Drumming as exercise, are there any benefits of doing it? Is drumming a good cardio workout? How intense do you need to be when playing the drums for you to lose some weight? How playing the drums can help you in your coordination? If you are a newbie drummer or planning to become one but also want to lose some weight, playing the drums might be a great way for you to do it, especially if you just want to stay at your home. Check out some benefits of playing the drums, and decide whether it would be worth doing it or not for yourself.
How Can Drumming Help You Healthwise
This is not medical advice, only a perspective from a musician with years of experience, we recommend seeking medical advice only from qualified medical professionals
If you think that learning and playing musical instruments will only give you minimal health benefits, you might better think again. Here are some of the health benefits you can get from playing the drums:
It Helps You Reduce Your Stress And Anxiety
Before we go first on the physical benefits of playing the drums, we need to discuss first how drumming can significantly help you mentally. In the United States alone, there are almost 40 million adults that are affected by anxiety and stress, and although these things are treatable, only less than 40 percent of them seek treatment, as most of them prefer not to rely on any medication to feel better.
The good news is that playing the drums can be an excellent way for you to relieve you from your stress and anxiety. Drumming also does not involve any medication, if that is your concern. This is why learning how to play the drums can greatly help your mental health. There are also studies conducted that tell that playing the drums is able to boost the mood and promote the overall well-being of a person.
This is all because playing the drums can also be considered a workout. Every time you play the drums, your brain releases endorphins, which are also the same when you are exercising or working out. By using your arms, hands, and legs, you are able to create a tune, and it also results in you burning calories and releasing some feel-good chemicals that can help you relieve the stress and anxiety you are experiencing.
It Relieves You From Depression
Another mental health benefit that you can get from playing the drums is that it can relieve you from the depression you are experiencing at the moment. If you are a drummer, you might also want to consider joining a drum circle, as this informal setting helps you to meet other people that not only can help you play better, but maybe you can also meet a friend that you can rely on in the long run.
This type of social event involves not only playing the drums but also some get-togethers, where you can spend some time with your friends, family, other members of the community, and possibly some acquaintances, and doing this can greatly help you relieve you from the depression you are experiencing. Based on research studies, joining drumming communities offers a huge help to those who are suffering from depression, as it is also able to help replace those negative feelings that people are experiencing with more positive and pleasant ones.
It Lowers Your Blood Pressure
Cardio workouts are a highly proven and effective way to keep your blood pressure at normal levels and help you drop some extra pounds you need to lose. However, not many people have the mindset of doing it regularly, which is why playing the drums can be an excellent replacement method for you to keep your body as healthy as possible. If you do not want to run, jog, or even walk just to do your cardiovascular workout, you might better sit on your drum throne and play the drums.
Playing drums is considered by many to be an excellent workout, as it is able to make your heart pumping, making it an enjoyable cardio routine that you can do every day. As it can be a great way to replace the other workouts that you hate to do, you can also consider it as an add-on to your workout routine.
So, if you are planning to play the drums for an hour every day, you will quickly notice the difference in your weight loss and health journey. Time can fly very fast, and maybe an hour would not suffice your desire to get better at playing the drums, so increasing your duration of playing the drums will not only make you a better drummer but will also make you healthier.
Although this can be a little bit expensive for a workout and a hobby, playing the drums is still an excellent cardio exercise that you can do, especially if you hate to go outdoors.
It Helps You Relieve Some Of That Chronic Pain You Are Experiencing
If you are experiencing and suffering from chronic pain, one great way you can get relief out of it is by playing the drums. As many people find it helpful to take their mind away from the pain that their body is experiencing from, one thing you can do is to pick up that pair of drumsticks of yours, sit on your drum throne, and start to play the drums.
Playing a percussion instrument, such as the drums, can offer the much-needed distraction that can help you focus your mind on playing the drums and take the pain away from your subconscious mind. Playing the drums also helps release some endorphins that are known to be a natural painkiller that can help you ease the pain that you are experiencing.
It Is Able To Burn Calories That You Needed To Lose
I know that you are really hoping that this could be one of the health benefits that you can have in playing the drums. When it comes to cardio exercises, losing those calories is really one of the many benefits that you can get from consistently doing it. This is why playing the drums is also an excellent way of doing a cardio workout.
As playing the drums requires you to move your whole body, you can expect that you are going to burn some calories by doing it, resulting in you losing weight in the process. Every time you pick up your drumsticks, sit on your drum throne, and start to play the drums, there is always constant movement with your upper and lower body, so there is really no doubt that playing the drums can really make you sweat and lose some fats in the long run.
In a regular drumming session, a person can burn anywhere from 200 to 500 calories, which makes it a great way for you to lose some weight, do a workout, and still be able to do what you love and enjoy doing. According to a study, being able to keep a beat for a 90-minute concert can similarly burn the number of calories that you can get from running a 10-kilometer race, as well.
