Health Tips: How To Stay Healthy On Tour

Touring: the ultimate party, right? I’ll admit, I often have a tough time turning down those drink tickets. After all, when you’re playing a new town for door money, you gotta do what you gotta do to minimize expenses. But I’m in my thirties now. As much fun as it’s been to chill backstage over whiskey and joints with the other bands, I can’t do that shit all the time anymore. Riding in the van with a pounding headache and sore body just isn’t as appealing as it was when I was 23.

So here I’ve decided to offer some quick health tips for touring musicians. They’re easy to implement, and best of all, either free or super cheap.

No one expects you to be backstage doing yoga. Although that seems to be gaining popularity lately, there are a number of quick health tips for touring musicians that are easy to implement and can make a big difference in how you feel on the road. I talked a lot about how to book a tour and what to do on tour in this article.

Don’t be eating Taco Bell every night. Pick your nights to party and your nights to take it easy. Simple sutff like that.  Staying healthy on tour can be a challenge. Spending every night in the club and every day in the van isn’t exactly optimized for exercise and healthy eating.

Health Tips For Touring Musicians: Stretch Before The Show

Here’s an easy way to feel better in the morning. All those jumpkicks take their toll on your legs and knees after a while. A few quick stretches will keep you feeling limber and loose onstage, and less cramped the next day in the van.

Knee-To-Chest Stretch

Start by lying on your back with both knees bent. With your hands, slowly pull the right knee to your chest and hold it there for as long as it feels comfortable. The goal is to reach 30 seconds. Repeat this stretch with the left knee. Cycle through 3 times each morning.

Hamstring Stretch

This stretch also begins on your back. Bend your right leg, hands placed behind the thigh. Lift the leg at least a few inches and straighten to the edge of your comfort level. If possible, hold this stretch for 30 seconds. Repeat with the left leg, and cycle through 3 times each morning.

Neck Stretch

Stand with feet about shoulder width apart (feel free to sit if its more comfortable), take the left hand and slowly pull the neck down to the left shoulder. Hold for 5 seconds, longer if comfortable. Repeat the process with the right side. This stretch can be easily done any time your neck feels tense.

Wrist Stretch

Stand arms-length from a wall in your living room or another area with a bit of space. Push the hands lightly into the wall, with wrists upside down. Hold for four seconds. Repeat as necessary. This stretch is ideal for tennis players, writers, and musicians, or anyone putting strain on their wrists throughout the day.

Health Tips For Touring Musicians: Easy Pre-Show Exercises

Want to look super cool backstage? Check these out. (If you’ve got a bus, or extra room in the back of the van, or better yet, a hotel room, these can be done there with less fan fare.)

Wall Push Ups

Stand up against a wall in your home, arms length away. Lean into the wall with your arms and push away. Repeat 10-15 times, or as many as you can handle. If you can get through 3 sets, 4 times per week, your upper body will show results.

Guitar Lift

Hold two guitars, one in each hand. Stand with legs just wider than shoulder length with a slight bend in the knees. Ams down in front of you. Lift up like a bird flapping its wings (only slower!) until your arms are as close to shoulder length as you can get. Slowly lower back down. Repeat ten times. 3 sets, 4 times per week.

Running in place

This is one of the simplest and most effective aerobic exercises that you can do on the road. You’ll look super cool running in place out back of the club or in the green room. Try running in place for 5-10 minutes, 4 times per week. Aerobics are good for the entire body and help maintain (and even lose) weight.

Sit-ups

I heard you cringe when you read this! Sit-ups are effective for the abs and core strength. Lie on your back, feet on the ground and knees arched. Cross your arms over each other, hands on the opposite shoulder like a pretzel.

Alternatively, place hands behind your head with elbows out wide. Sit up until you’re near an upright position. Slowly lower back down. Repeat 10 times. 3 sets, 3 times per week.

Health Tips For Touring Musicians: Eat (Slightly) Healthier

Look, I know money is tight on the road. When the club offers that free chicken finger basket, it’s tough to turn it down. In all honesty, you don’t have to – as long as that one shitty meal is surrounded by a couple days of healthier meals.

Taking a supplement can be a great idea. In particular, getting enough Omega-3s on the road is both important and challenging (see the link above for a great option here). Keep your joints and mind functioning well by ensuring you’re getting the vitamins and nutrients you need.

Here are some tips for on eating healthier on the road:

Bring a cooler and keep it stocked

Stopping into a grocery store and stocking up on quick stuff like bread, fruit, and healthy stuff from the deli makes it easier to drive by those fast food restaurants off the side of the interstate. This route is not only cheaper, it’s much healthier because you aren’t making any impulse decisions like super-sizing the fries or drinking soda. I’ve found that I love eating fresh fruit in the morning.

It starts my day out right and sets a tone that’s easier to follow for the rest of the day. When traveling, any momentum you can muster up makes a huge difference.

Know what you’re getting in your rider

If you have any control over what’s on the table in the green room when you show up, exercise your right to ask for healthier food. Over the last few years, I’ve been stoked to see so many bands I’ve worked with at festivals and events requesting hummus and pita bread instead of chips and dip, for example.

Granola bars are great too, as well as peanut butter and whole grain bread for protein. All of this stuff can come with you when you leave, which makes the previous step that much easier.

Eat vegetables at every opportunity

Without the luxury of a kitchen in the van, it can be tough to eat fruits and vegetables. When other people are doing your food prep and cooking for you, they’re often going to serve cheap, processed shit that typically makes you feel worse than you did before you ate it.

Take advantage of those veggie trays in the green room. Take advantage of home-cooked meals whenever you can, often one of the biggest perks of staying at a fan, friend, or family member’s home instead of a hotel.

Another tip my group became fond of is to hit up places like Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes. There, you can gorge on veggies, soup, fruit, and a bunch of other stuff to your heart’s content.

Health Tips for Touring Musicians: When it comes to partying, choose your nights

We can’t all be Keith Richards. Personally, right about the age of 30 is when I started noticing how shitty I felt, not just hangover-wise but all the time, when I felt obligated to party excessively more than I felt comfortable with. It’s tough to say no when you’re in a bar every night surrounded by people out enjoying themselves and other musicians doing the same.

It’s important to know who’s driving after the show, for sure, and sometimes it’s better for you in the long run to be the one that volunteers to fill that role more often. (If you’re in a band that doesn’t drink, this section might not apply to you – that certainly hasn’t been my personal experience touring with punk bands. This one’s for the lushes among us ;-).

Also, wait until after your set to party excessively. Sloppy shows in new towns aren’t winning you any fans.

Maybe, just maybe, you’ll opt to keep your brain fresh on the road instead of slogging it down with booze. Learning a language is a great way to do this. I’m proud to recommend Live Lingua, the world’s first and best online immersive language school.

With the increasing availability of WiFi hotspots, being productive during some of that windshield time in the van is a good idea!

This article first appeared on HelpMyBand.net and is used with permission.

Category: Shop Talk