The Performance Conditioning Challenge

Does this sound familiar?

You know a consistent training habit would help.

But between the shows, the travel and the odd hours, it never quite happens. And if it does, you're following generic gym advice that was never built for someone who has to perform for a living.

You train hard, then show up to the gig wiped out
Or you're so wary of being sore that you never train hard enough to see progress
You're chasing PBs and making short-term progress, then you get injured and you're starting again
One week there's nothing in the diary, the next it's rehearsals, shows and a tour, and your body isn't physically prepared
On tour you're at the mercy of whatever hotel gym turns up, so even when you can train, it's inconsistent

Most training assumes the gym is the only thing taking it out of you that day. But you've got a gig tonight.

So you end up in the same loop. You start, life gets in the way, and you're back at square one.

Take a bet on yourself

Ready to make a commitment to your health?

Here's the deal: 4 week challenge. £50 buy-in.

Complete every session (3 per week for 4 weeks), and you get your money back. If you want to carry on, use it as a credit against more training. Choose to end it there and I'll refund it, no questions asked.

You only lose if you don't show up.

You'll be training alongside players from world famous commercial pop acts, West End and Broadway shows, and major orchestras.

The only requirements: you're a professional musician (or training to be one), and you're not currently injured.

Everything you need to play better, feel good and be healthy as a professional musician.

Training

Strength, conditioning, mobility and more, programmed to slot into your life alongside your performing schedule. Every exercise can be done in the gym, or swapped for a version you can do anywhere. Hotel room, backstage, or a field in the middle of nowhere. You no longer have to choose between training for your playing and training for yourself.

Education

A growing library of guides, videos and walkthroughs built into the app, supporting you at every stage. Most plans hand you the fish. This helps you build the rod, so you understand how to train yourself as an occupational athlete. You decide how deep you want to go.

Community

A dedicated community inside the app, full of musicians all over the world who take their careers as seriously as you do. Ask a question and you're not just getting my answer. You're tapping into a room of players with their own experience.

Fair warning

This probably won't look like the training you're used to.

Most programmes are built for people whose only movement that day happens in the gym. Yours isn't. You've got a show tonight. So two things work differently here.

The Dynamic Intensity System

Most training advice tells you to do 3 sets of 10 and add weight every week. In the club, we use a specific training system that teaches you to progress safely without ever training yourself into a corner. Your availability to play comes above everything else, and your training should reflect that.

Weekly Load Reviews

At a professional level, bad days and injuries are rarely a practice problem. They're a load management one. You'll learn to read your own physiology with the help of weekly review forms read directly by me, so you can train, perform and recover more intelligently.

What the members say

If you want a performance plan for the working musician who wants to keep working without getting injured, coached by someone who actually understands the lifestyle, this is for you.

"I'd trained consistently for years but couldn't escape a cycle of progression and injury. With Chris's guidance, I'm finding more functionality across all areas, not just strength, and I'm finally making progress again."

"It felt like 1:1 training. Targeted workouts rather than hours in the gym, and long-standing niggles finally identified and addressed structurally."

"Chris explains high-level, complex concepts in digestible bites and quickly spots your weak points. His way of looking at the body and brain holistically makes so much sense."

"Chris told me to feel like I was reaching out through my supporting arm rather than the moving one, and suddenly my whole back woke up."

"I've become my own trainer inside the sessions."

"On vibraphone, my left hand was always the harder one to connect to my brain, to tell it to hit straight. Going back to it yesterday, it just felt easier to connect from my brain to my hand. Things were working better than they usually do."

"I've got better posture, even day to day. I've always envied ballet dancers' posture, and I'm amazed how quickly I noticed a difference."

"Every exercise Chris curates adds value to my daily life and function, as well as to my work as a musician."

"I've made more progress over the last year than I did in the previous five. And the improvements in how I navigate life have been invaluable."

What your first month actually feels like.

"My first month in Chris's Performance Conditioning Training Club has been brilliant.

For a long time I'd struggled to find a method of training that I could commit to, which was flexible enough to work with my varied schedule, and catered for my specific needs as a musician. I defaulted to the same old exercises which I knew I could do for a few minutes each morning, which were better than nothing, but lacked direction and progression.

What Chris has put together has proved to be the perfect option for someone like myself.

I love that he has considered options for training at home, on the move, or at the gym, and that the schedule is flexible for me to work it around my commitments from one week to the next.

Within this first month I've already noticed an improved mind-body connection on my instrument, with decreased ‘lag’ between my thoughts and putting them into action on the drum kit. My average baseline has improved, and there are more 'good days' at the drums than before.

I've also got a lot out of the additional resources Chris has poured into the group, beyond the training plans themselves. A recent seminar on load management struck home regarding some things I'd been struggling to balance, and gave me some great food for thought about things I can try going forwards.

This goes beyond simply having a training plan.

Chris's care and consideration is evident in every step of the process, and I'm beginning to see more what he means about us musicians seeing our body the way athletes see theirs, treating it as the vehicle through which our entire music-making careers can do what we need them to do.

I'd whole heartedly recommend musicians check this out."

Ed Chisholm, Training Club Member · Professional Drummer

Who this is for, and who it isn't.

This is for you if…

You're a working musician (or in training to be). Any instrument. Any genre.
Your schedule has beaten every plan you've tried. A run of shows, then travel, then nothing. That's the normal case here, not the exception, and everything about the training is built off that fact.
You've never trained before. Plenty of members have no experience when they arrive, and the detailed exercise tutorials are built to guide you to become confident in the gym.
You've trained for years but you're bored of the same routines, you've hit a plateau, or you want a smarter way to train.
You travel and you're tired of being at the mercy of hotel gyms.

