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Running on treadmill singing

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Just watched a Chris Brown interview where he says he puts his "signed" artist through a 2 year artist development where they do a lot of stuff before coming out including... "running on a Treadmill singing"

Although we can't measure if this is helpful or not to the voice... for example weight lifting and singing simultaneously may not end well.

What are people's thoughts on this? Brisk jogging and phonating... not to the point of physical fatigue depending though. I'm sure somewhere in nature we had to run and phonate lol!

It's at 24:00 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ8fqpt4qtQ

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Haha I watched that interview, being the Chris Brown fanatic that I am :)

Went out the next day, jogged for an hour and sang, bear in mind I haven't done cardio for a good 2-3 months. It was HARD!! Plus I ended up with a really bad chesty cough and cold.

It's harder to do it on the treadmill unless you have a personal one. It'd be easier to pace yourself on one though. Mark Baxter also recommends it.

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breathing for running and breathing for singing are two different things.

One can run for physical endurance and good conditioning of the lungs for the absorption of oxygen. Singing is different.

To quote Daniel, sort of, you get better at singing by singing. Anything else is a magic pill. And there are no magic pills. You have to sing to get better at singing. There's my tough love for the day.

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breathing for running and breathing for singing are two different things.

One can run for physical endurance and good conditioning of the lungs for the absorption of oxygen. Singing is different.

To quote Daniel, sort of, you get better at singing by singing. Anything else is a magic pill. And there are no magic pills. You have to sing to get better at singing. There's my tough love for the day.

Actually, one generally should be using "abdominal breathing" while running, at least that's what I was taught by my cross country coach. As soon as you start breathing with your upper chest only, you start to cramp. Of course if you're sprinting to the finish line in a race you'll inevitably be taking upper chest breaths and just enduring the cramping for a short period.

That said, I'm with you and Daniel that you get better at singing by singing. I've sung from time to time on the treadmill and worked on some awareness things like vocal fold retraction while I run. I call it multi-tasking, more than anything. It's not a magic pill and it's also not a substitute for good focused practice.

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Actually, one generally should be using "abdominal breathing" while running, at least that's what I was taught by my cross country coach. As soon as you start breathing with your upper chest only, you start to cramp. Of course if you're sprinting to the finish line in a race you'll inevitably be taking upper chest breaths and just enduring the cramping for a short period.

That said, I'm with you and Daniel that you get better at singing by singing. I've sung from time to time on the treadmill and worked on some awareness things like vocal fold retraction while I run. I call it multi-tasking, more than anything. It's not a magic pill and it's also not a substitute for good focused practice.

Bingo.

Could you tell us a little more about vocal fold retraction when running? I assume you just try to make your breathing silent?

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Bingo.

Could you tell us a little more about vocal fold retraction when running? I assume you just try to make your breathing silent?

Yea, I aim for a silent low breath when I start running and actually I am for it all day long. Really what I used to work on was the silent laugh retraction exercise. Laughing silently retracts the false vocal folds, although it took me several months to fully understand what this was supposed to feel like. Then I would try to maintain this retraction posture while running.

I still try and keep my throat as open as much as possible while running, albeit a little more passively now that I have a better sense of retraction. I think it helps a bit with your breathing for running as well. Although again, when you pick up the pace it becomes harder and harder and I think there are higher priorities both mentally and physically at that point.

My two biggest leisure activities are singing and running. It's only natural that I'd combine them at some point. Not sure I'd make it a mandatory part of an artist development program, but I'd say that it can be a good way to get a little extra vocal awareness into your routine.

As for D.Starr's suggestion about being an active singer, I'd say that it couldn't hurt, but if you want to be an active singer you have to practice being an active singer. Distance running primarily makes you better at distance running. For other activities, it's a good supplement, not a replacement. Even though I run a lot, I have a much harder time playing 50 minutes of soccer than I do running 5 miles, because I just don't do the kind of stop and go running you do in soccer very often. Yes my soccer endurance is better than if I didn't do distance running, but it's not stellar.

So if you want to sing and dance, you have to sing and dance. Singing on the treadmill won't cut it.

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I should start doing that Remy, because sometimes I feel my throat closing up when I run. Not good.

Sometimes when I'm running outside and listening to some great music I'll look up at the sky and smile at the natural high the experience brings. That's probably also triggering some retraction, come to think of it. How could it not.

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