Stretching Cannot Help Your Voice

We are about to bust open one of the trendiest fitness routines of our generation and answer the question: Does stretching help with singing?

The short answer, No. Stretching does not inherently help improve your singing voice.

So…Yoga for singers, why do it?

To feel more present in the body? To allow space for breath? To improve flexibility? To help posture? To relieve pain?

There are some really amazing benefits of yoga. Do it for your mental health, to stimulate a part of your body when you wake up, you could even do it for the positive correlation it induces between heart health and your resilience to stress, but please:

Don’t think you can change the way you breathe and sing by increasing the time you spend stretching.

A necessity for “breath work” often derives from a teacher observing compensating movements in the upper body as the student inhales. In the pursuit of moving a singer’s breath out of the shoulders and chest and into the intercostals and back muscles, singing teachers often use creative metaphors, hoping to trigger a psychosomatic change in their student: Think of a sigh of ecstasy! Be like a monkey!

Sometimes, these images work, and the student re calibrates their perception of singing with a new, more accurate sensation . More often, students walk away with a cognitive understanding that their breath is too high, that their shoulders move too much, and somehow they need to get the tension in their chest, back, and hips to release to make room for a deeper breath.

Enter stretching.

As we stretch, there is a pleasant sensation of expansion and release which we often mistake for beneficial change. In reality, this is merely a moment of awareness as your mind registers a sensation in an area of the body where there previously was none. Numerous studies have demonstrated that stretching not only fails in achieving most of its perceived benefits, but can actually have a negative impact on performance and alignment including a decrease in lower body stability by 22 percent!

Certainly, overall flexibility can improve from stretching, but most stretchers don’t suffer from limited movement, in which case overdeveloped flexibility serves no beneficial purpose. Now, what if your intention is to release tension in a tight muscle you believe is impairing your breathing? Every muscle in your body has a resting level of tension set by the nervous system. Over the course of your life, your posture, repetitive movements, and stress teach these muscles to remain tight. While static stretching temporarily lengthens muscles by reducing the activity of the stretch reflex, the effect is short-lived. Our muscles typically start tightening up within a few hours as the stretch reflex regains normal function. Whatsmore, many of the key muscles involved in singing are unstretchable! 

Most of us will hit the end of the natural range of motion of the joint long before we’ve stretched anywhere near as hard as you can stretch other muscles. In other words, some muscles are just biomechanically awkward to stretch. I call them “the unstretchables” — a bit of hyperbole, but true in spirit. Although these muscles can be elongated, they can’t be elongated enough to create the satisfying sensation of good stretch.*

When singing a difficult phrase requiring sustained support or powerful vocals, you must engage the expansion of your back and intercostal muscles. The intercostal muscles, located in the chest between the ribs are nearly impossible to manipulatively stretch. Their role in singing is one of coordinated release and lengthening achieved through inhibition (or an accurate body map in the students mind) which invites a correlated relationship of expansion from the lower back muscles. And what about post-workout soreness, those days where you have to perform vocally but that lower body session from two days ago has you feeling stiff and vocally blocked? Won’t stretching help to loosen these knots? No.

Your best option is to practice a level of awareness in your workout wherein you monitor proper form, not as it is explained with the end goal of lifting a heavy object, but from an alignment and muscle engagement perspective: Any compression of the spine and lower back or tightening of the psoas and related respiratory muscles will need to be released to its natural resting length throughout every movement and at the end of every session to minimize the impact of workouts on the function of singing.

The deep soreness that follows a hard workout (“delayed-onset muscle soreness” (DOMS) or sometimes just “post-exercise soreness”) is very uncomfortable and it does impair performance. Many people believe that stretching can prevent or relieve it. But this definitely doesn’t work. Basically, nothing touches DOMS — nothing anyone has ever claimed as a treatment for it has actually passed a fair scientific test.*

The deepest problem for singers and non-singers alike lies in our tendency to only become aware of an issue in the body when a tension or misalignment has progressed so far as to cause pain and discomfort. Then, an attempt is made to eradicate the nuisance and yet no question of WHY is posed. Simply stretching tight muscle tissue without addressing the habitual irritant will only result in further misuse of the body and myofascial discomfort. Often, the culprit of our tensions and pain is our own posture and the manner in which we use our body habitually every day of our lives.

Muscles are “dumb”; they do only what they are told to do. I’m constantly pounding it into my patients’ heads that the nervous system controls everything and muscles don’t contract unless the nervous system says so. If a muscle is chronically tight, there’s a reason – for example, the body trying to provide stability to an unstable joint.

