i wore a brace for allk of camp and most practices in early season, but i slowly moved out of it and i dont feel that much pain anymore

Well, on my line, we have a few ways of dealing with that.

1) Everyone on our line owns a backbrace. I think they are great, considering they help with your posture (which ultimatly helps with backpain).

2) Some of us do 'core training'. It's basically special lifting and exercises to help build your mid section and upperbody. It's helped us alot a lot.

and...

3) I take some Advil. I know it might just all be in my head, but I find it helpful.

anyways... hope this helps!

I've decided to wear a back brace, atleast, at first. Now I'm contemplating... Should I always wear it (for every time I practice at home, rehearse with the line, competition, game, parade) or should I try to not depend on it and slowly stop using it? Thanks.

Well, wearing a back brace isn't a bad habit b/c it helps your posture and relieves some back pains... so there's no need to stop using it. But that doesn't mean you don't have to work-out and only depend on the back brace. I suggest you to do some workout in the lower back area regularly but also wear back brace for the reasons I've mentioned earlier.

If you depend soley on the back brace then it will over time (possibly a short period of time) you will actually loose muscle strenght and endurance. Go ahead and use it to start off, but slowly work your way off of it. That is of course if you don't want to be dependent on the brace. Don't forget thought when you work out, any muscle, they come in a set. Another words you will want to work on your back and abs. An example I got from on of my weight lifting instrcutor was he had a friend who, in his youth, did nothing but workout his chest muscles. When he got older his chest muscles pulled his shoulders forward giving him a hunch back appearance. That is why you want to work a muscle and its counter part: Back/Abs, Biceps/Triceps, Pecs/Delts, etc.

So, if you don't want to be reliant on a back brace, work out slowly. Build up slowly and if you notice any pain (not talking about soreness) take weight off and go from there. Don't forget to work your abs along with you back to complete the set and you should be good to go.

"Next!! Hi how are you, the doctor will see you now"

I'll be a freshman tenor player this year at my high school (this doesn't happen very often), and I've found that the biggest problem I have is with the back pain. I'm a tall guy, but I'm sorta skinny, so I think I get affected by it more than the upper classmen. I can play a lot better with the tenors on a stand, but when I have to strap into the harness my playing and my mark-time go to crap. I have some long parades and plenty of contests/football games this year, so what would be the best thing for a young player like me to do to build up endurance?

I found that the best thing to do for back pain is to put the tenors on all the time without a back brace. None of the line at my H.S. uses back braces, and no one has ever asked about them, and we still survive. Endurance is all about getting used to weight on your back for long periods of time. Just make sure you drink enough water to prevent cramps, and don't mind the pain. It'll go away after the couple days anyway. There's always the saying: No pain, no gain.

I dont know if its my carrier,I play 4th bass,and that drum is so much heavier than the tenors our school uses(Pearl Championship Series).I believe its just less balanced so its not as light as it feels when i put the quads on.Can anyone explain this?

Here is my philosophy on dealing with “tenor pain.” You have to practice smart when you play such a heavy instrument such as tenors. Tenors are considerably heavy due to all the hardware and amount of wood. So, I believe in using tenor stands for about 70% to 80% of the time. Then for the last 30% to 20% of the time use your harness. This helps a great deal to prevent any pain and also gives you some time to work your muscles out as well at the end. This is how my tenor line deals with it.

-TritonDrumBum