Shoulder Injuries in the Performing Arts: "Stingers"

This is the third and final article in a series on shoulder injuries in the performing arts. This series of articles addresses fairly damaging acute shoulder injuries. Unless otherwise noted, these injuries are substantial enough that they should not be self-treated until after you've seen a medical professional who has instructed you to do so. These traumatic shoulder injuries should be treated as emergencies, since there is a high risk of significant complications if they are improperly or incompletely cared for (these complications can include nerve damage, internal bleeding, and nonunion fractures).

What to Look for on a Nutrition Label

Eating nutritious, well-balanced meals is important because the food you eat is your body’s fuel. Giving your body what it needs can keep you healthy, help you achieve or maintain your target weight, improve your physical and mental performance, and improve your mood. But eating well can be very challenging. There are many factors that can get in the way – cost, time available for meal preparation, food allergies and preferences, daily schedule – but one factor that prevents many people from eating as well as they’d like is a lack of awareness of how to use a food item’s nutrition label and ingredients list to help make informed decisions.

Interpreting nutrition labels and ingredients lists can be intimidating, but it is incredibly helpful when comparing similar foods or identifying the nutritional value of your current diet.

6 Upper Body Stretches All Marchers Should Be Doing

This article opens a series examining upper body stretches for specific types of performing artists. The grouping of stretches presented in this article is targeted toward musicians who stand when they play and for members of the marching band. Future articles in this series will identify key upper body stretches for dancers and seated musicians.

How You are Giving Yourself Low Back Pain

This is the opening article in a series examining low back pain and injury in the performing arts.

Low back pain is one of the most common – and potentially debilitating – musculoskeletal problems. In performing artists, thankfully, most instances of low back pain do not involve serious injury. However, this does not mean that low back pain can be ignored when it does occur.

7 Steps to Ensure Your Voice Survives the Royals' Postseason

After the Chiefs’ domination in Monday Night Football at Arrowhead and the Royals’ first postseason win in 29 years last night, more than a few Kansas Citians are likely to have vocal trauma and maybe a hoarse voice this week.

The vocal cords are bands of connective tissue that run across the trachea (“windpipe”) and vibrate when air is forcefully exhaled past them. Vocal pitch is controlled by contractions of tiny muscles attached to the ends of the vocal cords which tighten and flatten the vocal cords. When you scream or yell as loudly as you can and/or for an extended period of time, the vocal cords are exposed to a large amount of vibration, which can cause friction and irritation, leading to inflammation, swelling, damage, and pain.