-Linsay Way, Dynamic Chiropractic

Chiropractors now suggest warming up your body by doing the exact moves your exercise routine calls for. Thus, in the case of a singer, warm up your connection to deep breathing through… breathing.

Careful- Herein lies a cyclical problem.

When I ask you to breathe, you have an instant reaction of what it means to breathe: How you perceive this action and what you feel while doing it is called your sensory perception. If a faulty sensory perception of “how to breathe” is causing you to follow a habit wherein your body is misaligned and holding tension, a warm up of breathing will never change your habit!

A 2010 paper in Physical Therapy identified our nervous system’s ability to learn how to allow greater movement. This means that a reduction in malleability anywhere in your body is actually a neurologically imposed limitation, not a physical one! The only way to change the resting level of muscle tension being set by the nervous system is through active psychosomatic movement. Improper movement, or habitual movements, can increase undesired tensions, posing a critical need to address faulty sensory perception and re-educate the student’s nervous system through Alexander Technique. Numerous studies back the Alexander Techniques’ efficacy, such as these two randomized studies that show the techniques as less expensive but equally effective, if not more than massage and even yoga in dealing with a full range of issues.

What we can take away from the way athletes approach their warm-up today is using a more gentle, focused piece of the ‘action of singing’ before diving into full belting, opera, or other styles that will call for maximum support. When the coordination and resulting movements are done properly, with a reliable sensory perception and coordinated release and expansion of the body, starting our session as singers by simply practicing breathing and gentle sound production is the absolute best way to warm up! Through this work, you are awakening the psychosomatic relationship integral to singing between your intention, your musicality, and your physical instrument.

Singing students often feel guilty when they haven’t sat down and put in hours of uninterrupted practice every week. The thing is, there are ways for you to improve your singing just by having some self-awareness throughout the day and implementing healthy vocal habits!

Our bodies are our instruments. Just as with high performing athletes, the little habits we practice everyday have a significant effect. Working on your vocal training and making your singing voice healthy not only can be a daily practice, but it should be: What you do throughout your day directly impacts your singing ability.

This article will teach you how to improve your singing everyday, and may surprise you as you learn singing tips for quick and effective ways you can practice singing in just a few minutes.

Let’s find out: Does singing everday improve your voice?

Connect To Your Singing Voice When You Wake Up

Where does your day begin? The few feet from your head resting on the pillow, to sitting up in bed, to walking to the bathroom. If you live alone, maybe you don’t utter any sounds for a few hours; if you have housemates, a ‘good morning’ or conversation over coffee could be where you begin to vocalize. However, you are not really aware of how you are connecting to your own voice here.

If you sleep on a mattress that hurts your alignment, if you have naturally damaging habits, or if you spent the previous day dehydrated, you may start to speak in a damaging way! You can improve your vocal health by making vocal training one of the first things you do in the morning- this will align your body and voice for better speaking and singing.

Why Your Vocal Cords Should Be Warmed Up When You Start Your Day

Starting your day with a vocal warm-up is crucial for maintaining the health and flexibility of your vocal cords. Just like stretching before a workout, warming up your voice prepares it for the demands of the day, whether you’re speaking, singing, or presenting. A few minutes of gentle exercises can prevent strain, improve your vocal quality, and enhance your overall vocal performance.

Make it a part of your morning routine to ensure your voice is always at its best.

Change up your morning routine: Access Chest Voice Every Morning

Incorporating chest voice exercises into your morning routine is essential for a well-rounded vocal warm-up. Your chest voice, which resonates in the lower part of your vocal range, adds depth and power to your voice. Begin with soft, low notes and gradually build up to fuller sounds. This practice not only strengthens your vocal cords but also enhances your vocal control and stability across different registers. Practice daily on you chest voice as these exercises will help you maintain a rich, resonant sound throughout the day.

Coffee And Vocal Fry

As a professional voice teacher, I have seen vocal fry work wonders for my students who have a hard time connecting to their core sound and chest voice. Vocal fry, also known as pulse register or glottal fry, is a distinct vocal technique characterized by a low, creaky sound produced at the lowest part of your vocal range.

Vocal Fry occurs when your vocal cords are relaxed and vibrate very slowly, creating a rattling or popping sound. Vocal fry is often used intentionally in various forms of speech and singing for stylistic effects, but has a proven positive effect on strengthening the voice when incorporated into vocal warm ups.

1. When you wake up, try doing a few exhales with vocal fry. Take a deep breath, and on the exhale try to get that sound you may have heard in the movie “the grudge.” The trick is to ensure that you don’t feel this as tension in your throat; rather, it should feel like the crackling sound is coming from your chest while your jaw and throat are completely relaxed.

