Health and Fitness For Musicians
Adjusting the protocol for the next step towards later life
Important note: Nothing written in this post is medical advice, and before making any major changes to a nutrition, hydration or fitness protocol, it is highly recommended you seek the advice of a licensed professional. Although a lot of what I’m going to talk about is information I learned from some of the best in their fields of sports nutrition, fitness, recovery, physical therapy, and high-level athletic coaching, I am not a professional in these fields, and will not be sourcing all research materials and studies associated with these topics in the post. The story you’re about to read is anecdotal evidence, and although a lot of what I learnt in the process is based in hard scientific evidence, you will have to seek out those materials for yourself if you want concrete evidence of a protocol’s effectiveness.
If I’ve learnt anything that may apply to absolutely everyone on the topics of health and fitness, it’s that everyone is very different and there is no one-size-fits-all solution, much like the process of learning music. Where possible I will link to as many broad sources of information that I trust, but it is up to you what you do with that information.
It’s no secret that I’m 44 years of age, and I feel like I’m heading into a new phase of life that will play a huge part in how active I’m able to be 30 or 40 years from now. I’m fortunate to have been incredibly healthy in my teens as an athlete, and that somehow propelled me through 15 years of life on the road as a musician in my 20’s and 30’s.
By my mid-thirties though, time was beginning to show some signs of wear and tear on the body, and I was leading a far from healthy lifestyle. I wasn’t about to appear in an episode of “My 600lb Life” on TLC, but I was by no means in-shape, and had developed some poor, but sadly typical for a musician, habits that I knew I needed to change.
My good friend Louie Palmer moved to Los Angeles in early 2013. I ran into him on the street one day as he was heading out to play tennis, and he asked me if I wanted to hit some balls. I was jumping on the treadmill a few times a week and plodding away for 5km or so, and mistakingly thought I was in great shape. Running around a tennis court for an hour seemed like it would be no problem.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. I wanted to puke after about 15 minutes, and came to the realization that I was now long removed from the days in my youth where I used to train regularly, eat the right things, and being coached in various sports.
Let’s rewind to that time to help set the scene of what I thought I was still capable of at age 34, yet realistically hadn’t had anything close the capacity to since my teens.
I was on both a local club and British national kayaking team, raced all over Europe, and won regularly. I trained 6 days a week, sometimes twice a day when the river wasn’t frozen in winter time. If we were rained or snowed out, I would still train indoors on a rowing machine, or do kayaking specific workouts in the gym.
I won my first ever race in division 12 (the lowest division in the UK at the time I started racing), and rose to division 2 by my late teens (the highest you could be ranked as a junior at the time). Over several seasons I won dozens of international trophies representing Britain on the summer circuit in the north of Spain, as well as numerous domestic titles in K1 and K2 before having to make the decision to either go full time as an adult competitor, or make music my career.
I was skinny as a kid, but the training and racing helped put some meat on my bones, and I think that foundation kept me ticking over long enough to survive the front-end of my career as a musician on the road.
Heading into my thirties, things definitely started to change. I was partying on the road a little too often. Never drugs of any kind, but wine, beer and cocktails for sure. But perhaps worst of all were the eating habits I was developing. Not binge eating or anything crazy, just crap food at shitty times of the day and night.
If you’ve ever been on tour, especially in the US which was what I was doing a lot of in my 20’s and early 30’s, you’ll know how horrific the food is in the middle of nowhere. It’s bad enough when you’re in a big city and have access to decent grocery stores, but you get out there on I-80 someplace like Rock Springs Wyoming, and you’re living off gas station food and microwaved bullshit on the tour bus.
Throw in the inevitable lack of sleep that comes from touring + partying, and it’s a recipe for a slow decline in health. The crazy thing at the time was I just didn’t notice it. I look back on photos from the road now and barely recognize myself. Weight you notice in the face of course, and lack of sleep gets you under the eyes. But the underlying lack of fitness and declining health was creeping up on me so slowly it was hard to identify in the moment.
I wasn’t under any pressure to physically exert myself on a regular basis, so I was never really tested to the point where I got shocked into understanding what was happening.
