Does Music Help Exercise Endurance
By Mark on Oct 13, 2008 in Featured
I don’t know about you or anybody else for that matter but when I am, doing research or exercising I find that listening to music helps me to keep focused, and also I find that what I am doing is more enjoyable. Certainly from a exercise point of view I have found it very beneficial, I think this is probably one of the reasons why gyms tend to have music television piped through.
Because they know it helps people to enjoy their work out all that much more, when people are exposed to up the tempo music in restaurants they tend to eat more food, whereas when slower music is being played then they tend to eat less.
If you apply this theory to exercise accompanied with music it is probably plain to see why, your far more likely to enjoy it and want to work harder than if you wasn’t listening to the music.
Some research that was done at Brunel University of sport is now backing up this claim also, they are saying that it can increased your physical endurance, and will make your experience of doing cardiovascular exercise, that more enjoyable and you will gain a more positive experience from it.
The study which has been done over a 20-year period which goes into the psychological effects, music has on people and their motivation. Thirty participants were chosen to listen to some music while exercising on a treadmill.
They listened to a variety of different genres of music namely, Madonna, Red Hot chili Peppers and Queen they were asked to keep, in time with the music is.
The findings from the study showed that their endurance went up by 15 percent whilst listening to the music, they found that music can push people beyond their endurance levels even when they are close to physical exhaustion.
This research is going to be put into practice at a run in London which took place on the fifth of October 2008 the Sony Erickson run will be the first event that will have carefully chosen music, played throughout the whole event along speakers along the track I should imagine.
And and feedback will be obtained from people to see how it affects them, and if it does in actual fact give them more endurance when they are doing their work out, I have to say myself, it does seem to work for me when I’m listening to positive upbeat music, pushing myself and exerting myself.
Seems all part of the process listening to the music I find takes my mind off what I am doing, and the time seems to go quicker as well, do you have any experiences of listening to music and if so would you say it helps you while you are doing your exercise.
If it does I would be very interested to know how it affects you and does it make you want to work harder, while you are working out.
Source http://www.brunel.ac.uk
Tags: Exercise, music
