Does Drumming Count as a Cardio Exercise?

We wouldn’t suggest anyone consider drumming as cardio exercise. The reason for this is that it’s so dependent on who the drummer is.

When learning to play the drums, you won’t be able to play as many notes or move your body as fast as experienced drummers, so they’ll benefit from drumming physically more than you will.

Other professional drummers who have been playing for decades don’t break a sweat when drumming as they don’t move their bodies a lot. They get even fewer cardiovascular benefits from playing the instrument.

For something to be considered a reliable cardio exercise, you should have a general idea of how many calories you can burn when doing it. Running, cycling, and swimming all have definite answers to this, whereas drumming doesn’t.

There are countless drummers who play for hours every day, but they’re still overweight. They alone are proof that drumming isn’t something you should switch the gym out for if you’re looking to have a healthy body.

What Physical Benefits Does Drumming Have?

While burning calories is one of the smaller benefits of playing the drums, one of the best physical benefits is becoming in tune with how muscle memory works.

Muscle memory refers to when your body does something repeatedly, and then it eventually goes into autopilot. It’s the key to learning to play the drums, and the ability to develop muscle memory quickly often transfers over to other skills.

For example, weightlifting techniques in the gym require muscle memory, and a drummer is more inclined to understand how important it is to that develop that, causing them to learn those techniques a bit faster.

Drumming also improves your posture. Most drum thrones don’t have a backrest, so you have to sit up straight when playing. The posture you develop from doing that easily transfers over to when you’re not playing the drums.

Does Drumming Have Any Other Benefits?

Drumming has amazing benefits. When it comes to mental health, learning to play the drums forces you to develop practice routines and keep you stimulated and dedicated. The discipline required to get good at playing the drums benefits you greatly in life.

Playing the drums also tends to reduce stress levels. What’s better than bashing on some loud drums after a long day at work? Not much.

Apart from posture and burning a few calories, drumming can often tone your body. Metal drummers tend to have very defined calf muscles from all their double pedal playing. Other drummers have very strong forearm muscles from using common drumming techniques.

Here are a few other benefits of playing the drums:

Improves memory
Improves hand-eye coordination
Boosts creativity
Helps understand rhythms

If you want to read more, we have a full list of benefits, which you can check out here.