9 VO Lessons I Learned in the Gym

The voice over booth and the gym?

“Pauly, you’ve clearly put the meth in method to your madness, now.”

Hear me out. There are 9 big lessons I’ve learned from my time in the gym that have surprisingly informed my approach to voiceover work.

When you think about it, the gym and the VO booth have more similarities than you might think, and I think the gym is a great metaphor for the booth.

Both are dedicated spaces where you’re focusing on self-improvement, on learning new skills, on getting uncomfortable and stretching and literally growing. In both you have tools for feedback – in the gym it’s a mirror, in the booth, it’s your headphones and studio monitors.

Both have coaches or trainers to help guide us.

So, let's dive into the 9 voiceover lessons I've picked up from an unlikely place - the gym.

1. Warm-Up Is Crucial

Just like with working out, warming up your voice before a voiceover session is critical. Y ou wouldn't dream of lifting heavy weights or running a half marathon without a proper warm-up. Jumping straight into a voice over session without preparing your voice can strain your vocal cords, literally giving you an injury, affect your performance, and maybe knock you out of the booth for a few days. A few minutes of scales, lip trills, hums, or tongue twisters can make a world of difference.

If you typically do short form work, up to let’s say 5 minutes or so, it may be enough to let your voice warm naturally throughout the day and save your booth work for the afternoon or evening. If you do audiobooks, long-form e-learning, animation, or especially videogames, a formal, in-depth warmup is essential.

If you’re “of a certain age,” warming up becomes more important. I know my voice is way less tolerant to stress than it was even 10 years ago.

2. Consistency Is Key

If there's one thing I've learned from the gym, it's that consistency reigns supreme. You can't expect to see significant improvements after one workout session, and the same holds true for voice over.

Scientists call this “many repeated attempts with feedback.” When you work out, you repeat a movement thousands of times to stimulate growth over time. When you practice VO, you read hundreds or thousands of scripts to get progressively and incrementally better over time. And you do that with feedback – you listen back to your recordings, you get feedback from your coach, you learn what books and what doesn’t from your auditions.

If you’re new, this means training with a coach for months, not days or weeks. It means reading and recording every damn day. It means learning about the business every damn day.

If you’re an intermediate it means auditioning every damn day. It means continuing purposeful practice every damn day. It means continuing to coach.

If you’re an elite voice actor, you’ve likely already build the daily, consistent habits you need to develop to stay elite and improve even still and continue to practices them

Consistency is way more effective than intensity. As Simon Sinek says, working out once for 9 hours won’t make you fit. Working out every day for 20 minutes will lead to growth over time. The same is true in VO. Practicing for 8 hours once a week isn’t as effective as practicing an hour every damn day, even though the time spend it roughly the same.

3. Maintain Proper Form

In the gym, maintaining proper form is essential to prevent injuries and ensure effective workouts. When it comes to voiceover, 'form' translates to good posture, proper breathing, and using your body in the performance of the material.

Standing when you perform pohelps open up your airways for clearer, more controlled vocal delivery. Similarly, mastering diaphragmatic breathing can provide better control over your voice, enhancing your delivery and preventing vocal strain.

And here’s where the gym and VO actually do intersect – the better aerobic shape you are in, the better breath control you’ll have in the booth.

4. Rest and Recovery

Even the most dedicated gym-goers understand the importance of rest days. Your muscles need time to repair and strengthen between workouts. Similarly, your voice needs rest to maintain health and performance. You’ve got to take breaks during long voiceover sessions and rest your voice between gigs to avoid straining your instrument.

When I have long, directed sessions, I make sure upfront that I ask the client for 5 minutes an hour to take a break, rest my voice, get some more water, and recover.

If you have regular, recurring work, pay attention to how you arrange your production schedule throughout the week so that you can balance your workload with rest and recovery. Try to space out your heavy days and longer sessions so that you can stay fresh throughout the week.

5. Pushing Your Limits

The gym has taught me the value of gradually pushing my limits. Just as you might add more weight each week, or run a little bit further, stretching your voice acting skills leads to growth. In the gym, we call this progressive overload.

James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits, talks about getting 1% better every day. He calls it the aggregate of marginal gains. If you get 1% better every day, then at the end of one year, you’re mathematically 37 times better at a given task than you were on day 1.

Experiment with different types of scripts, challenge yourself with complex characters, and continuously seek feedback. Join a workout group like the ones we have in VO Pro where you can get feedback from peers. Work with a reputable coach in a new genre. Stepping out of your comfort zone is where real growth happens.

6. Water is Essential

Hydration is key in any workout to replenish lost fluids and keep the body functioning efficiently. A muscle needs four things to grow, and it must have all 4: stimulus (exercise), protein, water, and recovery.

In voiceover, staying hydrated keeps your vocal cords lubricated, preventing them from becoming dry or strained and ensuring your voice remains clear and flexible.

The key to proper hydration is to stay hydrated all the time. Downing a bottle of water before a session is not enough. Again, consistency over intensity. When you get up, immediately drink a glass of water and get 8-10 ounces every hour throughout the day. If water is too boring, try decaf black coffee, decaffeinated tea, or flavored water. Caffeine is a diuretic and will actually dry out your body and vocal cords, so if you’re a coffee or tea drinker, you have to hydrate even more.

7. Good Coaching is the single best investment you can make

Having a personal trainer can provide you with tailored workout plans, correct your form, and keep you accountable. Similarly, a VO performance coach can guide you, give you valuable insights into your technique, and push you in ways you wouldn't on your own. A coach can be a game-changer in your VO career.

Practice alone isn’t enough. to develop and grow in anything you have to practice with actionable feedback. That’s what a good coach provides – qualified, actionable feedback that allows you to adjust and get better.

8. Celebrate the Progress

Finally, the gym has taught me the importance of celebrating small wins and progress. It's easy to get caught up in where we want to be and overlook how far we've come. The same applies to voiceover. Celebrate every improvement, every successful gig, and every hurdle overcome. It's part of the journey, and acknowledging progress is crucial for maintaining motivation and passion in what we do.

In our VO Pro community we’ve ritualized this practice with something we call Friday Wins. Each Friday, we all look back on our week and identify wins and progress. And we celebrate the small ones just as much as the big ones. Maybe we got on another roster. Maybe we reached out to 50 more people this week, maybe we got offered a gig outright. Whatever it is, if we got 1% better at something then we celebrate for ourselves and we celebrate each other.

There is so much…lot of people call it rejection…in this business. I call it lack of selection – a term I stole from my friend Emma O’Neill. We sail dozens auditions and hundreds of emails into the ether and we never hear a word back on the overwhelming majority of that effort and if we don’t take time to take stock of our wins and progress, we risk damaging our mental health over the long haul.

9. Remember the Why

What happens when it’s cold and you’re tired, and you’re just not feeling like getting in the booth, or getting to the gym? Mel Robins has a great quote: “Stop waiting ‘til you feel like it, because you’re never gonna feel like it.”

That’s when you need a bigger yes to all the little nos. That bigger yes is your why. Why do you train? Why do you practice? Why do you want to get better? Why do you want and deserve a better life? Who do you want to be better for? For you? For your family? Your clients? Your spouse?

The better you define and the more you purposefully remember your why, the bigger yes you will have to practice, train, develop, and grow,

So yeah, both the gym and the VO booth remind me that discipline, consistency, and self-care are crucial to developing a fulfilling life and transcend the boundaries between the gym and the studio.

For more information on the VO Freedom Master Plan, the VO Pro community, and my Move Touch Inspire Newsletter for Voice Actors, those links are in the description below.

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We’ll see ya again here soon. Thanks for watching.