Weightlifting and Guitar?

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#15

The opposite is more likely to be true. Guitar playing will most likely impact your weightlifting!

I say this light heartedly after many years of shoulder issues caused by spending so long hunched over the guitar with poor posture.

I played guitar for years before I got in to strength sports.
I’ve spent a lot of time with the olympic lifts so I can’t comment on body building, but from multiple procedures and endless physio I can say if you can get strong and maintain good posture it’s most likely to benefit you in the long run.

#16

For some reason I feel like maybe hand strength may have benefits to guitar playing. But there would be no way of knowing unless we could get a world class climber to show the benefits if he also played guitar. But it would have to be more along the lines of fast twitch muscle fibers if that is a thing in the hand. And also another factor comes into play here as well if the mind isn’t very musical, lacking an ear for music, the benefits of that speed might not really do anything.

#17

prawn
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but seriously, I banned myself from playing sitting down about 5 years ago and feel a lot better for it

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#18

Guitar posture has always been a difficult aspect of playing for me. Play standing up solves a lot of problems, although the weight of a hefty solid body electric guitar can become burdensome as the hours go by.

Many years ago, I banned myself from ostensibly correct classical position because of upper back cramps and I’ve been better for it. It turns out that a lot of people have the same problem with classical position.

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#19

Same, standing only and V shaped guitars have done wonders to my posture and ergonomics and I find I don’t get hung up on difficult stuff as much.

The parts in Philip Toshio Sudo’s “Zen Guitar” about tension really made me hyper aware about how much damage any tension anywhere does to technique and ultimately expression on the instrument.

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#20

Tosin Abasi has posted himself lifting some respectable weight on his insta, it doesn’t seem to have compromised his guitar playing.
Personally, I’m not super serious about fitness, I go to the gym three times a week, but I’ve noticed an improvement in my posture and my core strength that translates to, among other things, better endurance playing guitar.

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#21

In my experience, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Perhaps playing guitar while you’re still “sore” after a workout might feel weird (shaky hands because you are tired) but there’s nothing to worry about imho.

#22

Weightlifting and playing guitar might seem like they don’t go together, but they can complement each other in many ways. Lifting weights builds your overall strength, which can help with stamina for longer practice sessions. Stronger hands and wrists can also make playing guitar feel smoother, especially if you’re into fast solos or tricky chords. Plus, the discipline and focus you get from weightlifting can carry over to your guitar playing.If you’re looking for ways to boost recovery or energy, you could consider natural steroids, like Tribulus or ashwagandha. Some people use these to help with muscle growth and overall well-being.

#23

Unfortunately I HAVE had pain issues from a combo of guitar and lifting, but there is a genetic predisposition component to my case. The canal at my elbow where my ulnar nerve passes through is a shape/size that makes it more likely to have entrapment issues, and this is exacerbated by lots of the common lifts, as well as just normal guitar playing in general.

I would say if you get injured doing either thing, than it’s going to affect the other thing.

But if you’re healthy with no issues, you shouldn’t be discouraged from lifting, just be reasonable with form, volume, as well as your technique when playing.

Personally I think a key thing is to just consistently pay attention to your body and watch out for warning signs, things that feel “off” - I think I developed problems from pushing through these signals.

#24

I played a bit yesterday for the first time in maybe like a week or two, and I noticed an interesting soreness in my right inner / upper bicep area. I’ve been pushing biceps in the gym, I guess I never realized how much I might be relying on it to play!

#25

These days, my one rep max is the Les Paul

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#26

I just started back in the gym last month. Thought about practicing some new songs and phrases again, but I just don’t want to get too wrapped up in how or what to practice. I might just bust out my bass synths for now, ease back into the musical itch I feel from time to time.

But being 40 I understand the hesitation, even in the gym I probably won’t be taking any compound lifts above 225. I will just rep it until it gets to crazy numbers then maybe add 5 or 10 lbs, and do it rarely. Just don’t need rotator cuff or back problems, or developing something in my hands if I go back into guitar.

#27

There is something about not building your muscles in terms of speed.
Most weight lifting uses slow twitch fibers, to lift a heavy weight, fast twitch are not trained, in normal weight lifting. That builds slow twich fibers.

Single heavy weight exercise activates fast twitch as far as I know.

But most guitar playing is using multiple fingers, so the speed comes from the coordination. Not the single finger speed.

It’s the coordination between all fingers that makes speed.
Multible single note are done with the picking hand, music is done with the fretting. Mutible notes, mutible fingers.

#28

I am mostly a finger player and I found same major difficulties occurring, my im alternation motion slowing down terribly. This was after a period of doing farmers carries with modest weight (dumbbells of 70 lbs each iirc). It took months to get back to where I had been. Honestly, I am not sure exactly in what way it messed up my alternation, but it seemed to have been caused by the forearm work.

#29

My first thought:

How angled back is your wrist when picking? Maybe the carries made your wrist flexors relatively stronger than your extensors, so holding the isometric position for playing felt harder. If that were the case, extensor work would fix it.

#30

hm, that’s an interesting thought. I do play flamenco, although not very much, so perhaps if I want to give the farmer’s carries another try, I can make sure to balance it out with a bunch of rasgueado practice. There is no doubt that my flexors are dominant right now.

#31

I picked up my Badminton practice after a long break. My forearm got some soreness from that and my tremolo has way more spasms now compared to before badminton. At least that’s what I’m hoping for is the problem and that it won’t be a problem after my muscle have got used to playing badminton again.

#32

I would like to see that fatty thumb part on all of the fast thumb index finger pickers to see if their is a difference in size and strength between someone who is not quite as fast compared to someone who is fast like takayoshi ohmura or cesario filho.

#33

Do a youtube search for Kevin Frasard. He’s a monster of a bodybuilder and a monster on the guitar. You’ll be fine.

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#34

I’m not recommending this as a route to take, but I do wonder if there would be transferable benefits from what we do in Olympic lifting to avoid wrist injury:

‘Strong is fast’ applies to many athletic movements if you already have the movement patterns down. It may apply here.

Please note though, strong is also very often well worn joints too.

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