I received the following inquiry from a reader: “Hi, Claudia! I have been forming ideas about my master’s thesis and wanted to get in contact with you. I am really interested in using sport-specific training to train singers more effectively, particularly in the composition of the muscles involved in phonation. I’m focusing primarily on developing strength, flexibility, and endurance in the muscular systems of the body, and also in the voice. I was wondering if the athletic training principles that you utilize in the studio manifest themselves in the voice?”
By “muscles involved in phonation,” I will assume that the writer is referring to the vocalis (fig. 1) and the intrinsic muscles of the larynx. The vocalis, or thyroarytenoid muscle, forms the body of the vocal folds; paradoxically, its muscular action is to relax and shorten the vocal folds.
The cricothyroid (fig. 2) muscles lengthen and tense the vocal folds (thus impacting pitch and registration).
The posterior cricoarytenoid (fig. 3) muscles abduct the vocal folds.
The lateral cricoarytenoid (fig. 4) and transverse arytenoid muscles adduct the vocal folds.
The purpose of strengthening a muscle is to increase the level of force that it can produce. Let’s consider whether developing strength in the voice requires an increase in force production in the laryngeal musculature.
Muscles are strengthened by working them to the point of fatigue, which “leads to trauma or injury of the cellular proteins in muscle. This prompts cell-signaling messages to activate satellite cells to begin a cascade of events leading to muscle repair and growth,” explain Young sub Kwon and Len Kravitz in their post “How Do Muscles Grow?” on IdeaFit.com. In other words, when you want a muscle to get stronger, exercise it to the point of fatigue and then allow it to recover. It will respond to injury in its cellular proteins by building itself back bigger and stronger than it was before.
While resistance training may work like a charm for your pecs and your quads, it is not an effective means of strengthening the vocalis or other intrinsic laryngeal muscles. Like your pecs and quads, they’re composed of skeletal muscle fibers. But, relatively speaking, there are so few of these fibers that pumping them up won’t have that great an impact. Even if it did, there isn’t enough room in there for them to get all that much bigger.
Although the kind of resistance training you would engage in to build up your pecs is not an effective means of strengthening the vocalis or other intrinsic laryngeal muscles, that’s fine, because these muscles do not require targeted strengthening. In a normal, healthy voice, the vocal exercises used to establish and improve overall technique are adequate for developing tone and flexibility in the intrinsic muscles of the larynx. That’s all the thyroarytenoid and cricothyroid muscles should require to optimize range and registration. Abduction of the vocal folds requires minimal strength. Most singers already need to learn to inhibit over-adducting the vocal folds, so increasing force in that direction is definitely undesirable!
That said, I’ll now present the essential concepts behind sport-specific training and discuss how they do apply to singing.
Sport-specific training refers to exercise regimens designed to optimize performance for particular activities. You might get better at your sport just by playing it, but strengthening the muscles and drilling the movements required for your sport will accelerate your improvement and enhance your performance.
If I play left field for a baseball team, my job often involves throwing the ball long distances with speed and precision. This means producing tremendous force with my pecs, anterior deltoids, and triceps while stabilizing my shoulder, as well as generating rotational power and momentum through my legs and torso while stabilizing this movement with my core. My sport-specific training regimen could include a dumbbell chest press to strengthen my pecs, a sequence of Pilates moves to stabilize my core, etc., to strengthen each muscle group I use in my sport. It would also include power training—exercises designed to improve the rate of force production—for my upper body. These activities would take place in a gym using tools like free weights and cables.
It is just as important that I get out in the field with a ball, a glove, and my teammates to practice the actual movements and activities I will perform during a game: fielding the ball, throwing it, and catching it. Part of my preparation, therefore, includes repeating these movements over and over again, with a view to improving my reflexes and hand-eye coordination.
As you can see, my training breaks down into two categories:
∙ Quality and rate of force production created in the gym
∙ Coordination, skill, and teamwork developed in the field
When designing a sport-specific training program for any athletic endeavor, including singing, you have to analyze the roles played by force production vs. coordination, skill, and teamwork. Then you must break down the various movements involved to determine which ones will be trained in the gym and which in the field (or in our case, the studio and rehearsal hall).
