Duncan Rock last joined Alexa for our 100th episode on the topic of singing and dairy, since then he’s been performing opera in France at Toulouse’s Théâtre du Capitole. Duncan Rock is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and is a nutritionist working with the likes of Vocal Health Education and The Voice Care Centre. He’s on the podcast to discuss the topic of understanding singing and fitness.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

Exercise is important to singers for the overarching reason that singers are people too and they benefit from all of the human benefits of engaging exercise. Exercise increases your cardiovascular health, your metabolic health, your muscular health, your neurological health, your digestive health, and one of the most overlooked being your mental health. 
People often think the benefits of exercise are just weight loss and gaining muscle, but the far more important benefits are around increasing not only the length of your life but also the quality of it too. 
Being strong and having good cardiovascular health can be valuable on stage if you are doing anything that is physiologically demanding while also creating art as a performer. An example often given is the role of Don Giovanni in Mozart's Don Giovanni, which requires a fight in the very first scene. 
Exercising, for some people, somewhat counterintuitively, decreases the time it takes for their body tissues to recover from strenuous work. It's because your blood flow tends to improve, your metabolic health improves, so cellular healing improves. The fitter you are, the more it benefits you.
Performers should be mindful of the three pillars of fitness: strength, mobility, and cardiovascular endurance. Duncan cautions singers from becoming too specific in their exercises, such as only doing yoga, only running, or only lifting weights. If you focus solely on one activity, you may experience hyper adaptation to that specific activity over the years, to the detriment of your other capacities.
Duncan believes that singing teachers often misunderstand and get it wrong when they talk about not lifting weights, fearing that it will ruin the voice or that performers can't have a six-pack. He thinks that singers do need to be mindful of not developing muscular imbalances, as they may lead to excessive tension and high threshold strategies. These high threshold strategies refer to the unnecessary overworking of muscles in the body, which can over time impact the vocal mechanism.

BEST MOMENTS‘Exercise is one of the best things you can do to increase your length and quality of life’ ‘It doesn't matter how good your technique is, if you’re out of breath you’re not going to be able to do it’‘People who have high cardiovascular health, their vocal tissue recovers faster’ ‘Address each part of the pillar as it’s own goal’ ‘There is no relation to the visibility of someone’s six pack and its rigidity or flexibility’‘Don’t do crunches, I don’t think it’s necessary’ ‘Getting the right amount of nutrients from whole foods is infinitely more important than nutrient timing’ 
EPISODE RESOURCES Website:

duncanrocknutrition.com 

Social Media: 

Instagram: @duncanrock_nutrition 

Relevant Links & Mentions: 

Singing Teachers Talk Podcast - Ep. 100 The Truth About Singing and Dairy with Nutritionist Duncan Rock 
Sussex Back Pain Clinic: https://www.sussexbackpainclinic.co.uk/
Claudia Hodgson-Rodriguez: @claudia.theatrefit
Exercises mentioned: Pallof Press; Woodchop; Kettlebell Halo; Deadlift; Romanian Deadlift; Bench Press; Push Ups; Pull Ups/Downs; Rows; Rucking 
Mahant Amar Bharati Ji 
Firas Zahabi Tristar Gym: https://tristargym.com/trainers/firas-zahabi/
Stephen King and The Voice Care Centre: https://voicecarecentre.co.uk/stephen-king/

ABOUT THE GUEST Duncan is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) and West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. He has an active career as an operatic Baritone performing roles at many of the world’s leading oper