This isn't for you if…

You're already following a plan you're happy with. This work requires your attention. If you're happy with what you're doing, stick with it.
You want a programme written individually for you. This is a structured programme that adapts to you, not a bespoke one. If that's what you need, message me about working together directly.
You're in pain right now and haven't had it looked at. Message me first. Some things need hands-on care, and it's important you seek that when it's needed.
You want an unsustainable 90-day “shred” plan. Body composition changes happen here. In fact, most members have a body composition goal, and if that's you, you can lean into it. But it's a by-product of the training, not the whole point.

Who's running it

Hi, I'm Chris.

Though many who know me just call me “Draper”.

By night, I'm a drummer. I started out as a jazz musician, and these days I play drums on Hamilton in London's West End.

By day, I'm a functional strength and performance specialist. Which might seem an unlikely combination, so let me explain how we got here.

Back in 2023 I acquired two brain injuries that changed a lot of things, including my relationship with music. To keep myself playing through the three year recovery, I started training in a really specific way, and found I ended up getting better at the drums as a result.

I had more control. I became more consistent. Mental hangups disappeared. Long-standing niggles evaporated. My weekly physio dropped to twice yearly. And although it's not the focus of what I do, I lost a ton of brain injury weight and built a load of muscle as a by-product of the way I train.

I took those realisations, formalised them with qualifications, and started working with professional musicians probably very similar to you. Since then I've worked with solo artists and musicians affiliated with large commercial acts, as well as West End shows and major orchestras.

It turns out most of us aren't held back by our technique.

We're held back by our physiology, and the only way to get on top of that is to start treating yourself as an athlete in your own right.

And that's what The Performance Conditioning Training Club is all about.

What you get for the 4 weeks.

3 strength and conditioning sessions every week with detailed exercise tutorials and breakdowns, programmed specifically for musicians, with progression built in.
A travel version of every exercise, so you can keep training on the road.
Autonomous scheduling. Sessions land in the app and you can shuffle them to any day that works.
Access to the Performance Conditioning app, your central hub that gives you access to everything you need to master your health as a musician, including:
- Weekly 1-1 coaching through the “Weekly Load Review”, keeping your training, performing, and life in balance.
- niggleIQ: Smart triage for physical issues, plus access to a worldwide network of specialist care.
- GymClick: The Performance Conditioning metronome for training, so you can progress with precision and keep tabs on your rep count without having to think.
- A growing library of resources to support your training and your career.
- A free copy of my book, The Inner Athlete: A Musician's Guide to Performance Conditioning.
- A dedicated community, full of musicians who take this work as seriously as you do.
- Coming soon: 25-minute metcon workouts.
- Coming soon: Nutrition tracking, recipe books, and nutritional frameworks to ensure you're fuelling correctly.
- Coming soon: The Recovery Hub.

Before you sign up.

Why does it cost £50?

Because skin in the game changes how people show up. The £50 is your stake, not my fee.

What happens after the 4 weeks?

You decide. If you want to continue, you carry straight on into the Club. Plans start from £44 per month on the annual plan (minus your £50 credit). This is not a gym membership. It's an investment in your health and an insurance against injury that could scupper your earning potential. If you'd rather not continue, your £50 is refunded no questions asked (as long as you complete the sessions!).

Do I have to start on 5 October?

Doors close on Sunday 4 October at 23:59, but once you're in you can complete your sessions whenever you like within the 4 weeks.

I've never trained before. Will I be lost?

No. I've had plenty of complete novices come through and they've all been fine. There's a bit to get your head around at the beginning, but every exercise has video, a written walkthrough and an easier version, and you can ask me anything at any point.

I've trained for years. Will it be too basic?

No, and this is where most experienced lifters are surprised. The intensity is set by you, not by the programme, so it scales with whatever you bring. Seasoned lifters tell me there's plenty in here that's new and challenging for them, whether that's the exercise selection, the warm ups, or the depth of the cool down sections.

What if I'm on tour or away?

That's the normal case for members here, not the exception. The programming travels on minimal equipment, session lengths adjust, and the Weekly Load Review keeps us on top of how training, performing and life are balancing out.

What gear do I actually need?

A gym makes it easier but isn't required. Away from a gym you'll want a suspension trainer, loop bands, a slide pad, a fabric glute band and a band anchor, which comes to about £60 all in (roughly $80). Full details here: performanceconditioning.co/gear

How much time does it take?

Three sessions a week, 45–60 minutes each.

I've got pain or an injury right now. Can I join?

Message me first so we can have a chat as every situation is different. If you join and something flares up mid-challenge, niggleIQ takes under a minute to complete and alerts me straight away.

Will this make me sore or tired for shows?

The way we train takes your performance needs into account, and as long as you train within the guidelines I teach, you won't find yourself depleted for a show that day.

Is it live? Do I have to show up at a certain time?

You train when you want. Nothing is scheduled. The only fixed things are the occasional live seminars, and those are recorded.

I'm a vocalist. Can I join?

Yes. The Training Club is for all musicians. I also work closely with a specialist vocal physiotherapist, so if you need support in that area it's there.

Is the programming individualised?

It's a structured programme with 1-1 coaching. If you want fully individualised programming, message me and we'll talk about what that looks like.

Do you do nutrition plans?

We don't do prescribed nutrition, however I am working on a comprehensive nutrition hub with frameworks for how to structure your meals around training and performing. Plus, there are personalised macro and micro targets, nutrition tracking, recipe books, meal planners, and shopping lists on the way soon. Short of working with a nutritionist on a bespoke plan, this will give you everything you need.

How old do I need to be?

Members need to be 18 or over.

What if I have more questions?

Email me at chris@performanceconditioning.co and I'll come back to you.

Training that works with your playing, not against it.

Join the Performance Conditioning Challenge