Singers & Exercise

The holidays are over and this semester is in full swing, which means it is time to begin working myself back down to my wedding dress size. Before I broke my arm, I was going to both spin and yoga twice a week. I planned on filling the few weeks between the end of the summer session and the beginning of the fall with rollerblading and lifting, but now I know that strapping wheels to ones feet will inevitably end in a broken limb.

Now I have both the time and physical ability to go back to those two classes that I loved so much this summer. The question is, will strenuous exercise, such as spin class or lifting weights, hurt or help my singing? Every textbook that I have read seems to think that singers will strain their throat muscles if they do anything other than swimming or walking. However, the modern opera singer can't just be a good singer, they must also look great. This means that exercise is a necessary addition to one's daily routine.

How is anyone supposed to get into good enough shape to be able to sing and dance at the same time by walking? Singing requires excellent posture and great abs, so walking just isn't going to cut it for me. I need something more intense and exciting. My exercise of choice is spin class. If you have never been to a spin class, prepare to sweat - a lot. It is an intense cardio workout that will make your legs burn until you can barely walk.

Intense exercise can be very beneficial if one is smart about it. It is necessary to think carefully about the time of day that exercise should be scheduled. Intense exercise can often aggravate acid reflux, which makes it a lot more difficult to sing. Also, don't grunt while exercising, breathe normally and you will be fine. Grunting is a misuse of the voice akin to clearing one's throat, so just don't do it. Use common sense - don't go straight from the gym to rehearsal because it will not go well. Your body needs some time in between to rehydrate and recover after exercise. Under normal circumstances, one is supposed to drink an extra liter of water after a spin class, but most people don't go and sing afterwards. This requires even more water.

If you use your head, it is definitely possible to exercise and not destroy your singing voice. More updates later on whether I accomplish my goal of fitting into my wedding dress!

Wedding Blog!

In case you didn't know, I'm getting married in less than 6 months. We have been engaged just over a year and have been planning the wedding long-distance, which is a bit of a challenge. Technology has been a wonderful asset to our wedding planning. I was able to email my fiance pictures of potential venues along with spreadsheets that I created with pros/cons for each. I did the same for potential photographers and he was also able to go to all of the photographer's websites. We just ordered our save-the-date cards through VistaPrint, which we sort of designed together. I sent him a screen shot for his approval instead of ordering a PDF proof because I'm thrifty, but it worked, so I see nothing wrong with it.

It would seem that some things would be impossible to do without being in the same country, but so far we have found a way to cope. The first part of our marriage counselling was done via an online test, which we were supposed to do separately anyways. Of course, we'll both need to be in the same room to go over the results of the test, but we'll worry about that later. Because the save-the-dates will be going out soon, we decided that it would be good to start our wedding registries. On our both our Amazon.com registry and our Target registry we can both add/delete items from the list, which is really nice. We even typed up a list of things to register for via Skype.

Although, it is really easy to register for board games and movies without touching them, I think we are going to run into issues when registering for bedding and towels. There are no Targets in Canada, so he won't be able to inspect some of the items that I want to register for and vice versa. If all else fails, we will just really have to trust that we know each other well enough to pick out items that we will both like and pick neutral colors so everything will match. That said, if anyone has any ideas of how to get around this problem, I'm open to suggestions!

My fiance and I have started a blog about our struggles and triumphs trying to plan our wedding long-distance and on a tight budget. Check it out! http://jayandchristy.blogspot.com