0747 – You Are A Vocal Athlete

2023.01.17 – 0747 – You Are A Vocal Athlete

We are vocal athletes!

Those of us who speak for a living are trained and skilled, we have physical strength, agility and stamina. We can get highly stressed and suffer from fatigue that affects our performance. And we use our body in an unusual way. So, be aware of what kind of foods, situations or symptoms are the precursor to poor vocal health. And then avoid them.

We all vary how much we speak during a day because of everything from studio work to social life changes.

But an NHS report[1] imagined someone who spoke for around 5 hours (18,000 seconds) per day would:

For a woman with a middle-range average spoken pitch, have her vocal folds vibrating at a rate of around 220 times each second, or opening and closing at least 4,140,000 times in one day, 1511,100,000 vibrations a year.

For a man with a reasonably low average spoken pitch, the vocal folds may be vibrating at a rate of around 100 times each second, that’s 1,800,000 opening and closings a day and 657,000,000 times in a year!

Now imagine the amount of work say an audiobook reader gives their voice, reading for 5 or more hours a day.

[1] https://www.wsh.nhs.uk/CMS-Documents/Patient-leaflets/SpeechandLanguageTherapyServices/6534-1-Practical-voice-care.pdf

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