Listen Up! Music Benefits Exercise

5/31/10 Posted in Exercise  |  0 Comments

With the warm weather comes the urge to run outside or participate in 5Ks, even marathons. You can spice up your routine in the gym or elsewhere, just be sure to make a playlist.

Music affects emotional and physiological arousal and can be used as a stimulant or sedative during exercise. Most athletes use loud, upbeat music to get themselves psyched for a competition. Songs with a high tempo (fast pace) will result in high arousal levels.

Syncing beats per minute with your exercise pace increases efficiency. In a recent study, participants who cycled in beat to the music required 7 percent less oxygen to do the same work with music just playing in the background. The idea at work here is that music provides temporal cues that can potentially make energy use more efficient. Music can also prevent you from giving up during a workout. Finishing the current song or committing to work through two more songs, etc. can help motivate you.

How do you choose the right music to accompany your workouts?

Consider the context. Where are you exercising? Are you alone or in a group? Should you use a personal MP3 player or is there a stereo system available for a group workout?

Choose songs that match the rhythm to the type of exercise. Some activities are well-accompanied by music, especially repetitive tasks like warm-ups, weight traning, circuit training, stretching, etc. Here is a table listing examples of motivational music for a session with varying intensities for someone with a specific taste in music:

Here are a few more tips to help create your list:

1. Choose at least 30 songs you like. If you’re inspired by the song, the tempo isn’t quite as important.

2. Make sure that at least 1/3 of the songs have a faster tempo than the rest. If every third song is faster than the others, this will encourage interval-style training which is more beneficial than working out at a steady pace.

3. Change the list often. If you start getting sick of the songs or can anticipate the order, make some changes. The last thing you want is to be bored – you will be less likely to want to work out.

Mac users: Want to make a playlist with ease and that suits your tastes? Tangerine is a plug-in for iTunes that can analyze your songs and create playlists based on your specifications. You can arrange songs in different tempo categories for any type of session

PC users: There are various open-source versions of software that can scan your music library and help you create playlists – even manipulate songs to have a specific tempo! Visit www.bestworkoutmusic.com for more information.