2. Do it while you brush your teeth and make coffee. If you have the time, lay on the floor in Alexander Technique’s Semi-Supine or Active Rest position for five minutes while performing vocal fry. This will help to reset your alignment for easier breath control and sound production.

Use Playing With Head Voice To Warm Up

Engaging your head voice during warm-ups is a fantastic way to start your vocal exercises. This lighter, higher register helps to ease your vocal cords into action without causing strain. By gently exploring your head voice, you can gradually extend your range and improve your vocal agility. Simple scales, humming, or gentle sirens are excellent vocal techniques used to activate your head voice, making it a playful and effective way to warm up your voice.

Breathy Yawns Can Help With Higher Notes

We can access our head voice a few ways, but try this out today:

1. Take a moment to release any tension in your throat and jaw. See if you can exhale slowly and envision those areas of your body releasing.

2. Tilt your head slightly back allowing your jaw to fall and release from the hinge point where your jaw meets your skull. For some, your jaw may not open very much and that is ok- many people carry a ton of tension in this area.

3. With your tilted head, take a deep slow breath in and on the exhale explore the idea of sending air through your skull. Imagine you have no brain: Everything in there is hollow and capable of allowing air in to echo around.

4. The sound you produce should be in your higher register, breathy, and may sound a bit nasal or squeeky inside your head.

5. Try sliding through your range- wherever your sound stars, slide down slowly into your medium high and middle range notes.

Take Those Breaks At Work

It has been said time and time again, take small breaks throughout the day to move your body. This improves focus, body soreness, and mental health. Now let’s add one to the list: It helps your singing too!

Try to take two to three small 5-10 minute breaks throughout the day to check in with your body. Ask your neck to to be free, your head to come forward and up in relation to your spine, and the spine to lengthen and widen in all directions.

Simply sending these requests invites your psycho-physical relationship to improve and the body will respond, if only in small degrees at first, more drastically over time. Whatever tensions you are holding throughout the day don’t magically go away when it is time to sing, so we have to make sure we are not building tension throughout our daily routines.

Bring body awareness into your breaks at work.

Take five minutes a few times a day to check in and give yourself a request to release tension. Feel your feet in contact with the floor. Think of your ankles extending deep into the ground with your head growing gently up from here, in relation to your back, which lengthens and widens as you sense your true height.

Renew these directions several times while breathing.

Jaw Tension Hurts Singing Ability

To all my teeth grinders and jaw clenchers, now is the time to become aware of your habit! Like all muscles, the more you use them, the stronger they get. The stronger your jaw muscles become, the more difficult it is to improve your singing voice as this tension radiates down through your throat and promotes “pushing” the sound.

Opening your mouth to sing is commonly restricted for beginner singers, but the mark of a good singer that everyone can see is someone whose mouth is WIDE open when they sing. It can be uncomfortable to try to stretch and force your jaw open farther, and not what we are recommending as this can cause vocal strain as well. Yet, a free jaw is essential when singing as it must be able to move according to where in your register you are singing and what vowels you are saying.

So, how do we work on eradicating jaw tension? Just like stretching any other muscle, you cannot will your jaw to be free and elongate to its maximum potential on the spot! Jaw tension is something a vocal coach could help you undo if you are feeling frustrated or lost in this process. However, if you want to work in it yourself, here is a suggestion:

Daily Exercise for Jaw Tension

When you brush your teeth, wash the dishes, or are working at your desk, check in with your jaw and invite it to release one percent more. So simple right? Yes, but I promise you- this is so fundamental and effective for improving singing and it doesn’t require spending money on singing lessons to do. Do this repeatedly throughout your day and week to gradually stop jaw clenching and enable the muscles to loosen.

Practicing Singing Everyday Doesn’t Need To Be Complicated

Bad habits and good habits are ingrained in our bodies the same way: through repetition.  We cannot force our body to do the opposite of what it considers its normal 24 hours a day. However, we can permanently change how we use our body during daily activities through micro changes and repeated awareness of our habits. In turn, we improve how we tap into the body’s abilities during vocal production either speaking or singing.

Build a daily singing practice through these easy exercieses:

1. Breathy yawns (for head voice)

2. Vocal fry (for chest voice)

3. Awareness of releasing tension in your jaw (for overall improvement)

Want to talk to a vocal coach and identify your negative tensions?

Express Voice Studio can help you create a daily vocal workout, breathing techniques and body awareness program to improve your singing.