It has been just over a month since the holiday season officially started: it began with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, went on to Hanukkah and culminated with Christmas. Look back and think about how much food you consumed in the past weeks – the turkeys, the trimmings, the pies, the hams, the cookies, the eggnogs, and all the other high-calorie treats. In fact, there are statistics showing that the average person gains several pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.
Now, you may say that you are far from “average.” That may well be – perhaps you have a very high IQ or are a Nobel Prize laureate. Wonderful, but even the most brilliant, above-average people eat and put on weight during the holidays. Now the question is: how do you lose the “holiday” pounds? Of course, the most logical answer is exercise. But if you are like so many other people (both average and above-average), you probably don’t want to venture outside to start jogging in New York’s notorious winter weather. Luckily, there are some calorie-burning activities you can do indoors.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: playing an instrument not only burns calories, but also gives your muscles a good workout. Which instrument is best for whipping you into shape? It’s the one that is most physically demanding – the drums! When you play them, you use nearly all of the body’s muscle groups, developing power, speed, endurance, and coordination. In one hour of playing, you can burn – a drum roll here – 290 calories! Next is the guitar; if you play it standing up, you’ll burn 217 calories in one hour, but if you sit, it will be less: 145 calories (which is certainly better than none at all!) Moving on: you will drop 180 calories in one hour playing the piano, organ, trumpet, or violin, while the horn, cello, harp, and flute will “lighten” you up by between 122 and 145 calories. But that’s not all: singing also uses plenty of muscles and zaps 136 calories an hour. And here’s a surprising tidbit: even the itsy-bitsy harmonica has huge powers: all the inhaling and exhaling burns lots of calories in the process!
The message we are trying to convey is this: no matter which instrument you play, if you apply yourself to the process and do it wholeheartedly, you will keep yourself in shape. And there is an added bonus for our teachers: by trekking to your Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Riverdale home or office, they too will burn lots of calories. So you see, when it comes to playing music, everyone is a … loser!
