5 Tips for Avoiding Drumming Injuries

A lot of drummers suffer from back and wrist injuries, and often unnecessarily since a lot of afflictions can be quite easily prevented. There are just a handful of things you have to pay attention to in order to get through long practice sessions and physically demanding gigs without trouble. Read on to learn five simple tips.

#1 – Proper Posture

The correct playing position can save you a ton of trouble. Optimum posture means keeping your back straight with your knees bent at a slightly wider angle than 90 degrees. To achieve this, you’ll need to set your drum throne up at the right height. You’ll also want to make sure that you’re sitting in the middle of the seat instead of close to the edge.

#2 – Correct Drum Kit Set-Up

It’s essential that you’re able to relax your arms and legs, which is why the height of your stands matters a lot too. What’s most important here is that you don’t drop the height too much, because if they’re too low, it will only force you to bend over, which is exactly what you want to avoid since it’s not only bad for your back, but limits your ability to land clear rimshots and crash your ride cymbal. Thankfully, most drum hardware comes with memory locks these days so, once you’ve figured out a set-up that works for you, it’s easy to use it again and again.

#3 – Warming-Up

Something that both eager beginners and seasoned drummers tend to skip is a proper warm-up routine, even though taking several minutes to do a little stretching and a few simple exercises is an easy way to avoid injuries. While you probably don’t have access to a backstage kit unless you’re a professional drummer, a basic practice pad can go a long way when it comes to helping your muscles warm up and can even offer a little pre-gig confidence boost.

#4 – The Right Drumsticks

Every drummer swears by a certain brand and drumstick size. If your go-to sticks often leave you hurting however, it’s a good idea to try a different pair. Stick rebound is a common cause of drum-based injury, so if the rebound of your drumsticks doesn’t match your style of drumming, you’ll only end up increasing your grip and using all of the muscles in your arm instead of just your wrists. Going with a different diameter, material, weight balance or tip shape can be a real game changer here. Also, it might be that you’ll need different sticks depending on whether you’re playing your acoustic kit or your electronic drum kit.

#5 – Hearing Protection

While jazz drummers are probably exposed to lower noise levels than rock and metal drummers, every drummer produces quite a few decibels, and even more so when they’re in a band and need to be able to hear themselves. As such, using proper hearing protection is never a bad idea, especially if you want to be able to hear ghost notes at a later age.

What’s your strategy for avoiding injuries? Share your tips in the comments below!