Author(s): COLSON, S., STEINER, D., MAUGUE, A., Institution: UNIVERSITÉ CÔTE D'AZUR, Country: FRANCE, Abstract-ID: 2178

INTRODUCTION:
Forty years ago, orchestral musical performance was described as an extremely demanding occupation. Since then, musicians have been considered “comparable” to sport athletes and have been defined as “musical” or “instrumental athletes.” However, very few studies have described their physiological characteristics. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to report on the cardiorespiratory fitness of professional orchestra musicians, and 2) to examine the influence of sex and instrument played (i.e., wind vs string)
METHODS:
116 participants from different national orchestras, comprising 62 males (aged 44.9 ± 10.7 years) and 54 females (aged 40.8 ± 9.4 years), participated in this study (wind = 44 ; string = 72). After anthropometric data collection, participants underwent a maximal aerobic capacity test on a treadmill using a breath-by-breath gas analyzer. In a subgroup of participants (n = 56; 31 males and 25 females), a spirometry test was performed to measure forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1). ANCOVA analyses, with age as a covariate, were used to assess the effects of sex and instrument played on body mass index (BMI), maximal oxygen consumption (VO2), FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC, FVC%, FEV1% and FEV1%/FVC%
RESULTS:
In the entire population, a significant sex effect was observed, with males having higher BMI (+8.7%; p<0.05) and VO2 (+17.7%; p<0.001) than females. A significant age effect was observed for these two variables, with BMI increasing (p<0.01) and VO2 decreasing (p<0.001) with age. Both the increase in BMI and decrease in VO2 were significantly correlated with age (r = 0.339 and r = -0.331, respectively; p<0.001). The VO2 percentage decrease per decade was 8% for males and 6.3% for females. No effect of the instrument played was observed for any variable measured
In the subgroup of participants, a sex effect was found for FVC and FEV1 (p<0.001), with males exhibiting greater values than females. When expressed as % of reference values, no significant sex effect was observed for FVC% or FEV1%; however, a significant instrument effect was found for FVC% (p = 0.01), with wind instrument players having higher values than string instrument players. In contrast, a significant instrument effect was observed for both the FEV1/FVC and FEV1%/FVC% indices (string > wind; p<0.001)
CONCLUSION:
The VO2 values measured in our sample of musicians were below (i.e., between 3% and 12%) normative values reported in a large European cohort of healthy adults. However, professional orchestra musicians’ VO₂ values were substantially lower than those reported in endurance athletes (i.e., between 10% and 30%). These results suggest that professional orchestra musicians have normal cardiorespiratory fitness compared with the general population but are not “comparable” to endurance athletes. Given the lower FEV1/FVC and FEV1%/FVC% indices observed in wind musicians, it appears that playing a wind instrument may be associated with decreased pulmonary function.