Move with music
Feeling a little flat during training? This article might just rock your world.
Music has incredible power. It captures your attention, triggers joy, dance, and an abundance of emotions, and allows you to travel back to the good old 80s. The right music can even help you run faster, cycle further, or lift heavier.
Ergogenic is the term used to describe a method or substance that enhances one’s capacity for physical performance. There is a substantial research base showing how listening to music during exercise improves multiple components of athletic performance — music to the ears of both amateur and pro athletes.
One study showed that listening to music improved endurance performances of untrained individuals and also allowed these individuals to reach higher heart rate values. Another study reported how music reduced ratings of perceived exertion, suggesting that music can help you perform better by making exercise sessions feel easier. Intrinsically, music facilitates the process of “getting in the zone” and picturing performance-relevant imagery.
If you dislike running on the treadmill, take note: listening to music while completing your treadmill set will have you running further and faster and you’ll feel less fatigued too. Major cool, isn’t it?
You may wonder, “how does music do this?”. Listening to music while you exercise helps you to dissociate from your elevated breathing rate and burning muscles, delaying the onset of feeling fatigued. Additionally, music is an effective cadence regulator and a great way to keep track of how many steps you complete per minute. Simply put: running to a fast song will help you increase your cadence, and a higher cadence is better for performance and injury risk.
Blasting your favourite tunes while you train also increases your capacity to continue exercising for longer, which not only improves your endurance performance but prolongs your engagement in the stress-fighting activity of exercise. Better yet, music allows you to train more intensely and reap the additional physical health benefits, too.
While there are no strict criteria to take advantage of music’s ergogenic effects, upbeat music is more stimulating and preferential than slow music (which may have a sedative effect and is more appropriate for low-intensity exercises, like yoga and pilates). Ultimately, listening to the music you enjoy matters most. As a bonus, you’ll notice benefits for your psychological wellbeing too.
Don’t play it by ear or treble yourself with supplements and crazy training regimes. Instead, listen to the 80s wisdom of Bronski Beat and “Hit that perfect beat boy!”
Move more. Move better. Move to the music.
Gabriella Florence | Sports Scientist
