Posted by Chuck Jackson on September 16, 2003 at 23:08:04:
I was wondering if anyone had ever reduced their practice of long tones as they got older. Particularly, those of us over 40. I had a conversation with a gerontology specialist the other day who happens to play trumpet. He opined that as we get older, to keep supple we need to do more stretching rather than weight lifting.
We got on the conversation of brass palyers and age. Here is what we came up with: Caveat: As a specialist, he feels that muscles age from age 40 onwards and have a hard time either fixing themselves or becoming supple after strenuous exercise.
1. As chops get older, they naturally get stiffer with strenuous exercise from the break down of muscle, much like the rest of our muscles.
2. To keep older people moving with maximum efficiency, he suggests "limbering up" in the way of stretching slowly before doing any physical exercise.
A. Instead of doing the "weightlifting" of tuba playing, longtones, he suggested using the Clark Study #1 done somewhat slowly with rest in between each repetition/halfstep. The general feeling is that you are still using the face time of a long tone without the static muscle pressure.
B. This limbering up keeps the blood moving, hence the muscles staying supple and able to react and perform better.
C. Long tones should not be abandoned, but used as toning exercises instead of muscle builders in much the same way that an "older" person may want to preserve body toning without the bulk up of muscles. He stressed that the older person should do the weight training well after the stretching.
All of this is pure conjecture, but I have decided to try it for one year to see if there is any significant effect on my playing. I am really interested in everyones constructive input on these thoughts. Thanks In Advance.
Chuck