If your gym suddenly didn’t play music or if you forgot to bring your headphones, would you skip the workout? Or would you just exercise in silence? For some, music is an integral part of their exercise routine but what is the relationship between these two things that make us feel good?
Despite these questions, it has been found that music does have a positive effect on people who exercise, whether it’s played before or during a workout. It is, however, difficult to pinpoint what features of music helps this positive effect. It could be the tempo, rhythm or melody or perhaps how an individual feels a personal connection to the music. This is because every individual has their own preference when it comes to genre, tempo or even lyrics.
Moving to the music
It has been found that when music is played prior to athletic activity, individuals were more stimulated and showed improvement in performing simple tasks. Listening to music during physical activity was found to enhance physical performance and had psychological effects such as delayed fatigue and less feeling of being tired.
Music was also found to increase physical abilities within certain limits, improve the use of energy efficiently, and influence a person’s mood. Studies found that playing music during low to moderate level intensity exercises improved endurance as well!
As much as we’d like to say that the answer to improving your fitness routine would simply be to play some music, there are limits. For high intensity exercise, it was found that music didn’t have the same effects of reducing a person’s perception of fatigue. This could be because when someone is performing exercises at high intensity, feedback from the body is overwhelming the nervous system. Thus, distraction from feeling tired due to music can’t be achieved.
Pump it up!
Take advantage of music’s positive effects and incorporate it into your workout routine! Did you know that there’s something called ‘rhythmic entrainment’? This is when our bodies move to the beat such as when you’re walking, your strides match the tempo of whatever song you’re listening to. Thus, it’s important to find a tempo to match your exercise routine.
For those who are doing yoga or Pilates, it’s best to choose songs with a slower tempo, something to match with the rate of breathing. We highly suggest songs with a slow melody and perhaps instrumentals without distracting lyrics so as you can focus on your movements and breathing which are important aspects of these exercises.
Strength training uses resistance resulting in muscular contraction which in turn builds strength. For small movements such as bicep curls, a faster tempo would be ideal. However, for larger movements such as lunges, it’s best to pick music with a slower tempo.
Vary your music according to your strength training session by curating a playlist to play at the gym.
Cardio is an important part of having a varied fitness regime and it can be done via running, cycling or even walking. The right music will need to have a tempo that matches your pace which is however fast you run, cycle or walk. Typically, tempo is measured by beats per minute so choose your music according to how fast or how slow you’d like to keep your pace at.
Reference: Psychology Today
