To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
From: "michael.chesebro"
Subject: Re: Weight Lifting and the Voice
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Dr. Scheinwurth said,
>"Jeez, I suppose it's possible [that weight training might overdevelop the
>ventricular folds] . . .

Then Dr. Hanson posited (abridged):

>I was considering the action of the ventricular folds during phonation
>rather than during normal breathing function. The husky quality, similar
>to the voice quality used by Brando in Godfather ("Make him an offer he
>can't refuse") that is rather commonly heard from body builders would
>indicate some unusual phonation function.
>
. . .I have also read that the ventricular folds assist in this action by
>becoming, in effect, the upward portion of the "vocal valve" which is more
>efficient in the breath holding action than the vocal folds themselves.
>Is this incorrect?
>
>Perhaps the "husky" quality is the phonational effect of hemorrhaged vocal
>folds which you indicated can be the result of holding the breath during
>weight training.

I had a friend who through himself into weight lifting. He became quite a specimen of
upper body development. His voice exhibited signs of exactly what you have described,
however, I believe that it was not the ventricular folds. This is why:

1. The ventricular folds are seldom used habitually with the kind of adduction force
required to squish (not a medical term) the ventricular folds together. It takes extra effort
push those structures all the way to midline.

2. The thyroarytenoids are being strongly engaged and the thyroid cartilage is pulled
upward and inward. It is a posture of shortening and fattening of the folds. It makes a
tight seal, however, it is the antithesis of the posture that produces head voice. Now you
have habitually shortened and fattened vocal folds that are never getting stretched. The
vocal posture soon generalizes into the speaking posture. Now you have an individual
who speaks with relative hyper compression but is not really aware of it secondary to the
extremes of compression he has been using for weight lifting.

I lift weights and I deliberately untrain the voice from that particular posture. I also avoid
the very posture that causes the malorientation in the first place. I have not yet fallen prey
to that vocal malady.

These are, of course, my observations. Ingo Titze has not done a study on this yet.
When he does, I will read it.
Michael E. Chesebro, M.A.,C.C.C., S.L.P.
Voice & Fax: 714/596-3344