Stamina

stamina |ˈstamənə|
noun
the ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about stamina.  The definition from the dictionary on my computer is shown above.  My own personal definition of the word is “staying power.”  As a musician, you need different kinds of stamina.  The obvious one is physical stamina, or the ability to play or sing for extended periods of time.  Mental stamina is also neccessary.  Musicians have to be able to focus for long periods of time at one sitting, but also the stamina to rehash the same material again and again and again until it’s as close to perfections as possible.  Stamina to continue working despite setbacks.

Recently I’ve had a bit of a setback.  I had some weird issue where my hands and feet were swollen and my joints hurt really badly.  The blood tests at the doctor’s office came back that my inflammation markers were elevated.  Playing the violin hurt.  Standing hurt.  Sitting hurt.  Existing hurt.  So, I couldn’t practice for a bit until the inflammation was back under control.  That started in mid-April and it took until June or so for me to be able to practice without pain.  Taking time off from playing, and then only practicing small amounts for two or three months takes a toll on physical stamina as well.  It’s taken most of June and part of July for me to ramp back up to be able to play for several hours a day without hurting.

So, if you are recovering from injury or illness and trying to recover your physical stamina, or just never had much and need to increase it, here is what I did.  I set a goal for how many hours a day I wanted to practice.  I’d been getting in about one hour a day after I recovered from whatever weird thing was wrong with me.  So, I increased my time to two hours a day, split up into three chunks.  The first and last chunk I practiced for 30 minutes each, and the middle one was an hour.  My schedule allows me to practice once in the morning and twice in the afternoon.  (If you need to take it slower, maybe increase to an hour and a half the first week, with two practice sessions, then increase to three the next week.)  The following week, I made sure that one of my 30 minute sessions became 45 minutes, and tried to get both of them to 45 minutes.  I believe I stuck with that schedule for two weeks.  By the following week I was able to consistently play for three hours a day.  I like to spread out my practicing throughout the day to give my muscles a break between practice sessions.  If that isn’t possible, it is important to take a 10-15 minute break every hour.  Muscles, particularly when subjected to a work load they’ve never done before, or haven’t in quite a while, need time to rest to recover their energy.  Hydration is important while practicing.  I always keep a bottle or cup of water handy.  Mini-breaks to get a drink also are helpful.  Not only are breaks necessary for your muscles, but your mind benefits from these as well.  Short breaks during a long session can increase stamina dramatically, and allow you to accomplish much more than if you pushed yourself without a break.

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