That was until 2013, when I started to go out to the tennis court with Louie and hit some balls. I had always been a massive tennis fan, and even had an old racquet in the closet that I took with me those first few times. I was hooked almost immediately, and realized it was something that was close to my house, I could do for an hour, and still be able to work on music and practice as much as I wanted.
It had a pretty accelerated effect on my health and wellbeing. I immediately ditched alcohol and sugar, and stayed off them completely for two years. Another close friend and guitarist, James Valentine, is also a tennis nut and introduced me to his coach who I started working with, and joined the club where he coached so I could start training regularly.
To say I got way into it all would be the understatement of the decade. I started training 6 days a week, at least twice a day and often three times, and I got very serious about my nutrition. I reconnected with a musical acquaintance from back in my Berklee days, Jeff Rothschild, who I knew briefly as a drummer and recording engineer. He had gone on to have this stellar career recording and mixing albums for an absolutely insane list of people like Bon Jovi, Sting Cheryl Crow, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Alanis Morissette, Kelly Clarkson, Carlos Santana, Rod Stewart, and dozens more.
The reason I highlight this laundry list of best-of-the-best names on his resume, is because he took an incredibly bold move at the height of his musical career, to quit the entire thing and re-train as a sports nutritionist. We reconnected through James Valentine as Jeff is also way into tennis, and not only played as a junior but coached too.
I was getting into a very intense period of training, had shed 35lbs, and was in desperate need of a detailed nutrition protocol which Jeff helped me with in a big way.
After vastly adjusting my caloric intake to keep up with the high volume of training I was doing, I started to make even more gains in my fitness and ability on a tennis court. In 2015 I went to Jeff’s office in Los Angeles to get some body scanning done and take a Vo2 max test, and got to see some real data on what I’d been doing for almost two years for the first time.
In around 18 months, once I’d been playing a little more and getting serious about tennis, I’d gone from being the pudgy 195lbs you saw earlier in this post, to being an incredibly lean 159.9lbs. I was probably about 10lbs under where I needed to be at that point because of the caloric imbalance, but Jeff sorted that out right away.
Jeff built out some basic fueling goals for the fall of 2015. I was definitely under-eating based on the high training volume, and I needed to build some muscle mass for improved strength on the tennis court. At that time I didn’t know I was going to quit playing bass for a year and travel with the Bryan Brothers for the 2016 ATP season as their fitness coach and hitting partner, but that’s another crazy story for another time.
All of this training and newly learned knowledge about how the body works was going to play a key role in being able to maintain my fitness, and train with two professional athletes on tour for a year.
What I learned I had been doing right, was building my cardio vascular strength consistently in the 2 years since first going out on the tennis court with Louie in 2013. I was well over the threshold for what was considered superior athletic cardio ability for my age range, and that was reflected in the amount of stamina I had both in training and match play.
Through the year on the ATP tour, and my subsequent return to touring for music in 2017 whilst still maintaining most of the hard work I’d been putting in from 2013-2016, I was able to keep a really strict nutrition plan in place and build a healthy lifestyle for myself as a musician.
I prioritized healthy pursuits outside of music and even tennis, and stuck very closely to a little-to-no-alcohol and almost zero sugar regime. The night of my 40th birthday (as Chelsea was on tour in Europe) I was out running hills in Venice with Adidas Runners LA where I was a crew runner, and was still in almost peak fitness. Due to the addition of running to my program, even though running is something I loath, I had managed to stay very lean which was helping my day to day mental health state, and allowing me to be very productive as a musician.
In 2019 a lot of things happened. A lot of great things, but some things that didn’t do my health a lot of good. I had slacked off on the recovery element of my routine due to an increased touring schedule, as well as being only a few months out from marrying Chelsea in a Chateau in France. Not something that just came together overnight.
I was on tour in the US, Mexico, Europe, Japan, and Russia all by May, and in June I went to NYC to make “The Union”. I then had another quick tour in Europe in July, followed by the Drum Fantasy Camp in Chicago for a week where I was playing with Dennis Chambers, Gergo Borlai, Chad Wackerman, and Steve Smith. I came home from that only one week before leaving for Europe for our wedding, so I was really being pushed to the limit with my schedule the whole year.
