Building muscle...

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sirslurpee

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Okay, it's like this: I'm going on 8 years of playing the drums, almost every day, for 30minutes+ everytime I practice, and I don't feel like I am playing as well as I should be able to. I blame most of this on strength and speed. Now, I see a lot of 'bigger' guys play, and they seem to be able to have the ability to pull all the fast stuff off like it's no big deal and not even break a sweat. I'm pretty skinny though, and, it sounds funny, but I have a REAL hard time gaining weight. I wanted to see if anyone else had a problem with this, and, if they know how I can get over it? I want to get bigger, gain muscle, but especially with my drumming. I've tried eating 4 meals a day, and taking 1300 calorie weight gainer, and I gained literally like 5 pounds in 3 months, and didn't get much of an increase in playing ability. I mean, I am young (21) but shit this is rediculous. I've been between 120 and 135 since my freshman year in high school. (and im 6'0" so i'm like a twig)
And, should I really try to gain muscle mass, or should I just spend 2 hours a day practicing?
 
Create a routine on your double bass.
It has nothing to do with muscle, just the way you use your legs.
I've been stuck on 120 - 125..but after picking up a routine..I've gained lots of speed...don't try to get heavier or anything or gain wait..
I just practice solid double bass for like half an hour a day for atleast 5 days a week.
Slowly move up the metronome, by just 2 after a couple of days. This takes a lot of time..but eventually you'll get there..

I'm at a steady pace of say 160-170 now half a year ago I was struggling at 120-125 for a long time..
 
technique, is much more important that muscle mass. drumming mainly involves a wrist movement as opposed to a bicep movement. i have been playing about 9 plus years and am not that well built, either. however, i have developed among other things, a decent single and double stroke roll.

how and what are you practicing? do you play along with cds? do practice from any books that emphasize a certain technique or style? so you practice rudiments? do you take lessons?

i would suggest you start by practicing a few rudiments to a metronome on a practice pad (i use marching sticks on the practice pad). vicfirth.com is an excellent resourse if you dont have any material. i would start out doing a single stroke roll, double stroke roll, single paradiddle, and five stroke roll. practice each for 15 minutes straight beginning at a slower tempo-- around 60 bpm. after becoming comfortable at that tempo, slowly increase.

when you first start, playing fast should be the last thing on your mind. the idea is to play evenly, fluidly, effortlessly, and of course, in time. once you learn to play at a slow tempo, playing fast will take care of itself. how can you expect to play something fast if you cant play it slowly?

remember, these excercises are something you should always practice regardless of how long you have been playing.
 
Yeah when I practice I usually first sit down, and start with like a simple beat or something just to get relaxed and chilled, and then I will start trying to play something a little harder, usually something just out of my grasp as far as playing ability. After a little while of that, I will practice my singles, doubles, triplets, paradiddles, and sometimes i try triple stroke rolls. I don't really know a lot of rudiments because everytime I try to learn them, they are written in music, and it's not that I can't read music, it's just that I can't read music for drums. Although I'm not concerned with that. I have a pretty good ear when it comes to percussion. Anyway, I do try to play to songs a little. I used to do it almost every day, that's how I learned to play the drums, but I don't do it as much because it's usually not a challenge for me to figure out how it's played, it's just to play fast double-bass, and I can't find anything I can stand hearing over and over again that is somewhere in the middle grounds between where I can play and where I want to play double bass at. Right now, I have been practicing Bat Country by Avenged Sevenfold. There is a little double bass in that, and I can play a little bit faster than that with single strokes on the DB. However, my goal within a few weeks is to be able to play some DB like Lamb of God's drummer. My ultimate goal would be to play DB like Pitruzella (that guy in Tim Browns post) on the double bass. I guess it's just going to take me a lot of time and a lot of practice to get my legs used to it then huh?
 
Gaining muscle mass is very very easy (even with very skinny people - you just need to know what to do). But there is no point in it. Having huge muscles will make you slow. You want speed and agility - small and conditioned muscles.

