Health Series Archives
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 6: It’s All In Your Head
Never Mind — if It’s All in Your Head Your Mind Can Fix It “It’s all in your head” is a phrase commonly used by physicians – publicly or privately – when they aren’t sure what is wrong with the patient because symptoms don’t fit in with a test performed or a question on the history form or within the...
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 5: Odds & Sods
Lift Off — Common Sense Guidelines for Lifting and Moving Your Equipment Most of us carry our own gear around. Sometimes we get lucky and use house gear or somebody else’s gear (which isn’t always as good a deal as it may sound). At times, some of us are fortunate enough to have somebody else haul our equipment around for...
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 4: You’ve Got Some Nerve
Strapped — Proper Strap Construction and Use Typically bassists are used to having a heavy weight around their necks. Earlier in this series we studied problems related to the wrists and forearms, which are usually muscle and tendon related (tendons attach muscles to bones, hence when overuse occurs it is from the pulling that the tendons do to the muscles)....
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 3: Warm Up & Exercise Tips
Bass Playing as a Sport Approaching the bass in the same manner athletes approach their chosen field of endeavor will pay dividends in stamina, injury reduction, and improved playing. Just as an athlete trains for an event in which they have to perform at their best, bassists practice, rehearse, and gig for hours at a time, frequently paying little or...
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 2: Posture, Posture, Posture
The Importance of Posture, in Life and Music In this installment, our focus is on posture, and how it – and lack of it – can affect bass playing in particular, and everything else you do in general. Bad habits started when we were young have a way of sticking with us as we get older. In part, that’s because...
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 1: Basic Technique
Common injuries that rob bassists of stage time Let’s start with an overview of the most common types of injuries bassists experience, the dreaded tendonitis, also known as repetitive stress injury, which will usually be felt in the hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, or neck and shoulder. As repetitive stress injury suggests, overuse is the cause of symptoms which can include...