Is vigorous drumming an effective exercise?

Question

From the "any exercise is better than no exercise" perspective, I'd imagine that playing drums at high tempo would be considered effective - it certainly can work up a sweat and obviously must burn more calories than just sitting on the couch, but it's hard to say how effective it actually is without hard numbers. Are there any reliable sources which can provide MET or actual calorie burn data by which we could compare drumming with other exercises?

Also, while it's obviously physically taxing beyond a certain level of skill, does drumming actually raise the heart rate enough to really count as cardio?

Answer 1

Upon further research I stumbled upon this gem from Arizona State University, which catalogs the MET values of various activities. Under the Music Playing category, they list "drums, sitting" as 3.8 METs and "drumming (e.g., bongo, conga, benbe), moderate, sitting" as 3.0 METs, so it seems like the that the forum post claiming ~498 kcal/hr for a 250lb male isn't too far off.

Of course I'd still love to see data from a heart rate monitor during play. The above establishes that drumming (even on plastic toy drums) is definitely exercise, but is it a viable form of cardio?

Update I found this BBC article in which professional drummer Clem Burke was hooked up to equipment to measure heart rate, oxygen uptake and lactic acid production. It was found that during a performance his heart rate averaged 140-150 BPM with peaks up to 190 BPM, comparable to top athletes. Not only does this show that expert-level drumming can be effective cardio, but there's even a dedicated "drumming laboratory" being built at the University of Glouchestershire to continue the study.

Answer 2

It's not good to generalize on the heart rate of others. Some people run at 155 bpm, others at 105. Monitor your own heart rate'when drumming.

I hope it works. Drumming certainly seems more fun than a treadmill!