It Boosts Brain Power
Not only that, it can relieve you from anxiety, stress, and depression that you are suffering from; playing the drums is able to boost brain power, which can be very helpful for you in the long run, especially in your daily work and routine. As playing the drums will require you to coordinate your arms with your legs to work at the same time, practicing it is the only solution for you to be able to work with it, and with all the hours you’ve spent, it will significantly boost your brain power in the long run.
If you are a left-handed person, you usually won’t be able to do much with your right hand, and if you are a right-handed one, there is also less work that you can do with your left hand. In playing the drums, you will need the right and left sides of your brain to work and coordinate together for you to be able to play it.
By doing it, it is able to push your brain to work harder to improve your non-dominant side, and it results in your non-dominant limbs getting stronger while boosting your brainpower in the process. There is also a study that says that playing musical instruments, such as the drums, directly impacts a person’s IQ level, as music lessons significantly improve an IQ level of a six-year-old child while also having enhanced social skills.
It Is Able To Improve Your Coordination
Doing a cardio workout will not only make you lose some weight and lower your blood pressure, but it can also help you in developing your coordination skills. With playing the drums, it is also the same case as playing this musical instrument significantly requires you to be able to have great coordination with your hands and feet to be able to play it properly.
If you think that using all your four limbs at the same time to play the drums is an easy task, then think again. It can really be a challenging thing to do; coordinating your hands and feet when playing the drums can be a satisfying task to practice with if you are already starting to get the gist of it. As you’ll be able to notice the improvement in your coordination from time to time, it also means that you are becoming a better drummer as the days go by.
Playing the drums not only improves your body’s motor skills but it is also able to force your body to work with your brain’s visual skills, resulting in it increasing your eye-hand coordination better than most workouts done by regular people.
It Greatly Helps In Developing Self Confidence
When doing workouts and you are getting the results that you are looking for, it greatly helps you gain that self-confidence that you greatly need. By playing drums, not only can you lose weight from regularly doing it, but you are also learning a new skill that can give you the self-confidence that you did not have before.
As you learn how to play the drums, you are also dedicating lots of hours of practice and hard work, and this can give you some confidence level that you might need. It also gives you the mindset of being able to overcome any adversities that could happen, especially since learning how to play the drums is not an easy feat to do. With this aspect, learning how to play the drums gives you the learning that can help you in your life decisions in the future.
It Strengthens Your Arms And Core Muscles
By playing the drums, not only do you get to burn some calories and lose some weight, but it also strengthens your arms and core muscles. When you are playing the drums, your arms and core muscles are required to move and work together to be able to create some strong movements, and these movements will strengthen those muscles significantly in due time. There are only a limited number of cardio workouts you can do that only can give you the muscle strength results but can also be fun and be a hobby.
Your triceps, biceps, shoulder muscles, and forearm muscles are the main arm muscles that you usually use when you are playing the drums; however, these are not the only ones every time you play the musical instrument. You are also using your wrist and hand muscles when you are playing it, so if you have done it regularly and for a long time, you will really notice a lot of improvement when it comes to strength in that area.
Playing the drums can also help you combat carpal tunnel in the long run, which is why it is really one of the best cardio workouts that exist, especially since not only are you losing some weight, but you are also having some fun while playing a musical instrument.
It Gives You Happiness
With all the benefits that you can get from playing the drums, you can sum it up by getting a new and happier lifestyle. As a drummer, you should also meet other musicians that can help you become a better drummer, musician, and person, as well. There are also some communities that you can join, such as drum circles and cardio drumming classes, which can be very fun, as it also allows you some new skills that you can use in the long run.
Other Benefits Of Drumming As Exercise
If you think that the mentioned health benefits of playing the drums are already enough, then there is still more to it. One additional benefit is that it gives you a stronger immune system. Based on a study, sound waves have a positive effect on body cells, as it is able to reduce inflammation and help our immune system to produce more fighting cells. Playing the drums can also give you a better mood.
Playing the drums also helps in protecting you from hypertension, fatigue, asthma, arthritis, and addiction, and it can reduce risks of stroke and even cancer. Based on a study, they are able to discover that there is a specific group drumming approach that significantly increases the disease-fighting activity of circulating white blood cells as they seek out and destroy cancer cells and virally-infected cells.
Negative Effects Of Too Much Drumming
As there are adverse effects in too much exercise, there are also some adverse effects in too much drumming. One of them is chronic back pain, which is the cause of too much slouching. Another one is neck spasms, as this can come from throwing your neck too hard to the beat. Pinched nerves and wrist pain can also occur when you play too many drums without properly resting your body. It can also lead to tendonitis in the long run. This is why resting and taking care of your body is also very important for you to be able to play the drums in the long run.
Drumming as exercise, can I benefit from it? Yes, you can benefit from it. Not only it helps you physically, but it also helps you so much mentally and psychologically. Drumming can be a very good cardio workout, as long as you do not also do it too much.
