Drum yourself into shape?

Wii Fit, for the Nintendo Wii, recently hit store shelves, touting itself as a fun fitness product claiming

By playing Wii Fit a little every day, you, your friends, and your family can work towards personal goals of better health and fitness.

Perhaps the game Rock Band should take a similar tack in advertising.

A story at BBC News equates rock drummers to top athletes. These conclusions were reached by tests on Clem Burke, drummer for Blondie, who was hooked up to a heart monitor and other equipment during a performance. An hour in concert can burn up to 600 calories and tests on Burke showed his heart averaged 140-150 bpm, peaking at 190 (see this chart for Fox and Haskell's exercise zone formula). These rates, the article claims, are comparable to Premier League football (soccer) players.

I don't doubt that you can get a workout playing the drums - I've certainly broken a sweat hammering away at Rock Band (sorry, not a musician here) - but the BBC piece seems to go a bit far in it's comparison to top athletes:

"Footballers can normally expect to play 40 to 50 games a year - but in one 12 month period, Clem played 90-minute sets at 100 concerts.

"Footballer [sic] find playing a Champions League game once every two weeks a drain, but these guys are doing it every day when they are on tour.

This quote, combined with the previous comparison to professional football players, seems to imply that drumming is more physically demanding. Instead, I would read it as going against their thesis that "rock drummers are top athletes"; that is, drumming isn't nearly as strenuous as professional sports.

Enjoy your drumming, and feel good knowing that you're burning some calories, but if you're planning on leaving your pick-up soccer league to go pro there are probably better ways to get in shape.

Any thoughts from drummers out there?

Stretching Myths

In the Ottawa Metro today there is a full page article on summer sports injuries with a large photo of a woman stretching. A Dr. Douglas Stoddard, a sports therapist, has a large quote in the article stating "the biggest reason people get injured is flexibility or loss of it." I have heard lots of conflicting information about stretching before exercise and it's benefits on injury prevention. A quick search on Pubmed however reveals that there is little doubt that stretching before exercise has no impact on the frequency of injury. A sample of articles: 1, 2 and 3. It is no wonder how myths like this are so prevalent considering the article in the metro quoting an authority on sports injuries. This also gives me a great excuse to maintain my inflexible figure, and is probably a great geeky pick-up line next time you see someone stretching.
However, the stretching institute begs to differ.
Of course there are other reasons for maintaining physical flexibility.