Translating Exercise Science Into Voice Care

Abstract

The basic principles of exercise training for skeletal muscle adaptations have been applied to voice training for some time. To date, the use of the basic principles of muscle training for designing a voice rehabilitation program or advising voice clients about the role of voice rest and modified voice use following surgical intervention has not been well developed. Voice training is a complex process of skill acquisition through application of motor learning principles and the concurrent coordinated use of many physiologic systems. However, the translation of exercise science literature to voice training and recovery needs to be undertaken with caution, because the function and performance of laryngeal skeletal muscle can be different from those of skeletal muscles used for other types of movement. This discussion will be confined to the basic adaptations of the muscle tissue itself. A brief review of basic principles of muscle training as understood for skeletal muscle will be followed by a more extensive discussion of the neurologic, metabolic, and physiologic adaptations of muscle training and detraining. Translation of this body of literature will be considered in the contexts of post-surgical voice recovery, voice rehabilitation, and maintenance of professional voice requirements.