I’m writing this month’s Blog from sunny California – San Diego to be exact, where I’ve just run around six miles along Pacific Beach.

Why run, I hear you ask, when a car is much quicker?

Hmmm …good point and one I would have certainly raised myself a few years ago. But ever so slowly, I have actually become quite a keen runner and over the last few years have completed three triathlons, two half marathons and, just few weeks ago, the Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest challenge, in and around Battersea Power Station, London.

Anthony Richardson ...Born Survivor!

So why am I telling you all this? Well, strangely, as a by-product of all this fanatical fitness stuff my ability to read a passage of text without taking a breath has improved exponentially.

What does that mean then?

It means that a good proportion of a voice over’s life is usually spent editing-out breaths from their recordings. This is generally referred to as producing a “radio edit” as advertisers tend to try and cram as many words into a 30 second slot as possible – and there is just no time for breathing. Time is money!

So…  I used to spend ages deleting breaths from my recordings and shortening the gaps slightly, where the breaths used to be, to keep the flow sounding natural, but allowing many more words into an allotted timeslot. But now, being much fitter than I was a few years ago, I take far fewer breaths and so the recording and editing process is MUCH quicker and the flow of the text I am reading sounds much more natural.

Cool huh?

Happy client, happy voice over!

So, why not invest in yourself?  Put out that ciggy, get your trainers on and get a little out of breath.  It actually pays …ca$h!

(Oh, and you’ll probably feel better for it too – one thing I forgot to mention is that getting fit generally allows you to eat what you want, when you want.  Mmmm… doughnuts!).

Let me know what you think.

Recording all day and travelling backwards and forwards to central London (or wherever your client’s studio happens to be) can be very stressful and tiring and the old Red Bull or alternative high-octane beverage can look very appealing.

However, most of these high caffeine sugary junk-drinks are actually banned in other, more sensible, countries and certainly should be in the UK. They also affect your vocal chords and, depending on your sensitivity to the 1001 chemicals in the noxious stuff, can be quite nasty.

So, what’s the alternative? Well, for many years I have been drinking the “organic” version of the pick-me-up drink, and I can highly recommend you give it a try.

It’s called wheat grass juice and, in my opinion, is the best way to give your body and mind an energy boost without affecting the vocal chords and without putting all those nasty chemicals into your bloodstream.

The problem is that today we have never had so many cures for diseases but been so incredibly ill as a population. Most scientists put this down to one thing – stress!

Stress is a real killer (in case you didn’t know!)

Our lifestyles are massively different to those of our parents and their parents. Every day we have to deal with traffic, computers, high pressure jobs, at least ten different types of communication from Facebook and Twitter to mobile phones, instant messaging to email, fast food, spicy food, short lunch breaks, high emotions and ‘difficult customers.’ These challenges all result in one major change in our bodies – acid!

The human body is something like your car’s lead acid battery – we work on currents and voltages with the PH (acidity) of the human bloodstream being about 7.36. Now, when we get stressed, emotional, eat junk food etc. our bloodstream becomes more acidic and this has the effect of weakening the charge on the outside of our wonderful red blood cells. This, in turn, makes them stick together causing a kind of “sludge.” And that’s exactly how this condition makes you feel…sludgy. Your brain slows down, your muscles ache and you just feel plain tired.

Now, here comes the wheat grass bit. If you drink a glass of wheat grass juice, it actually alkalises your bloodstream very effectively, restoring the natural PH and the charge on your red blood cells, allowing them to pull apart again. And as we know, these wonderful little cells can then go about their business transporting oxygen around the body and brain, helping you think more clearly, retain more information, feel more awake and generally give you more energy!

Try some – it might just change your life.

I recommend: Sweet Wheat® - just click here for my favourite brand!

Recording in a hot vocal booth for 8 hours straight can certainly cause some strain on the old vocal chords. Audiobooks, in particular, can be very hard work – especially novels where character voices change in practically every paragraph.

Quite often I get asked to do a Hollywood-style, Don LaFontaine, subsonic movie trailer voice over in the morning and a high-pitched cartoon voice after lunch. This obviously takes its toll on the old voice box. Once I made the mistake of recording one of these super-deep movie trailer voices first thing in the morning, without warming up. Nasty experience, my voice was completely shot for the rest of the day. But that’s what it all boils down to – experience. I have learnt not to do this style of VO without warming up for at least an hour, or better still, wait until the afternoon. If you can benefit from my experience, that’s fantastic!

Anyway, for a number of years I have been using one of the best kept secrets in the voice over industry to make sure my vocal chords are in tip-top condition, and when they get a bit tired I can pep them up and get them back to full working order.

Although I frequently get asked, I don’t usually endorse any particular brand of product but on this occasion, I heartily recommend Vocalzone (www.vocalzone.com).

These little beauties have saved my bacon on any number of occasions and on those days when you wake up feeling, shall we say, a little ‘worse for wear’ (yesterday, for example!) they can be a real life saver.

Question: How loud can one sing Auld Lang Syne as a comedy Elvis without breaking something?

Answer: I’ll let you know when I’ve finished paying for the hangover (and the breakages).