Singing And Leg Strength, recovering from nerve damage in back Options

[dolcebaby]

Hi all,

I'm mainly just having a bit of a moan, but after some possible advice as well.

I've sung most of my life, up until about a year ago had regular lessons for 5 years and made amazing progress.... life has got in the way a bit the last year so lessons have been on teh back burner but still singing.

Also suffered back problems last 5 years, culminating in a severe prolapsed disc about 2 years ago, and even before that was barely mobile at times. I kept singing and going to lessons through all that though obviously my voice was compromised a bit by back pain.

Now I am a lot better in many ways, fully mobile and relatively strong. In some ways I'm much fitter than I ever was before the back problems because I've had to exercise to overcome them!

My voice has continued to develop but there are two things that I know would improve it vastly: higher energy levels, and better leg strength.

The first is affected by many things that are both in my control and outside of it. The legs are really frustrating though. I do abdominal exercises everyday to keep my pelvis stable, and I walk about 25 miles per week and even do some running, but this only seems to keep my strength at basic minimum, and anything like steep hills/stairs really wear out my legs very quickly. I have some (probably) permanent nerve damage/loss of feeling and a couple of missing reflexes from the disc prolapse which I'm fairly certain affects muscle strength (though I was not given info about long term stuff like that when I was discharged from the orthopaedic clinic - the physio had succesfully got me back on my feet and I think that's as far ahead as they look).

On a day to day basis I am still very grateful for my recovery and mobility, but when I try and sing 'properly' I'm so aware of not having strong base and it really frustrates me to the point of feeling upset that I can't get the strength I want in my voice (I dont' mean volume - more the physical security that woudl allow good technique etc. )To add to that my knee and ankle joints are very poorly aligned so any of the traditional leg strengthening exercises like lunges are dangerous.

All of which is my very roundabout way of saying have any of you any tips on strengthening legs wihout lunges/squats, particularly after nerve damage? I'm also concerned that having done a lot of singing despite the back and leg muscles I might actually have allowed the wrong muscles to take over.

I know there are many with worse physical limitations than me but I hate feeling like my potentially great voice (doesn't sound modest I know, but occasionally I make an amazing sound) is trapped inside a puny body! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Thanks for reading my rant!