I suffered two herniated vertebrae around March from over training and not working my recovery routine enough, so the Japan and Russia tours were absolute agony. When I got back off the road I was very fortunate to have access to Rory Cordial who is one of the best in his field of physical recovery and treatment of athletes. He got me mobile for the wedding which I will be forever grateful for, but there was some writing on the wall in terms of my schedule not allowing for me to train and recover like I used to.
After the wedding things got even more nuts. We moved house, we were both working like crazy, and for the first time in about 6 years I started to back off my routine.
Fast forward a few months and we’re all locked down in the middle of a pandemic, and well, you kind of know the rest. I didn’t suddenly become motivated to stay shredded while cooped up at home, despite building quite a nice gym in the house and still working out semi regularly. I stopped playing tennis for 8 months, and got into some really bad food habits.
By the time I did come back to the tennis court, my body just wasn’t close to anything it had been before. Lots of muscle had atrophied, and my cardio capacity wasn’t anything close to being competitive. I tried for a few months, but was way more concentrated on making a living and figuring out what the hell I was going to do as a musician as the pandemic rolled on with no end in sight.
In early 2021 we got pregnant, and then life changed completely. It was all eyes on making sure Chelsea was healthy and had as good a pregnancy as possible. It ended up being super tough for her, and priorities then, as they are now we are parents, shifted in a way I couldn’t have predicted.
Everyone tells you life is never the same once you have a kid, and boy are they right. It has been both amazing and exhausting. One of the key elements of my fitness protocol for so many years was good sleep. Since our daughter was born 15 months ago, sleep has been in very short supply, and as a result so has the wherewithal to be as physically active.
I know this has been a lot of historical information so far, but I wanted to be transparent about where I’m coming from in terms of my personal health and fitness journey. And now I want to share with you what I’m about to start doing to change the stagnant and frankly unhealthy place I find myself in at 44 years of age.
My first port of call when researching how I might enhance my fitness, was to ask what I actually need out of the process now. I’m not traveling with professional athletes, I’m never going to be able to train 3 times a day 6 days a week again, so I know the goals have to be altered in order to make progress.
Like anything scientific, data changes and is updated all the time with people continually researching protocols and running studies. I’ve found a few people whose opinions and information seem to be based in hard scientific data, and I’ve started to adapt a few of their ideas to what I already know to be effective for my body.
I think Andrew Huberman, Peter Attia, and Layne Norton all have interesting things to say about health, fitness, nutrition, and longevity. The Huberman Labs podcast actually hosted both Attia and Norton as guests recently, so if you want to check any of that out, it’s a good place to start.
I definitely have a much keener interest in longevity these days. Not only because I would like to live a long, happy, healthy and purposeful life, but also because I’m coming to fatherhood a little later than most. I would like to spend as much time with my family in an ambulatory state as possible, and to achieve that I am embarking on a very specific set of new protocols for my health and fitness.
A lot of what I employed before on a daily basis will be in place:
zero alcohol and sugar
no processed foods
Supplement regime (Multi Vitamin, Super EPA/FIsh Oil capsule, Creatine, Caffeine/L-Theanine) More on that later
“eating the rainbow” - As much naturally varied color in my diet
As much regular sleep as possible with our daughter starting to get into more regular sleep patterns
High fibre diet
Ice Baths 3 x’s a week
water only for hydration, sometimes enhanced with lemon, salt, or electrolytes depending on what part of my fitness cycle I’m in
Things I’m adding/modifying include:
lifting heavy weights more regularly to help improve bone density
longer medium to high intensity cardio workouts (running/stationary bike/rowing machine etc)
new fitness/workout protocol involving 2-a-days (will detail later in the post)
Intermittent fasting/Eating window protocol
developing a version of all of the above that I can stick to when touring/traveling
I’m sure there are a bunch of basic categories I’m forgetting off the top of my head, but I’ll be able to report more as the new year wears on and I adjust all of this accordingly. This is always going to be something that changes over time as my needs develop.
When I was doing my most effective training, it was generally when I wasn’t in a rut of doing the same thing week in week out. Although I may have had a basic template and a goal in mind, I would always try and come up with new exercises to achieve those goals so the body didn’t have time to adapt. That’s what I intend to do now. Not only does it help with the overall level of fitness, but it keeps it interesting.
