The Drummer Who Trains Like a Decathlete
Two-hour sets, eleven-minute songs and a training plan borrowed from track and field. Inside the most athletic job in heavy music.
Playing drums in an extreme metal band is an endurance sport with a spotlight on it. Serpent Choir drummer Ana Belmont treats it that way.
Her weekly plan looks more like a decathlete's than a musician's: sprint intervals for blast-beat speed, long easy runs for stamina, mobility work for her shoulders and hips, and a strict rule about sleep on tour.
Nobody asks a sprinter to perform after four hours on a bus. We do it every night.
Ana Belmont, Serpent Choir
On Tour
Belmont packs a resistance band, a lacrosse ball and running shoes. Venue load-in times dictate when she can train, so most sessions happen at seven in the morning in parking lots.
She says the payoff is simple: she plays the last song as fast as the first.
