Physical Exercise before and after Piano?

[ainmpiano]

I have heard that exercise right after learning improves memory slightly. 
  https://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2016/07/08/how-exercise-improves-memory.aspx
and that 15 minutes of exercise after an activity helps when learning motor skills.
  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180711153607.htm

Are there any studies that show exercise before something like piano helps memory?

I realize that vigorous exercise right before piano practice or a performance is not helpful.
I am talking about maybe a light exercise two hours before.  Any studies on that?

Thanks.
Mac

[dogperson]

Look at bulletproof musician.com as they have research on a lot of musician -related topics

[ted]

I am convinced exercise almost amounts to an elixir of life. I train for around eighteen hours a week, in a variety of ways, and at seventy-one it contributes in no small measure to my ability to record long, physically taxing improvisations. It also enhances the mental state and the thinking processes. In fact, there is very little can be said against it. Sure, I get the occasional minor strain, but that is a small price to pay for the benefits. The physical state of most people in the developed world is nothing short of disgusting, with immobility, diabetes, alcohol consumption and metabolic syndrome forming a tsunami which is already inundating the health systems.

So yes, whatever time of day you do it, embrace a regular and ongoing routine of vigorous exercise, you won’t regret it.

[lostinidlewonder]

I would think the benefits to overall health exercise has far outweighs its subtle and not really accurately measurable improvement to ones memorisation potential. From a different perspective I find some of the children I teach who just finished sports activities do not have as much energy to deal with demands in lessons. So it is a catch 22 from my experience. Worse sometimes is when they come straight from computer game activities!!

I think working on your practice method (quite a detailed issue) is the single most effective and direct way in improving your memory work.

[ainmpiano]

Thanks for the comments.

I guess I was thinking, was there a light exercise in particular that would be recommended an hour or two hours before piano practice.

Maybe not.

[indianajo]

Any aerobic exercise wakes you up and makes the brain alert.  Running, fast walking, swimming, bicycling, fast calesthentics with no breaks, vacuuming, waxing the floor on hands & knees, mowing the lawn with a push mower.  See Dr. Ken Cooper's Aerobics or Aerobics for Women books.  I follow the program & my heart has nothing wrong with it age 68.  I'm learning Grieg's March of the Dwarves right now. 

[maxim3]

If you're like most normal human beings, you love the idea of exercise, but you hate actually exercising. Therefore, guilting yourself that you should be exercising for 15 minutes right before and right after piano practice will probably start to poison your practice time generally.

So don't be hard on yourself. Exercise IS essential, so get it done three times per week in the least annoying way possible, and don't let a close association develop between such an unpleasant chore and your piano playing. Exercise is like doing the dishes and taking out the garbage.

[ted]

...mowing the lawn with a push mower....

Progressive man ! I've used one for sixty years, mostly kikuyu grass too, wouldn't know how to use a motor mower.

[xdjuicebox]

Honestly, I play so much better when I'm in shape. I feel more connected to my body, and it actually does what I tell it to instead of flailing around wildly like an idiot

So in general, I think training is good for piano. Your neuromuscular system is better tuned, which can only help when playing virtuosic pieces

[thirtytwo2020]

If you're like most normal human beings, you love the idea of exercise, but you hate actually exercising.

See Dr. Ken Cooper's Aerobics or Aerobics for Women books.  I follow the program & my heart has nothing wrong with it age 68.  I'm learning Grieg's March of the Dwarves right now. 

I am convinced exercise almost amounts to an elixir of life. I train for around eighteen hours a week, in a variety of ways, and at seventy-one it contributes in no small measure to my ability to record long, physically taxing improvisations.

I'm a bit like Maxim 3, but I want to be like Ted or Indianajo. In order to get even more inspired, I would like to hear more details about what you do these eighteen hours a week and how. Especially in terms of continuity. Anybody can start exercising - I find it more difficult to keep going.

[ted]

I have to qualify anything I say with the fact that I have scant knowledge of training or exercise in general. What I do might not be right for you because of differing age and circumstances. I am seventy-one, have never attended a gym, and have devised routines for myself using trial and error over several decades.

The main principle, as I see it, is to gradually establish a permanent habit of daily physical activity of varying type. Like any change of habit, the process requires discipline, in much the same way as working on music needs discipline, and in my experience takes about three months, after which it tends to carry on under its own momentum.

My present specifics are easy to list but may not be right for you. I exercycle, quite hard on reasonably high resistance for an hour every day. I do resistance work for about an hour every second or third day using expanders and bullworkers. I walk a great deal, usually rapidly and at least a few miles a day, but not to any structured plan. I labour in the garden, mowing, weeding, digging, sawing, just general maintenance, but done rather quickly, usually for an hour a day but it does depend on the weather. The figure of eighteen hours is just what my Fitbit tells me the weekly total of physical activity has usually been, not necessarily all structured training; perhaps I used the wrong word.

It is the initial formation of the habit which proves hard for many people, a bit like stopping smoking or drinking. However, after the struggle, a curious mental reversal takes place, and it becomes hard not to exercise because you enjoy the effects so much, and discipline and pleasure become one state. Also, don’t forget that rest, sleep and diet are part of it too. No good training your guts out then eating a load of rubbish and staying up half the night boozing. Common sense is required in building things up gradually. If you start with a hiss and a roar you will probably pull a muscle or tendon and have to stop. A lttle and often is much better than an all out strain once a week.

[maxim3]

I'm way past fifty, and I've always played little tricks on myself to force myself to exercise.

I never use the car unless it is completely unavoidable. It sits for weeks at a time.

I usually buy only enough beer for a couple of days. Then I have to walk a mile to the store to get more beer. I carry a large backpack, usually containing two 10-pound weights, and I run as much of the way as I can, or take a long detour through the nearby river valley, involving steep hill climbs.

I also do the grocery shopping that way, so I often come home carrying up to 50 pounds on my back (groceries, beer, weights). Strategic lack of either beer or important food staples ensures that I have to get out several times per week.

This system has been working well for me for years now, and once I'm actually out the door, I feel good! I reward myself with a cold hi-quality beer while walking home, too. Occasionally I take my bicycle for a change.

When I fall off the wagon, so to speak, and get out of shape, I get back into that routine rather gently and gradually, so as not to hurt my old joints & bones. That doesn't happen often and sheer guilt intervenes to get me back on track before long.

[j_tour]

I've spent a few months doing "picking freight" at a warehouse -- let me tell you, the development of problems with wrists and elbows, not to mention loss of sensitivity about the fingertips is no joke.

HOWEVER, I think something a little less punishing is great. 

Just going for a ten or twenty mile walk -- maybe not every day -- has always been a good chance to mentally prepare pieces of music, or just enjoy things.

That and pushups, those are all the exercises I'd do in an ideal world.

[thirtytwo2020]

Strategic lack of either beer or important food staples ensures that I have to get out several times per week.

 

Very useful advice! And thanks Ted for elaborating on your habits.