Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Boxing workout incompatible with piano?

Hello, I like to exercise by hitting a heavy punching bag. I wear hand wraps and gloves. Do you think that this could be detrimental to piano playing? I'd hate to give it up because it's such a great workout. Many thanks.

I am a blackbelt in Taekwondo, and I go to class 3 or 4 times a week, doing full contact sparring with no gloves..

I have sprained my thumb and ended up with swollen purple joints too many times (though not in quite some time) - in the long run, yes, this isn't good, but it just makes me more cogniscent of not injuring them. The benefits outweigh the risks though, I don't rely on piano for money. If I had to choose one over the other, I'd choose piano and switch to a martial art that doesn't pose such a threat.. Taekwondo is 90% foot work anyway. As far as hitting the bag with gloves on, I don't see how that is going to cause you any problems (but I'm no doctor!)


-Paul

I train in kyokushin and have had to learned the keep my thumbs tucked when I punch.

If your hands aren't hurting and you aren't losing dexterity, I don't see a problem, but your hands will tell you if they are getting damaged.

I think that just about sums it up.

As a musician, you have to learn to protect your hands and wrists. That's your career right there, so make sure you keep them healthy.

Only if the bag hits back!!!

i really hurt my hands in my youth.. I was a gymnast, played raquetball, volleyball, hand ball. I wish I hadn't. My hands are ok but they could be better definitely. Your injuries stay with you though they appear to heal and function in youth.

I do Judo and Tae Kwon Do and you have to worry about broken hands and fingers all the time. Funny thing is music and fitness don't play nice in sandbox together if you have to constantly juggle them.

No. I box as well, and just make sure you have proper bag gloves, i.e. 14 oz or 16 oz. If you're smacking the bag with 8oz gloves it could be a different story.

What I find is my wrists can ache, but I use 16 oz gloves and there's little if no chance of injury to the hands by hitting a bag with those on. If your wrist isn't straight though, the impact could strain your wrist.

Hi

You should be OK.
I've been playing the Piano for nearly 50 years now, and doing Karate for the last 12, and to date haven't had any problems.

Truth is its probably all down to your genetics!

Cheers

Or the number of years you have trained. In Judo your hands go through a lot, Gripping a gi and trying to grapple wears you out. When I was in TKD a lot it wasn't a big deal because we focused on legs in the 1980's mostly.

This may be off topic, but my workout is swimming......looooong stretches several times a week.. My hands, arms, shoulders and back (and the rest of the old body) is getting stronger and more flexible, and I play piano a lot better. I would never do sports that was even remotely likely to mess up my hands and arms, apart from cross country skiing, which I sometimes do in the Norwegian winter, and which is a hard workout for arms and upper body.

That said, I do understand the positive effects of martial arts training on many levels, and I would just urge pianists to careful, no matter what they do to stay fit.

So yeah; stay fit!

That's it you really have to be careful. Swimming is great as an all over conditioner. Most musicians, 75% of them I see don't stay in shape so I am for any type of exercise.

I train Judo, karate (Tang Soo Do), and weightlifting (free weights). I'm in my early 50s. I'm gonna guess "no", the heavy bag work won't ordinarily be detrimental to your piano playing.

However, you can certainly sustain an injury that would limit you on the piano for a few weeks. So far this year I've given myself a painful case of Judo elbow, that lasted a couple months; mashed a finger putting away a heavy dumbbell; and badly sprained my left wrist. I don't think the wrist was necessarily a training incident, I think I hurt it helping a lady change a tire on the road, but I'm not positive.

Each of those injuries limited me a little bit; the wrist was the worst for piano, it hurt to play up around Mid C in my LH, because of the left-bend at my wrist. But! Those all sound dire, but honestly they're just normal aches & pains, normal bumps & bruises. You'll sustain stuff like that in a "reasonably" active lifestyle. I bet you've sustained similar in the past year or so. You could do stuff like that doing yardwork, or painting a room in your house, or moving your kid into their college dorm. Really not that big a deal.

I'd say, don't give it up. Working the heavy bag and working the keys are both good for you – along different dimensions to be sure, but both good – and they shouldn't interfere with each other too much. Maybe if you're doing a recital or whatever with your piano teacher, you might consider laying off the heavy bag in the week leading up to the performance. Otherwise, just train in a way that helps you feel good & vigorous.

Don't forget the pull-ups!

Good stuff Jim.

It's all a balancing act. You have to look after your health. I cycle, and that doesn't hurt my hands, until maybe some day I fall off the wrong way.

If you don't mind your health, and you get a stroke, that won't be great for your piano playing, just as if I fly over the handlebars and hit my head. I suppose we can only try our best and try to mind what we have one way or the other.

I slightly hurt my right hand thumb joint the other day in boxing sparring, cracked some guy on the temple with a right hook, didn't deliver it properly, ended up striking his head with the inside of my hand rather than the face of the fist. I think I hurt my thumb more than his head!

Upshot was my thumb was a bit stiff for about a week, thumb crossovers on arpeggios were a bit slow, but it was not a problem really.

I don't find any kind of injuries from heavy bag or focus mitts etc, if one is wearing hand wraps and proper training gloves (e.g. 16oz). This is, after all, the point of wearing them.

Personally I understand that injuries in boxing are actually relatively rare compared to certain other sports. I think the main thing to watch is that your wrist is solid when striking the heavy bag multiple times, make sure you have good technique.

Yeah and for fingers in Judo I have ot make sure they get taped.

I trained for years in a variety of arts including judo and kyokushin (OSU!) and boxing and taichiquan (the martial art, not the slow movements often done for exercise) and other than my broken ankle and cauliflower ear (which required a little surgery and a short hospital stay)—those were from judo and then there were a few assorted but minor finger injuries, also from judo—all of that was only one great experience after another.

Further, what I found after a period of years was the focus on mechanical efficiency and not fighting yourself were lessons that came with MA studies that translate directly to the piano. But there were a lot of other transferable lessons as well.

I wrote a guest blog post about MA and the piano .... there are MA videos there including a judo demonstration and some excerpts from Jack Dempsey’s amazing book on boxing .....

https://pianodao.com/2015/10/31/pia...oxing-taichichuan-and-the-cherry-tomato/

In the post, I used a cherry tomato as a prop to illustrate a point about body mechanics. Later I found out Joseph Hoffman, one of the truly great pianists, used the same example long, long, long before I ever thoughtr about it, He explained it much better than I did (!!!!!!!!) AND he used, I think a ripe strawberry instead of a cherry tomato.

But the point in these examples is all about efficient body mechanics ...and with proper care(fulness) as many others have noted in comments injury really isn’t an issue.

As a guitarist for over 60 years and taking up the piano at 72, CHOPS are everything. I use to play two gigs a day sometimes in New Orleans when I was younger, and had to quit volleyball, my favorite. Realized if I worked out at gym or sawed limbs before a gig my chops felt like putty. Same thing with tennis. Protect your chops especially if you earn $$.
My bass player was a tree surgeon who chained sawed all day and played bass at night . He was horrible for the first set. Ok after considerable warm up.

Hello all. I played basketball religiously for years and have had my fingers jammed badly. To the point where now they can't straighten properly and have a noticeable deformity. I can still play the piano though!