The quickest way to develop more power, range, and control: strength training for singers

If you've read the first part of this series of posts on how strength trumps technique when it comes to vocal support and breath control, you'll be starting to see that conventional singing lessons might not be the most effective approach to getting the voice you want.

After years of making little to no progress with conventional breathing exercises and technique lessons, I discovered that singing powerfully and singing high requires far better core strength than conventional singing training can achieve for you.

For those of us who feel our voice is lacking in power, range, or just all-round control, I now believe that the only real way to develop that necessary core strength is through a singer-specific approach to strength training (yes, like gym exercises).

This post will be helpful to anyone who is confused or frustrated with breathing technique, those who feel their voice is lacking that x-factor, or even those who are already good singers but are just interested in how to lift weights without hurting their voice.

But before we get into the details, I often get comments like: ...but Adele/Bruno Mars/Michael Jackson/whoever didn't got to the gym for their voice, so why do I need to?

It's a very legitimate point to raise, which requires a separate post of its own to fully explore but to put it in a sentence, the answer would be:

"Use it or lose it"

Pretty much every famous, well-regarded singer we know has been singing and training from a very young age (Adele from like five years old, Bruno and MJ from like three). They've grown up singing, so the core support muscles involved in the singing process have been active their entire lives. Plus, the extra hour or two a day, over the course of 10 - 15 years, that they would've spent on their feet being somewhat physically active while practicing counts for A LOT when it comes to retaining good posture and core strength.

For the rest of us who've come to singing later in life, and who've "grown up sitting down", we need to play catch up and we need to do a lot of rebuilding of the muscles involved in singing support and breath control. That's where strength training for singers comes in - because the breathing exercises typically prescribed to singers just don't cut it.

So back to the topic at hand...

In this post, I’ll be outlining for you the system and principles I used to develop more power, range, and strength in my voice, as well as how I protect my vocal cords while doing strength exercises. This will include the types of exercises I found to be most effective, and the ones - as singers - I think we should keep to a minimum or avoid.

What you’ll find me repeating often (here and elsewhere) is that how you do the exercise is just as, if not more important, than the exercise itself.

The training principles I use are not something you’ll find prominent or typical in the world of strength training, as I approached this with the needs of an aspiring singer in mind. Yes, there is a new skill set to learn here but by its nature, it is not one that requires 10,000 hours of practice for it to produce serious results.

And of course - you should seek the assistance of local fitness and health professionals before attempting any kind of novel exercise. A local professional can observe you right there in person to ensure you're doing things safely. There is only so much I can communicate through a blog post - this post is already well over 2000 words and we're only just scratching the surface of this subject - to include every safeguard or caveat would be nearly impossible, so keep that in mind and proceed sensibly.

Strength training for singers

Alright, so to give you a sense of the ideal physical form we need to aim for, have a look at these images of humans who have grown up using their bodies in the way nature designed them to be used:

The key things to notice are:

• how expansive their rib cages and torsos are

• how straight their spines are

• how developed their glutes are

• the backward and ‘neutral’ positioning of their hips (their behind is behind them)

• the retracted position of their shoulders

It is important for your own development to really study how they look. Don’t just glance and continue on down the page. Compare their posture and alignment to your own. In image 3, notice how straight the man’s back is - how does yours compare?

In image 2, notice how expansive his rib cage is and compare it to your own.

In images 1 and 4, notice how long and open their torso is. How does yours compare?

And in the third image again, notice how well balanced the man's hips are (they're not tilting forward or backward).

I’ll talk about why these people are our idealized examples in another post about posture and modern sedentary lifestyles. For this post, let’s just take it for granted that we want to get as close to our optimal evolutionary design as possible, in order to get the best results for our singing - because the most efficient and strongest way to operate is the way nature intended us to. And remember that a strong and healthy voice is dependent on a strong and healthy body. These guys above epitomize that optimal physical state.

Let's note though that these are ideals - don't get too hung up on perfection. There's pretty much no way we could look exactly like these guys because we're living completely different lifestyles. The impacts of a modern lifestyle cannot be completely overcome but the negatives can be improved. And if we at least aim to be physically more like our ancestors then we'll be doing our voice a great service.

Likewise, strength training doesn't mean we're trying to get big and buff (for singing purposes, looking like Mr. Olympia would probably be a negative in many ways). Besides, getting to that size takes years and is a full-time job - neither necessary nor desirable for our needs.

