We’re back for the final four fitness training principles, and how they can be understood through the lens of musical training!
If you need a refresher regarding the first three training principles – overload, specificity and progression – be sure to check out last month’s blog post here.
Musicians are athletes, each training to play their “sport” at the highest possible level. For this reason, fitness training and musical training utilize many of the same strategies. With an understanding of all seven principles, you should have a clear picture of how our bodies absorb information, and what we must consider when planning for long term success and improvement.
Individuality:
This one is pretty straightforward – every body is different and will therefore respond differently to training. Genetic differences, mental state, age and a whole host of other factors play a role in determining what our bodies can do. What works well for one musician may not be as helpful to another. For this reason, whatever practice we undertake must be customized to our body’s specific needs and abilities.
In my 40’s, for example, I have found that I need more warm up time before I’m ready to work on music. I plan for two, 15-minute warm ups with a break in between before I dive into my repertoire. A younger singer may not need quite as much time, depending on their singing habits.
My voice loves moving quickly. Coloratura has always felt intuitive to me and was a useful tool as I explored my upper register. Another singer may find that coloratura is difficult for them, and need to utilize a different strategy as they seek to extend their range. There are limitless options and no singular “right way” to achieve the desired result.
The bottom line here is: listen to your body, notice patterns in your learning style, and adapt your practice accordingly. Your path to growth may look very different than another musician’s path!
Adaptation:
Our bodies adapt to activities over time. That 10-minute run that used to leave you feeling exhausted becomes less taxing the more you do it. The same is true of musical skills: successful, consistent practice over time leads to increased efficiency, rendering repeated tasks less difficult.
In athletic training, there are two stages of adaptation:
- Shock – This is the initial phase where performance may decline as the body tries to adapt to the new stressor/exercise.
- Resistance – As the body adapts to the stress/exercise it moves more efficiently and performance improves.
As musicians, the shock phase looks like:
- Struggling to make your body move in the desired manner.
- Not fully understanding how to achieve the right result.
- Feeling like you “just can’t get it right.”
- Experiencing fatigue as you work through understanding the new skill.
Effective practice allows us to notice which steps and thought processes render the desired result. That leads us to the resistance stage, where our body is more capable of achieving our aim deliberately and reliably, allowing us to more efficiently integrate this new skill into our performance.
Recovery:
The recovery principle goes hand in hand with adaptation. The body needs adequate time to rest and repair in order to adapt and improve performance.
If a runner training for a marathon attempts to run 10 – 15 miles every single day for two weeks, chances are that runner is going to begin experiencing physical pain, reduced efficiency and potentially injury.
While it can be tempting to think that endless hours in a practice room will fix every problem, we all have physical limits that must be observed. Just like athletes, demanding musical training creates inflammation in the body. That inflammation needs time to resolve every day. If we play or sing on chronic inflammation we may experience pain, reduced stamina and even repetitive stress injuries. For singers that might look like nodules or muscle tension dysphonia. For pianists, tendonitis or carpal tunnel syndrome.
Rest is not a luxury. It is a necessary part of effective training.
Reversibility:
Put another way, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” In essence, the positive adaptation gains we’ve made can be lost if we stop training. And that loss can happen quite quickly, the research suggests.
So, consistency is key. We must practice regularly if we hope to maintain or build on the skills we have worked so hard to master. Which is why your teacher is always bugging you about it!
I look forward to hearing if/how these principles have affected the way you approach your practice!
