Music and Exercise Motivation
“We all hear the music we like as something special, as something that defies the mundane, takes us “out of ourselves,” puts us somewhere else.” (Frith, 1996, p. 275)
Music is a staple of our everyday lives. We use it to set the mood for a party, to help us focus on a task, take our minds off of everyday stresses and much more. Just how we use music to pass the time and distract us from day to day stresses, it can be used in exercise.
It is commonly accepted that music improves performance during low to moderate intensity exercise. The study below is one example that shows it improves high intensity performance as well. It is believed that music changes our perception of fatigue allowing us to work harder longer, focuses our attention limiting distraction, and helps us enjoy exercise more among other benefits. Listening to music while exercising can help form good habits and motivate individuals along their way to achieving their fitness goals.
Benefits of Music during exercise:
1. Reduces Feeling of Fatigue
2. Helps Focus Attention on Exercise. Gets You In The ZONE!!
3. Improves Performance
4. Increases Enjoyment of Exercise
5. Improved Efficiency
6. Increase or Slow Heart Rate. Depending on Tempo of Music.
The Research:
In 2018, Meaghan E. Maddigan and colleagues performed a study to test if listening to high tempo music during high intensity exercise would increase exercise duration and improve feelings of fatigue.
For the study they had 16 volunteers, who were active people, participate in 3 exercise sessions at least 2 days apart. During the experiment participants sat on a stationary bike and did sets of 4 minutes at high intensity followed by 2 minutes of active recovery. At each minute, of the 4-minute cycles, the participants rated their perceived exhaustion. Each session lasted about 2 hours and everyone listened to the same playlist of music, which was set to a tempo of 130 beats per minute.
Results:
At the end of the study the researchers discovered that while listening to the music at higher tempo the participants average exercise duration was 10% longer than if they didn’t listen to music. This shows that when listening to music the participants worked out on average for a minute more than those not listening while performing high intensity exercise. The participants also showed similar levels of exhaustion even though they exercised for a minute longer.
References:
Atkinson G, Wilson D, Eubank M. 2004. Effect of music on work-rate distribution during a
cycle time trial. International Journal of Sports Medicine 62:413–419.
Bigliassi M, Karageorghis CI, Hoy GK, Layne GS. The way you make me feel: psychological
and cerebral responses to music during real-life physical activity. Psychology of Sport and
Exercise (in press)
Frith S. (1996). Performing Rites. On the Value of Popular Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Maddigan, M. E., Sullivan, K. M., Halperin, I., Basset, F. A., & Behm, D. G. (2019). High tempo music prolongs high intensity exercise. PeerJ, 6, e6164. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6164