Singers are pretty good at practicing those movements best trained in “the field” (rehearsal hall): vocal technical exercises for optimizing phonation, articulation, resonance, and agility. The principles of athletic training that apply in “the gym” (studio) have to do with the requirements of motor learning—isolating tasks, like a scale passage or movement from one vowel to another, and then using repetition to reinforce the movement until it becomes habitual.
Where singers generally need more targeted sport-specific work is in the gym. The following sections describe the sport-specific work to be done there.
Alignment
The spine provides the foundation from which all movement originates. Good alignment is paramount for singers because so much of a singer’s movement is internal. Optimal alignment facilitates full range of motion of the larynx and breathing mechanism; postural distortions compromise breathing, laryngeal movement, and resonance. Any sport-specific training program for singers must therefore begin with a robust alignment assessment and be designed around exercises that correct imbalances and distortions.
Excellent alignment is of premium concern for all competitive professional athletes, as improvements in this area can shave crucial seconds off a 100-meter sprint or lengthen a long jump, so tremendous research has gone into assessing and improving alignment. This research has yielded excellent postural screens for identifying distortions and imbalances as well as techniques for resolving them. Every singer’s workout regimen should be built upon the results of these screens.
Stamina
All athletes must be as economical with their resources as possible. One crucial resource common to all is oxygen. Your respiratory system’s primary responsibility is delivering oxygen to your body, and singing places additional demands on it. Good cardiorespiratory fitness is therefore essential for singing, particularly when stage movement is involved. Excellent oxygen consumption is also necessary for sustaining long phrases, because it is the sense that you’ve depleted your oxygen supply—not your actual air supply—that causes you to feel like you’ve run out of breath.
I cannot overstate the importance for singers of engaging in a cardiorespiratory regimen designed to optimize their oxygen consumption. The better your stamina, the better you’ll be able to access the best of your technique regardless of the challenges your director creates for you—and the more options you will have for pacing and sustaining phrases and cadenzas.
Singer-Specific Force Production
The mechanics of throwing a baseball involve torso rotation, shoulder flexion, and elbow extension. The mechanics of producing a powerful vocal sound that remains stable and consistent during stage movement is harder to visualize because nearly all of the movement is internal—the stronger and more coordinated a singer is, the less likely you are to observe their biomechanics in action.
The key areas where singers need to produce force are breath management and stabilization. Fortunately, there is a lot of overlap among the muscle groups and movements required for these two activities.
Breath Management
Breath management refers to the ability to take in a desired quantity of air and optimize subglottal breath pressure while singing (for a more detailed discussion, see my May 2014 CS column, “The Skinny on Weight Loss and Breath Management”). This means cultivating full range of motion through the joints governing inspiration as well as balanced flexibility and strength in the muscles that act on these joints.
Stretch the pectoral and intercostal muscles, the rectus abdominis, obliques, and transversus abdominis.
Strengthen the latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, and middle and lower trapezius.
Stabilization
Stabilization refers to the ability to maintain dynamic stillness in one area of the body to provide a platform of support for movement in another. Singers must cultivate stability for the following:
Breathing: Stabilize the shoulders and sternum so that the chest does not collapse during singing.
Movement: Stabilize the shoulders, core, and lumbo-pelvic-hip complex so that all torso, neck, and head activity needed for vocal technique proceeds unaffected by stage movement.
A singer’s training regimen should be constructed around strength-training exercises for the core as well as for all major muscle groups that incorporate elements of balance and stabilization and require independent movement of your limbs (e.g., working with the right and left arms separately from one another).
Balance and stabilization training enhances overall kinesthetic awareness, facilitates graceful stage movement, and makes it easier to sing while moving around. It also teaches your neuromuscular system to create stability through continuous movement in your body in a way that informs all of your activities, including singing.
Professional athletes know that they can’t reach the level of excellence they need for their sport just by playing it. Likewise, singers who only engage in “field” training—studio practice and rehearsal—but do not avail themselves of the advantages that sport-specific physical training can confer, are missing out.
If you’re serious about optimizing your performance, you too must strengthen the muscles and drill the movements required for your sport. Not only will it accelerate your improvement and enhance many aspects of your performance, but you’ll cultivate the level of physical health and well-being that you need in order to deal with the rigors of travel as well as the stresses and demands of an opera career.