To make this a little more relevant, have a look at the similarities in physical structure displayed by some familiar singing greats:

These singers display very similar postural/structural traits to our hunter/gatherer ancestors. It's no coincidence that their voices were so powerful and attention-commanding (sadly, drugs and alcohol ruined a lot of these voices all too quickly).

Counterexamples:

What we are not aiming for is this:

Although these guys are muscular and would commonly be referred to as "in shape", notice:

• the compressed rib cages chests

• how they’re kind of crunched over

• a complete lack of expansiveness in their torso and rib cages

• the rounding of the shoulders (though these aren't the worst cases)

(Bonus points for guessing who the third image is)

This is certainly NOT what we want - compressed rib cages, sunken torsos, and tense stomachs are the opposite of the ideal setup for singing.

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So then, how do we strength train for singing?

The three parts to achieving this are just as important as each other. If you do the exercises without the principles in mind, you might as well not be doing the exercises at all. Let's break this down into three components:

1. Training principles

2. Exercises

3. Stretches and posture work are equally as important but it’s a topic unto itself so I’ll be doing a separate piece on that.

Training principles

Principle 1:

Maintain a proud and expanded rib cage

As well as of course sticking to other principles of safe strength training (straight back, neutral pelvis, etc.), when doing any exercise you want to keep your rib cage raised and expanded - keep your ribs "proud" in a sense. See the first set of images for a visual aid. It is common for the ribs to cave in when lifting weights - your job is to keep your ribs proud and expansive as you move through a lift/exercise.

Doing this is important for improving core strength with an optimal physical setup. You'd be creating much more work for yourself if you were to ignore the important role the that rib cage plays in core strength and good posture.

A strong and proud rib cage is an absolute necessity for good singing and you can only rebuild that through strength and resistance training in this fashion.

Principle 2:

Maintain an open airway and either breathe slowly throughout a movement or resist the pressure to breathe out without closing off your throat

As singers, our goal is to train ourselves to be able to work against the normal exhalation process. Doing the types of exercises that we'll get to below allows us to increase our ability to improve strength and control over exhalation through keeping the diaphragm down against the resistance that weight lifting provides - as well as simultaneously improving deep core strength.

It’s most often the case that when people lift weights, they ‘assist the lift’ by closing their vocal cords and constricting their throat (this is where all those gym grunt/strain/hissing sounds come from). As singers, for obvious reasons, it is dangerous and not beneficial for us to do this.

It is an easy trap to fall into because you simply cannot shift any significant amount of weight or generate significant power without core assistance but we need to avoid the common shortcut of 'closing the valve'. Unless you're absolutely maxing out on strength in an extreme situation, closing off your throat in order to generate core assistance demonstrates a weak core!

We most certainly can and must still engage our core while lifting, but we must do it by not using vocal cord closure as a crutch.

Yes, it takes more time to develop the coordination to shift weight whilst maintaining an open airway but it’s absolutely key for us singers in order to build the right kind of core strength and to avoid damaging your vocal cords and developing tension in your throat.

Principle 3:

Avoid intentional, excessive tension in the “six-pack” area of your core - your Rectus Abdominus (RA).

The traditional strength training and bodybuilding technique for lifting heavy weights can involve the heavy tensing of the RA.

Much like swallowing and singing don’t go together, tension in the RA and singing are mutually exclusive actions.

Try it for yourself: tense only your back and then briefly sing "ah". Not ideal but it probably won't have too much of an effect on your voice.

Now really tense your stomach and sing "ah" again. Constriction much?

Doing this over extended periods of time can lead to a chronically stiff throat. This is why most singing teaches tell people to avoid lifting heavy weights but as I've explained, if you adhere to principles one, two, and three, then this isn't an issue.

Not over-emphasizing the RA leads to a greater emphasis on activating your back, obliques, and rib cage while lifting - we want this in order to develop them for powerful singing and to avoid developing chronic throat tension.

This will be somewhat of an advanced technique for most people, so principle 4 must be observed.

Principle 4:

Don’t try to lift the heaviest weights you can lift when you’re just starting out.

Instead, spend a lot of time honing your technique and building a good mind-body connection. Start with good form and coordination, then gradually increase the weight.

Remember, just because you can lift a certain amount, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing it safely. Be patient and listen to your body. This stuff takes time - keep the long game in mind.

Principle 5:

Don’t overtrain - and listen to your body

There is a fine balance to discover here, and similar to P4, it takes a little time to develop an awareness of the difference between when you’ve sufficiently extended yourself to promote growth, and when you’ve exhausted yourself and just wearing your body down.