A few words on what my day to day fitness, nutrition, hydration and supplement protocols will look like for this new chapter in 2023:
My wake up time is within a one-hour window between 6:30am and 7:30am
I get a 48oz bottle of water with the juice of one lemon going
There is an option to get a little carbs inside me before my first workout if I need it. Berries, an apple, or a banana. This is both for a carb bump if I need it, but also to have something in my stomach to take my supplements.
First workout of the day starts late morning around 10:30am-11am
Each workout is at least one hour in duration with a 10-minute warm up and cycles between heavy lifting/resistance training for legs, running (“level 2 cardio”), torso/neck/upper body, recovery/ice bath, HIIT (High intensity interval training), and Arms/Calves.
First meal of the day: Meat/protein intensive meal and the amount of carbs with that depend on how hard I trained. So that could look like Pork/Chicken/Beef with some salad, maybe a little carbs and some fruit after.
Late afternoon/Evening walk 1-2 miles pre dinner. Also works after dinner.
Dinner is more carb intensive to load for the next morning’s workout. Pasta or Rice with some salad. Maybe a little lean protein like some fish can work with dinner also. This restores my glycogen to the point where I’m sufficiently fueled for the next morning’s workout.
The hydration continues throughout the day and I try to be in bed by 10:30pm or 11pm at the latest.
This is all subject to change at any time though, and I think that’s the most important thing to realize. You don’t have to beat yourself up if you don’t nail it 100% every time, and it is inevitable, especially as a musician, that you will have to adapt along the way.
For my supplements I use Thorne Research. I’m not being paid to recommend them, and they are not a sponsor of this post in any way. I think they have the highest quality and cleanest supplements out there, and that’s why I use them. Be warned, they are not cheap.
I mentioned 2-a-days before. Essentially two workouts a day. Although my basic routine doesn’t include that right now, I will be including tennis again once my strength and fitness are back to a place where I can avoid injury and train at the level I used to.
That will involve changing the nutrition side of things in a big way. I doubt I’ll be able to fast as much in the mornings and will need more fuel to get through an intense 60-90 minute on-court tennis workout. I will also need to pick and choose my days for heavy lifting and HIIT. Doing those on the same day as a high intensity tennis workout will have a detrimental effect on my overall health as I won’t be able to recover in time to get the right things out of each workout.
I’m very conscious not to work the same parts of the body back to back days, and am aware of how long I need between workouts to recover and avoid injury.
Aside from the ice baths, there are a lot of other things that go into the recovery process. I hang from a pull up bar several times a day for 30-60 seconds at a time. This helps decompress my spine as well as work on strengthening my grip. I use foam rollers, do at least 20-30 minutes of stretching over the course of the day after workouts, and am always warmed up before I start any exercise. 10 minutes on the stationary bike is great for that, or simply jumping rope in the backyard for 5-10 minutes will get the blood flowing and the muscles warm.
I favor the rowing machine over the stationary bike for long sessions as it works over 80% of your body. But I will use the bike if I can’t get out of the house for a run, and just need some variation to stave off boredom.
I use a TRX for body weight and some plyo training, as well as a Swiss Ball (standing upright or kneeling on it and performing various exercises), and Bosu ball for balance and core strength. Jumping is also a huge part of my HIIT routines. Combinations of different height boxes, hurdles, frog jumps, and a host of other options
Resistance bands, along with the TRX, are great lightweight tools to take on the road and get a serious workout done in a hotel room. And before every on-court tennis session, resistance bands are a big part of my warm-up routine.
This is a lot of information, and it’s not going to work for everyone. I think the most important part of any protocol is just to commit and have the will power to want to lead a healthier lifestyle. It’s really fucking difficult at times as a musician, and especially as a parent. But it is possible, and I will report back on my progress and help you be motivated to make strides for yourself.
Happy New Year, and may it be a healthy one full of good habits, and positivity.
Janek
Thanks for sharing your fitness journey with the rest of us. I’m a dad as well and right in the thick of raising two daughters. It flys by for sure and when I looked up, I barely noticed the guy in the mirror. I have easing my way back into fitness and it’s been a great stress relief and helped my mental health immensely. Best of luck and hope to hear more about you and experience.
Great read, thanks for sharing. As an older dad I’ve found Pavel’s Simple & Sinister kettlebell protocol incredibly effective at building lasting strength