The title of this blog may seem somewhat common-sensical, but new research has shown that what you listen to when you’re working out can influence how long you can exercise. For best results, researchers recommend listening to upbeat music.
Music and Exercise
For their study, researchers recruited 127 individuals and asked them to run on a treadmill. One group of runners were given headphones that played upbeat Latin music while they ran, while the other group wore headphones but no music was played. All individuals were asked to run for as long as they felt comfortable on the treadmill.
After factoring out all relevant factors, researchers found that the individuals who were listening to the upbeat music ran for an average of 55 seconds longer than those in the silent headphone group. Researchers also found that individuals listening to the upbeat music ran at a faster pace and reached a higher metabolitic equivalent compared to the other group.
“This study really should be a positive for having [music] in daily practice, said Waseem Shami, MD, a cardiology fellow at Texas Tech University who will be presenting the findings at the upcoming American College of Cardiology annual meeting. “Who wants to be running on a treadmill in a gown, half naked, with doctors watching you? Music helps you disconnect from that, feel you’re not in that setting.
Dr. John Higgins, a sports cardiologist at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas, who did not work on the study, agreed with Dr. Shami’s sentiments, saying that while the findings were “not surprising, [they reinforce] nicely what data we have — namely, that listening to tunes while working out typically improves performance on the order of 5% and up to 10%.”
“We should consider allowing people to listen to music to get the best out of their performance when doing treadmill or bicycle stress tests,” said Higgins. “Also, a good way to motivate people to exercise more is to encourage them to listen to their favorite tunes while exercising. But remember safety and make sure people are not listening so loud that they get distracted or fail to hear a bike or car coming up behind them too!”
This isn’t the first time we’ve blogged about how music can play a key role in your health. A couple years ago, we shared a blog about a study that found that music helped to reduce a child’s pain scores after surgery. Children who listened to their favorite type of music were less likely to point to a more painful score on a pain chart during their recovery after surgery.
So whether you’re going out for a run or recovering after an operation, throw in your headphones and listen to some of your favorite upbeat music, and you may find life a little easier!