You know when you’re at the gym and your favorite jam comes on so you’re able to run that extra mile or finish that extra set of deadlifts? Is it because the music is fueling your ego, or could it be that the music is in fact impacting your physiological responses? A study completed in 2017 shows that music does indeed improve exercise performance by having an effect on duration, endurance, fatigue, power output, and maximal strength.
So how does this work exactly? Music induces a motivational response and serves as a form of beneficial distraction as well. When we hear a song that we enjoy, our sympathetic nervous system responds to a greater extent, increasing maximal heart rate and allowing us to push our bodies a little further. It’s as if our willpower gets reenergized just by internalizing the fast tempo or deep bass of a song, and our muscles respond accordingly. We stop focusing on the fatigue we may be feeling and just allow ourselves to be lost in the moment; we are truly in the “zone.” In science terms, an ergogenic effect can be seen as we start to experience an enhancement in our physical performance, increasing our stamina and overall work output. We’re so caught up in the music that we don’t mind continuing on with the high intensity workout, so essentially we’re distracted from fatigue and end up increasing our endurance and duration.
Of course, music doesn’t elicit an immediate effect; you can’t just download the new Eminem album and expect to be able to run an entire marathon tomorrow morning. You can, however, incorporate music into your everyday training regimen and expect to see greater results when it comes to endurance training and minimizing fatigue. Music also affects every individual differently, so the key is to choose music that is desirable to the listening ear.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this is probably not news to anyone; we all seem to be pretty active people who have seen obvious improvements with our exercise routines due to the presence of music. But now that there is statistically significant data that illustrates the positive effects music has on the endurance and duration of exercise, perhaps more exercise physiology studies can be done to even further improve athletic performance.
Thakare, A. E., Mehrotra, R., & Singh, A. (2017). Effect of music tempo on exercise
performance and heart rate among young adults. International Journal of Physiology, Pathophysiology and Pharmacology, 9(2), 35–39.
I personally find it a lot easier to get into a workout when I am listening to music. So, I continued to do some research on this topic of music and exercising and found an interesting article. This study investigated how music can aid runners in a 5k run, but also how it can help the athletes to recover afterwards. The researchers found that music not only helps increase motivation to run, but it also helps accelerate the recovery process. It is suggested that the music stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which decreases heart rate and respiration. This reduces the amount of time needed to recover. So, music does not only help while actually exercising, but also in the recovery phase.
ReplyDeleteReference:
Bigliassi, M., Leon-Dominguez, U., Buzzachera, C. F., Barreto-Silva, V., & Altimari, L. R. (2015). How does music aid 5 km of running? Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 29(2), 305-314. doi:10.1519/jsc.0000000000000627
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ReplyDeleteMusic is quite an influential tool outside of exercising as well!
ReplyDeleteRemember in your teenage years when you would venture into the dark cave of Hollister or Abercrombie and Fitch and get smacked in the face by the smell of "man" and extremely loud music? Well, it turns out, there's actually a purpose to this. Studies have found that higher tempo music causes people to purchase more items while classical music causes people to buy more expensive products (Michon, et al. 2003). The combination of music and olfactory stimulation are influential in your emotions and behaviors in most public settings.
A great future direction for this would be to study how certain music and scents can also affect healing processes.
Reference:
Michon, R., Chebat, J., & Turley, L. (2005). Mall atmospherics: The interaction effects of the mall environment on shopping behavior. Journal of Business Research, 58(5), 576-583. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2003.07.004
Cool stuff! I wonder how just mood or motivation for exercising can affect performance. When I was considering the music I listen to while exercising, I thought about how I usually pick a different category based on how I am feeling. We know from Human Physiology that just thinking about eating can increase insulin levels or feeling stressed can increase cortisol. I'm curious as to the physiological affects from the visualizing techniques that some athletes use. Found this read on imagery affects on performance in soccer players. Turns out age and position of the players played a role in what type of imagery worked. Its crazy how much our environment can affect physiology!
ReplyDeleteMaamer Slimani, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, David Tod, Alexandre Dellal, Olivier Hue, Foued Cheour, Lee Taylor & Karim Chamari (2016) Do cognitive training strategies improve motor and positive psychological skills development in soccer players? Insights from a systematic review, Journal of Sports Sciences, 34:24, 2338-2349, DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2016.1254809
BriannaN618
Haha! Me too, I always have an earphone on when I go to workout, whether I'm listening to music, radio, book, having something to keep attention to rather than the fact that I'm running keeps me running for longer amount of time. Keeping your attention to what you enjoy other than the fact that you are getting tired and out of breath helps me perform better than just exercising in silence. However, I believe the type of the music that's played matters as well. There is a specific category of workout music, as musics with faster beats equate to a better workout performance since it gets people energized and last longer in duration of the exercise. So I don't think music like slow sensual classic is going to help out as much as a fast paced alternative while running a marathon.
ReplyDeletereference:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24968586
Belford, Z., Neher, C., Pernsteiner, T., Stoffregen, J., Tariq, Z.: Music and physical performance: the effects of different music genres on physical performance as measured by the heart rate, electrodermal arousal, and maximum grip strength. In: JASS. 3 (2013)