It’s almost as if music and physical activity were made for each other. You always see athletes listening to their favorite songs to get pumped up, like baseball players and their at-bat music. For your average, every-day fitness aspirant like me, music is useful along those same lines, as well as to set a pace.
For me, the perfect song to run to is “Clocks” by Coldplay because it matches my running pace perfectly. For anyone listening to that perfect work-out song, your body seems to move to the beat without your even being conscious of it, and you don’t seem to notice any fatigue or pain because your brain is occupied by something more enjoyable. It quiets the little voice in your head telling you to stop, therefore prolonging your endurance. And if all else fails, it keeps exercising from getting unbearably boring.
According to a study by sports psychologist Costas Karageorghis, good songs for exercise are those whose rhythms match the cadence and heartbeat of the runner. Syncing the beats of a song with an exercise beat increases efficiency, requiring less oxygen to cover longer distances. Another study found that people increase or decrease their workout effort and pace to match the beat of whatever song they are listening to.
Charles Emery, a clinical psychologist at Ohio State University, has found that combining exercise and music is even better for your brain function, too. Apparently the combo enhances the performance of your frontal lobe, so not only can you take a study break to go workout, but if you listen to music, you’ll actually be temporarily smarter right after! Hm…maybe I will test that theory tonight when I study for my Psychology test.
There are so many great things about MP3 players, but I think they prove most beneficial when it comes to exercise. You can make personalized playlists just for your workout and monitor your activity with a variety of different apps, like Nike. I found (but haven’t tried) this program called Tangerine that actually goes through your iTunes library and makes appropriate workout playlists for you according to the BPM (beats per minute) and the beat intensities of the songs. Technology these days… Remember those big old bulky portable CD players?
I’m sure a lot of you already listen to music while you exercise, but now you know how beneficial it really is to jazz up (or rap-sodize, or country-fy, or pop-inate, or…okay, I’ll stop) your workout with the simple push of the play button!
*Photo credit: http://www.healthyrevelations.com/blog/index.php/category/exercise/