Additionally - pain is not something to just push through- it's a sign that you're doing something wrong. Notice those signs and try to find out what you need to do differently.

This is of course common sense but it's worth remembering.

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All right. Try your best to keep those 5 principles in mind while you’re working out...

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Exercises

I’ll leave mentioning specific exercises for future video tutorials because here I just want to briefly cover what types of exercises are best for singers to do and which types of exercises are best avoided. I'd highly recommend signing up to your local gym and getting them to create you a program that works with the principles I'm outlining in this post. Otherwise, I have created a basic video outline of the exercises I do, which you can find here.

• Get your glutes working. Why? Because we all sit down for far too much every day and this literally puts our butts to sleep. This plays a huge role in poor posture. What most people don't realize is that the glutes play an important role in trunk stabilization. What this means for us is that strong glutes lighten the workload of our core muscles, which frees up more strength and energy in our support mechanism for singing.

• Deadlifts - do them! But, don't start out with a barbell because that requires really good form and you will not have the relevant strength and coordination to start with. Barbell deadlifts are not forgiving on your back if your form is even a little bit off. Instead, start with a kettlebell and gradually progress to something like a t-bar deadlift - these approaches are much more forgiving while you're locking in good form and strength.

• Get on the floor and do some dynamic plank-based exercises. Plenty of variations to play around within this sphere of exercise.

• Target your back. Any kind of rowing exercises are great for singers. Just remember to especially adhere to principles one and two with these exercises especially and you'll create some massive gains in singing power as well as help out your posture significantly.

• Avoid too much chest-press type exercises as these can compound already rounded shoulders and can lead to throat tension. You'll notice that our ancestors didn't have huge chests like modern day bodybuilders - it's not a necessity for us as singers either!

• Crunches: these are even bigger ones to avoid. Like bench presses, they can compound our chair and desk-induced postural traits and we don't want to be even more hunched over. You'll also notice that "six-pack" tension creates neck tension. There are plenty of safe core exercises out there without needing to do crunches.

• Sit ups: same critique as crunches. People think core training means crunches and sit-ups but proper core training is much more than this. From a functional perspective, crunches and sit-ups are almost a purely aesthetic exercise.

• Overhead exercises are also great for promoting core strength. A great example would be an exercise called "halo/around the world".

• An important indirect focus of your training should include strengthening the arches of your feet and ensuring that your hips are in good alignment (both in rotation and tilt). Our feet and hips play such an important role in how the rest of our body aligns. Do your knees angle in toward each other or do you walk like a duck? You'll want to pay attention to your lower body as your upper body posture and strength potential is significantly affected by lower body "posture".

And with any other exercises you choose to do (bicep curls, for instance) remember the principles above.

From gains to maintenance

What you’ll notice if you have a big workout is that you will probably struggle to sing your best the next day (even potentially for the next two days, depending on the size of the workout). This is because your muscles will be fatigued and recovering from the workout - which is pretty good evidence in itself for how important strength is for singing!

My advice is to allow for a few months of less than your normal singing practice and more time building strength in order to get your body up to speed.

After a period of dedicated strength training you can reduce workout intensity and frequency, and train in order to maintain a desired level of strength. Now you should be able to go back to practicing songs as often as you used to but with much better results.

Stretches and alignment

The work doesn’t stop after you work out. If you work out with an ancestral posture in mind, that will get you a long way towards developing great posture for singing but you will also need to stretch regularly and consciously monitor your stance. Most teachers (and society in general) just tell people to ‘stand up straight’ - unfortunately it isn’t as simple or easy as this.

I'll cover that in another post though, so keep an eye out for that.

Mad scientists wanted

So, if you’ve stayed with me til the end, and you’re still a little skeptical about the main idea here, all I can say is just try it for yourself. Don’t take my word for it, become a mad scientist and do your own little experiment with you as the subject.

Commit at least 3 months to building core and lower body strength in the manner that I’ve described and see how it affects your voice. You should start to notice some change even after a month. Keep the principles in mind, as they’ll help to keep your voice safe.

How much time and money have you already invested in your singing without getting the results you want? Try the exercises for a few months and if it doesn’t get you results, at least you’ll be a little bit fitter and healthier! The only monetary investment you'll need to make is $10-15 a week at your local gym (or nothing if you get creative and set yourself up at home).

If strength training works for your voice, then please let me know. I'd love to hear it!

Go hard and good luck!

And here's a Photoshop of a shredded PSY for no reason other than it's mildly amusing...

credit: worth1000.com