The Training Club — 30 Days Free, September 2026

What's inside

The three pillars

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 tells you to do three sets of ten and add weight every week. The Dynamic Intensity System teaches you to train using a specific, heavily tested approach, so you progress properly 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 ended up becoming 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 he's curated 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."

"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. I'd say 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 C, Training Club Member

Before you join

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

This is for you if…

You're a working or gigging musician. Any instrument, any genre. Orchestras, pits, tours, sessions, teaching.
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're carrying a niggle that hasn't stopped you yet, but is on your mind.
You've never set foot in a gym. Plenty of members hadn't trained at all before joining, and the instruction is built for that.
You've trained for years and keep hitting the same wall: progress, injury, start again.
You travel and you're tired of being at the mercy of whatever hotel gym turns up.

This isn't for you if…

You're already following a plan you're happy with. Don't run this alongside it. 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 a body transformation programme. 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.
You can't give it a month. It's free, so there's no financial reason not to sign up — but an account you never open helps neither of us. Come back when the timing's better.

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.

I can't drink tea or coffee
I'm outnumbered by girls
My favourite colour is orange
I much prefer a leisurely lunch to a night out
I love writing, and wrote my first book in five weeks
I'm more qualified as a trainer than as a musician (I dropped out of music college)

Before you sign up.

Is it actually free? What's the catch?

No catch, and it's genuinely free for 30 days. No card, no auto-billing, nothing to cancel. I ran a beta round earlier this year, took the feedback, and made a lot of changes and upgrades off the back of it. This round is how I test them, with a group who can be honest with me because they've got nothing riding on it. You get a month of proper training, I get to find out what works. Win win. At the end, if you want to carry on, it's £59 a month.

What happens after the 30 days?

You decide. If you want to continue, you carry straight on into the next training block starting in October, which focuses on posture and positional strength. If not, nothing happens. Your account is archived a few days later and that's that.

Do I have to start on 7 September?

Yes. The block is designed to run from week one, and everyone goes through it together. Joining later means starting halfway through something built to be done in order, so it's much better to start with everyone else.

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). The full list, with links and cheaper alternatives, is at performanceconditioning.co/gear.

How much time does it take?

Two to three sessions a week, 45–60 minutes each. Three is optimal. Two works. One is better than none.

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

Message me first so we can have a chat. Every situation is different, and some things need hands-on care before they need training. I'd rather tell you that than take you on. If you do join and something flares up, niggleIQ takes under a minute and comes straight to me.

Will this make me sore or tired for shows?

The programming uses every trick available to keep you from being sore. Soreness isn't a marker of adaptation, it's a marker of novelty, so you might feel some in your first week and then it settles.

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, but the intensity, the exercise variations and the scheduling all adapt to you. If you want fully individualised programming, message me and we'll talk about what that looks like.

Do you do nutrition plans?

No, and that's deliberate. I'll give you high-level principles, and you can log your food and work out your macros inside the app if that's useful. But I don't prescribe nutrition. It's a specialist field and it should be handled by a qualified nutritionist, not by a trainer. That's a bit of a bug bear of mine about this industry. I'm currently working on bringing a nutritionist into the mix so members have proper access to that side of things.

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.

You know a consistent training habit would help.

Here's the deal.