Does Music Affect Athletic Performance?

Whether it's a quick jog, or a steady run on a treadmill, listening to your favorite songs gets you through the workout. It seems impossible for you to exercise with nothing but your thoughts to keep you company. It has been proven that music can have positive effects on our mood, and mind. However, why does music improve our workouts? Also, what is the best type to listen to too get the best results? These are both crucial questions athletes ask in order to reach their workout goals.

  According to David-Lee Priest, music motivates you when you exercise. Depending on the type of music, it can push you to work out for a longer period of time, and at a harder rate. This results in a better workout. Plus, you burn more calories and fat. In addition, scientists now know that listening to music causes our brains to release the chemical dopamine, which is associated with pleasure. This is the same chemical that is released for food, sex, and drugs. With this in mind, music is one of the only tasks that require the attention of our entire brain. Scientists think that the combinations of these reactions in our brains are the reason why music improves our workouts. These pieces of information are beneficial towards a better exercise, but can be less helpful if you don’t know what type of music helps the best.

  Certain music can actually be better than some for working out. To figure out what type of music to listen to, you have to figure out a song’s BPM (Beats per Minute). Typically, the perfect range of BPM is 120-140, according to Costas Karageorghis, PhD, a sports psychology expert at Brunel University in London. This improves your endurance athletic performance, but the ideal BPM for a warm-up is 80-90 BPM. He also noted that songs with a BPM of higher than 140 have little to no effect on your workout. He concluded however, that listening to any type of music, regardless of BPM, is better than not listening to music altogether.

  While there are countless positive effects of listening to music while exercising, there are still a few disadvantages. For example, listening to music too loudly can cause damage to your ears, eventually leading to hearing loss. Plus, people who work out a few times a week, while athletes who are greatly in shape show little improvement from music. In the end, listening to music can help push you to run that extra mile, or do an extra rep. Even though not much is known about why we value music as much as we do, it is a crucial part of staying in shape, and is a great motivational tool.