It is very similar to the kind of training an athlete would be expected to do - and a musician should be regarded as an athlete, but with an added responsibility for the artistic and intellectual dimension that music requires. A technical training of this kind is required by most pianists if they wish to be serious contenders in the highly antique piano competitive world of their profession. It is worth remembering though, that Geoffrey Tankards book Pianoforte Technique on an Hour a Day, published in 1960, was considered something of a breakthrough in its suggestion that pianists could condense their technical practice into so short a time.