It can distract you from the strain of exercise.It can influence your heart rate to be faster or slower.It can reduce your perception of fatigue.
Music affects your workout performance in a number of ways, including:
A good tune can help boost your mood and help you focus, but it can also motivate you or give you a competitive edge, which is where it applies to exercise. There's no shortage of research on the psychological effects of music. Why does music improve workout performance? Read more: The best smart home gym workouts of 2021: Peloton, Mirror, Tempo and more
In this article, learn how and why music influences your fitness performance, how to create the perfect playlist for making gains and where to snag a done-for-you workout playlist. If you're wondering how you can optimize the benefits of music for exercise, you've come to the right place. Research proves that music, especially high-tempo, high-intensity music, can boost workout performance and even motivate you to exercise for longer.
So even though you're drenched in sweat and battling the muscle burn, you're still having a good time and you're motivated to keep pushing yourself.Īs it turns out, we listen to music while exercising for good reason - and it's about more than just getting pumped up for a good sweat sesh. What's the one thing that SoulCycle, Orangetheory, CrossFit and Zumba all have in common?Īnswer: These group fitness classes all bump intense - sometimes even aggressive - music through loudspeakers. It will be the first song you put on the running playlist, the song you play on repeat during the hard middle of a HIIT routine, the track you hit when you are in a foul mood after dinner that then makes you jump around on your couch.įor the times in your life when an Adele song doesn’t invade your being, and you’re on the search for your sweaty anthem, I interviewed ten trainers and instructors about their one song that gets them going and keeps them going.The perfect playlist can help you work out longer and harder. I am positive I misunderstand Pavlov and his dogs, but this song will be the bell that activates those twitch muscles and keeps them whirling. It will be the thing that keeps you going. This song will also change- sometimes it will be very hip and aligned with the cultural moment, sometimes it will be confusing and slow - but you must get this song! I’m insistent that everyone finds this one song. You can find this song, and this song can find you. It was an auditory theme, at once the sound of my tough-stuff stamina, a distraction from my tough-stuff stamina, and the necessary aid to my tough-stuff stamina. Rumor has it, dooo oooh.” This song was in my brain, in my bones, in my muscles. I remember panting the lyrics at a friend, wheezing desperately, “Who sings this!?” It was in every heave, every steady push: “Rumor has it, dooo oooh. Like a spiritual epiphany from an airport memoir, it emerged like an angel from nowhere in my time of greatest need. For three long days on my trip, I had an Adele song absolutely raging in my head the whole time, churning me through every pedal stroke. Several years ago, I biked across Montana.