'Push Yourself Harder' - How Hard?

1:14 AM extra-thooughts 0 Comments

There are always time when we want more & more, we can't ask enough. In PIU, we want to improve more, we want to be able to play like any top player in this world, we want to play really difficult songs that we currently can't play at all. So we push our self harder. We all do. Sometimes you might wonder, or you don't think about it all, but it's worth to consider this if you haven't: how hard should you push yourself?

"Everything that is too much or too little, is not good for you". That's the theory of balance. We want improvement, we want to be able to play really extreme songs that make us felt like we are superior like the others. Unfortunately, pushing yourself as hard as you could is definitely not the answer. You might be still trying or you sure that it's the right and only way because that's how you work it out so far. Even if you think that pushing yourself as hard as you can is the only way, I still insist on the theory of balance: Everything that is too much or too little, is not good for you.

If you used to push yourself so hard that you feel worn out after PIU session and experience something related to muscle soreness, minor injury/bleeding, feeling difficult to breath, feeling nausea or dizziness, cramp, feeling pain or sore in the muscle when you walk, and other negative impact that affect your daily life, that's what I'm talking about. Sure, you can get those even if you play easier song or play for fun, but the harder you push yourself, you get yourself expose to the chances of negative result.

Some people consider that they feeling totally worn out or really tired consider as improvement. Well, that's mostly correct. But you have to make sure that always pushing yourself at your limit is not the ideal improving method. Rest is a crucial key for improvement because it helps you to recover and replenish yourself with more energy for your workout next time.

I seen many people keep on challenging really difficult songs that they can't get A, or can't even get C. As far as I seen, that's what they do all the time. They only choose songs that they can't play at all. It's a belief that slowly building up their skill from highly difficult songs and as they receive more tough training by playing all these songs, they will eventually improve and manage to play those songs properly in the future. I won't say that this wouldn't work at all. Just that I haven't see anyone work that out. Rather, I always seen people got totally exhausted after the difficult songs and that's it, they can't play anymore.

So back to the question, how hard you suppose to push yourself? You need to push yourself not too little in the sense that you did sweats out, but couldn't feel any improvement at all in the long run; and you can't get yourself totally worn out every time and no matter how many years passed by, you still in remain the same level and difficulty. This is really hard to measure but the basic idea is: "Train hard to the extend where you felt it's hard, and stop before you really FEEL hell". When you felt like your throat can't breath in any more oxygen, stop playing at once. If you risk it and in case you damage your throat or respiratory system, it can cause serious issue for life. In the end of the PIU session, you feel tired but not really that exhausted, you might feel a bit of sore or a little pain but you are not injured badly, that's how you call training.

The more you practice in this way, the more you are going to improve. If you feel like it's okay to go a little more, make sure it's only a little more. Do bear in mind that having a strong urge to improve as soon as possible doesn't mean it's okay to force yourself to your limit all the time. Our body are only flesh and it has its own system that we need to follow.

Some people might take longer to achieve certain level, while some people take shorter time to achieve that level. Unfortunately, playing or training as much as you could, or as hard as you can is not the right way. Play or train in the right way is the key. That's talk about how you set up your training plan and how well you follow it, how often you train and rest, and other method to ensure that you are improving slowly but steadily.