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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000047.txt from 2003/10

From: PhilFrei@-----.com
Subj: [DR-L] Re: bodybuilding and sound
Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 15:44:10 -0400

Crunches may temporarily weaken the abs immediately after exercise, but
otherwise I don't recall body-building (the little I engaged in) ever having a bad
effect, other than simply making me somewhat tired or shaky for a time
afterwards.

The abs are used because they are naturally strong enough to support a tone,
where the upper chest/neck and above can become strained when used to squeeze
air. Perhaps the exercise is leading you to use your abs in a different
manner? For example, I used to "fix" tension in the abs, rather than blow
dynamically with the needs of the passage, and this led to many severe problems.

To build an oboe tone, one has to correctly play long tones & long continuous
passages. I don't think there is any nautilus equipment or barbells that will
help in that, but the added muscle tone shouldn't hurt anything.

Phil Freihofner