst problem, by far, is my right arm, the one that operates the bow. I have had a chronically tight right shoulder for as long as I can remember, and while I've made progress on improving its strength and increasing its range of motion over the years, it remained chronically tight in a rolled-forward position, and very poor at both internal and external rotation.
To play the cello well, one must be able to relax the right shoulder, and in particular, one must be able to internally rotate it - that's the opposite of what we do for most strength training, and after 20 years of strength training, I got good at external shoulder rotation but never had much need for internal rotation, and certainly not relaxed internal rotation, until now.
I have been working all the time on relaxing my right shoulder. Following my instincts as someone who has played musical instruments for more than half a century, I knew I shouldn't practice much because I didn't want to struggle and get used to struggling with my right shoulder. Somehow I knew that, if I could get it to relax, my playing would improve dramatically, and that's been the case.
Remember how I said that one shouldn't perform contract-relax stretching before strength training? Well, it's not contract-relax stretching, but I have, until today, always lifted before I practiced. Today, I decided to play the cello at 11 am, my only practice session in the last 2 weeks, and played better than I ever have so far. I decided to lift at 2 pm. And a very unusual thing happened - I failed a press on my right side, my bow arm side, which is my dominant side and almost always stronger at pressing than my left.
Lesson learned - too much relaxation, of a certain kind and at certain times, isn't good for strength. The timing of relaxed practices with high tension ones is important, and I'm going to go back to lifting first and practicing the cello later. Interestingly to me, for other instruments that I've been playing longer, playing before strength training doesn't cause me problems. But for this, an instrument I'm new at and one that demands a relaxed right shoulder, the timing is quite important (at least until I get some more months and years of playing the cello under my belt).
That's my story - thanks for reading.
-S-
Most of us are aware of contract-relax stretching protocols - if you're not, read Relax Into Stretch by Pavel. Contracting your muscles then relaxing them and moving further into a stretch fools, and fools with, your stretch reflex. Contract-relax stretching is therefore not recommended before strength training. It can make you effectively weaker; the harder you intend to work your contract-relax stretches, the more ill-advised it is to perform them on a day in which you plan to train strength afterwards.
We also know, from reading the stories of a number of famous lifters, that practicing tension techniques throughout the day can make you stronger - no weights are needed for this kind of practice. I have found that relaxation can work the same way. It can be visualized and practiced without requiring a dedicated session.
So, what do stretching and playing the cello have in common? I began taking cello lesson 7 months ago, and my worst problem, by far, is my right arm, the one that operates the bow. I have had a chronically tight right shoulder for as long as I can remember, and while I've made progress on improving its strength and increasing its range of motion over the years, it remained chronically tight in a rolled-forward position, and very poor at both internal and external rotation.
To play the cello well, one must be able to relax the right shoulder, and in particular, one must be able to internally rotate it - that's the opposite of what we do for most strength training, and after 20 years of strength training, I got good at external shoulder rotation but never had much need for internal rotation, and certainly not relaxed internal rotation, until now.
I have been working all the time on relaxing my right shoulder. Following my instincts as someone who has played musical instruments for more than half a century, I knew I shouldn't practice much because I didn't want to struggle and get used to struggling with my right shoulder. Somehow I knew that, if I could get it to relax, my playing would improve dramatically, and that's been the case.
Remember how I said that one shouldn't perform contract-relax stretching before strength training? Well, it's not contract-relax stretching, but I have, until today, always lifted before I practiced. Today, I decided to play the cello at 11 am, my only practice session in the last 2 weeks, and played better than I ever have so far. I decided to lift at 2 pm. And a very unusual thing happened - I failed a press on my right side, my bow arm side, which is my dominant side and almost always stronger at pressing than my left.
Lesson learned - too much relaxation, of a certain kind and at certain times, isn't good for strength. The timing of relaxed practices with high tension ones is important, and I'm going to go back to lifting first and practicing the cello later. Interestingly to me, for other instruments that I've been playing longer, playing before strength training doesn't cause me problems. But for this, an instrument I'm new at and one that demands a relaxed right shoulder, the timing is quite important (at least until I get some more months and years of playing the cello under my belt).
That's my story - thanks for reading.
-S-
