Music is one of those health topics where personal experience meets science and clinical trials. Several studies have been done on the effect of music on exercise. In fact, I could go on and on listing them. Most studies do show a positive effect to music during a workout, but then there are some studies that show no effect to music during a workout. In my opinion it is hard to run any sort of trial involving music because everyone's taste in music varies, as well as many other factors that also vary.
The scientists running the trial are not going to differentiate the song or type of music from person to person because they want the stimulus from person to person to be the same, in other words they want to eliminate possible variables. Really, the exact science (like chemical reactions within the brain, etc.) behind how music affects the human brain is not fully understood.
If you disregard clinical trials and just focus on the personal experience of yourself and other people, it is mostly agreed that music does indeed have a positive effect on exercise performance.
Many theories exist as to why this happens, and some of them are:
-Music disguises your breathing or the monotonous sound of your feet hitting the ground if you're running
-Music distracts you from the discomfort you may be experiencing because of exercise
-Theoretically music releases some sort of "happy chemicals" in the brain, such as endorphins (natural pain killers). These could counteract the discomfort you may be feeling because of exercise
-Listening to music makes a person want to move or jog to the beat of the music, similar to how music wants to make you tap your foot or dance
-Increased productivity of a workout. If you are able to workout harder and/or longer because of the music then you are going to burn more calories by doing so
-Associates working out with a positive experience. If your workouts are boring and you associate exercising with a negative experience, then it's going to be much harder to force yourself to exercise. When you add music to the picture, suddenly working out becomes much more bearable...if not fun. This will translate to you sticking to your fitness or weight loss plan.
-Fast beats work well. Don't listen to anything that has a slow beat or is relaxing, otherwise your workout will probably be less productive. I'd say this tip is pretty obvious.
-Change the music you listen to during your workout. You know how when you listen to a song over and over again it begins to get old and lose its original magic? This is pretty much inevitable, unless it's just a really awesome song. From personal experience when you listen to music that has become old during a workout, then your productivity usually decreases...therefore you should strive to change up the songs you listen to while working out.
If your gym plays music that you really hate or you like to listen to the music of your increased breathing rate and monotonous footsteps..then it's probably time for you to buy a walkman or MP3 player. This way you can listen pretty much whenever or whatever you want to.
Tape players and CD players will work, but usually they are pretty bulky. Also, a CD player will bounce up and down and that's probably not very good for it or the CD inside. This is why MP3 players are so useful. They are small, compact, and can hold tons of songs. The only downside to these devices are that the cords going to your ears can get in the way.
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