I cant explain it all now as im in school. When i have a moment i'll try and help you out with some basic muscle training stuff :)
 
Word.. my only problem is I don't have time to work out in a gym or anything. I mean, I think I understand the basic concept... Eat a lot, gain some body fat, then eat healthy and work out for a few weeks, then start over. But, I'm not even sure if I want to do that now.
See, I've been practicing since my last post and I figured something out. THe way I am trying to double-bass (using most of my leg for the power, and then my ankles for control) is not going to work. I can kick as fast if not faster on a single pedal if I just make my feet and ankles do all the work. Seriously, I am amazed at how much faster it is! Anyway, now I can isolate my left foot and build control and stamana in it, and then apply it to a double-technique. This is helping me a lot and I hope it might be able to help anyone else out there reading...
 
diet will help with mucles growth. Eat carbs in the morning and during the day and proteins at night. You burn off the carbs with what you do during the day, and at night you wont burn off the proteins, which help with muscle growth. This may cause you to lose more weaight though. To gain weight, try eating as much carbs as you can before bed, as during the night you wont burn them off and they will be stored.
 
This doesn't pertain to muscle mass per se but I'm in the same boat as you sirslurpee. I'm a beanpole with the metabolism of a bird. It's not the size of the muscles, it's how you use them. I have a drumming friend of mine (he's well around 250lbs. -not fat but just a big tall farm boy!) who can pull of the fast stuff just as you explained but it has absolutely nothing to do with muscle speed more so than muscle conditioning. This guy started clogging (country tap-dancing) at 5 yrs old so he had a well developed sense of rhythm long before I did.

One thing I've found helps my diet regimen is lots of vitamin b-12. I don't know the science of why it works but from what I've read about it, it stimulates your brain's memory receptors and I've found drumming sessions to be much more productive when dosing out heavy on b-12. It may or may not help anyone else but it really seems to give me that extra edge I need. I found this stuff at Wal-Mart in the supplement section called Energy Fizz. It comes in these mocked-up orange test-tubes that you mix in with water and I shake a tube of it up in a bottle of water before playing. It kinda tastes like Tang and isn't the nicest thing I've ever tasted but has like 45,000%(!) the daily value of B-12 and it really sharpens my mind more than caffeine pills, coffee or anything else that could be addictive or harmful. Anyway, I swear by this stuff and it's totally legal and good for you as well.
 
You also need to remember if you practice everyday your muscles in those parts of your body your trying to develope are only getting torn down and never have the time to build up.
If you work a muscle everyday with out giving it a rest for a couple of days it will never get stronger or bigger only weaker.
 
drummerdude666 said:
Gaining muscle mass is very very easy (even with very skinny people - you just need to know what to do).
Click to expand...


Wrong. Not everybody is genetically inclined to put on muscle. Some skinny people just will not put on muscle.
 
frankieballsss said:
Wrong. Not everybody is genetically inclined to put on muscle. Some skinny people just will not put on muscle.
Click to expand...

Everyone has the ability to put on muscle mass, but diffrent types of people can add muscle mass more easly than others.

This doesnt mean that some people CAN'T.

Just becuse someone is skinny and they find it harder to put on muscle mass doesnt mean that they aren't, it just means that the differences arent as noticeable as the muscle mass increase is so low.

It IS possible with not much effort for skinny guys to put on muscle mass - they just just have to work a bit harder than the average guy and use diffrent techniques of lifting, in order to gain the desired hypertophy.
 
I'm just gonna drink a lot of beer. I'll get a beer belly then. hahaha
 
sirslurpee said:
I'm just gonna drink a lot of beer. I'll get a beer belly then. hahaha
Click to expand...
sounds good! not for nothing, but im not cut out for any of that sports stuff. playing drums is my main exercise. im also around 125-130 lbs. one way I was able to physically increase muscle mass while practicing was to play a cut-time hardcore beat, you know, that sloppy swishy sounding fast beat. you really begin to feel your arms getting tight while playing. also, if you position your hi hats higher and put your seat lower, you will be forced to hold your arms up higher which makes the "drum workout" more efficient.

have fun though, dont kill yourself over building muscles. we're musicians, the ladies will love us wether we huge or not. Chicks love rock stars...
 
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