Strength training and singing

[Renaissance]

Hello Rip, I heard something very interesting tonight and was wondering if you've heard something similar. I have a friend who I've been dragging to the weight room lately, trying to get him to squat, although he's much more interested in bench press and biceps. He's been "lifting" 3 times a week now, usually 4-5 arm exercises and a few sets on bench, and maybe one moderate squatting session a week. needless to say he's made close to no gains in either size or strength.

Anyways, he's studying music at college and taking voice lessons, and he claims that his voice has been suffering due to "tension" from lifting, and also claims that a valsalva maneuver will be detrimental to the vocal cords, although he has posited no way in which this would occur, other than the valsalva puts a lot of pressure on the internal organs and throat or something like that. His voice teacher has asked him to stop training.

Now for the actual questions:
1. Assuming correct form, will squats, press, bench, and deadlifts be stressful or in any way detrimental to the vocal cords?
2. Assuming correct form, these exercises should not place a harmful amount of stress upon the muscles and other tissues of the neck, should they?

[Emeriel]

Check out these threads:
http://startingstrength.com/resource...t=26802&page=1
http://startingstrength.com/resource...t=21259&page=1

[Nick Klemetson]

I'm a professional classically trained singer as well as an active lifter. I also train regularly with a professor of voice.

Valsalva first... a valsalva by itself has absolutely no correlation with vocal production. The only time the vocal folds (not "cords") would be engaged is if and when you grunt or groan to release the breath. Don't do that, and there won't be a problem. It's not a proper valsalva anyway.

There are very few parts of the larynx that are actually muscular. The folds themselves are actually mucus membranes, surrounded by a lot of soft tissue. The closest thing you have to a muscle in that area is called the cricoid cartilage. It, along with the thyroid and arytenoid cartilages, are all connected and form the general shape of the larynx. This shape, and how the folds are stretched across it, determine the pitch and timbre of individual voices.

To answer your questions...

1. No. The only stress that could be caused is if he decides to grunt and groan throughout the movements.
2. No. Even if you intentionally did moves or lifts that focused specifically on the neck muscles, it is nearly impossible for even the most strenuous of moves to impact the larynx or vocal folds.

The only way one's vocal folds would be affected by a Starting Strength routine is if he dropped a bench press on his throat from full extension (and if you're holding the bar correctly, that wouldn't even be where it would land unless it is dropped on the trip from the rack to the starting position and back).

[TomF]

I'm interested that there are as many classically trained singers on the board as there are. And also that our experience of this seems to align pretty damned closely.