My experience: I exercise rather vigourously and then go for a four mile
run. While I run I do periods of vigorous 'belly breathing', that is to say
fairly suddenly relaxing the lower abdominal muscles and releasing them
again. Much of the time I'm conscious of keeping an 'open throat' so as not
to grunt grunt grunt.
While this dries out my throat a bit (not to mention dehydration through
perspiration) so that I can't sing properly for a few hours after running I
feel the exercise is strengthening and speeding up the response time of
muscles that I use for singing, particularly what Van Christy has called
'catch breaths'.
Perhaps other singers have had different experiences: for me general
fitness of the body requires exercising a lot of muscles that aren't
obviously singing muscles, and fitness through exercise will ultimately
result in flexibility, not stiffness (though it is always tempting to
overdo it!) which can only help singing.
The muscles perform a balancing act in most tasks and in holding the body
together - if you exercise your stomach muscles it is a good idea to
exercise your back muscles to; left side balanced by right side etc. john
John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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