Why Does Listening To Certain Kinds Of Music Make Your Workouts Feel Easier? Gym goers who listen to music which is calibrated to their effort levels perceive far lower exertion during their workout: Newly published research suggests it music can play a much bigger role than mere distraction. Under certain conditions, music apparently helps your body use oxygen more efficiently, allowing you to get through a rigorous workout without feeling so exhausted. This effect appears to be limited to circumstances where the music directly mirrors what you’re doing on the treadmill or training floor. But if these results are confirmed, entrepreneurs will no doubt be rushing products to the market that provide such feedback. Even more strikingly, the exercisers’ oxygen consumption was lower when they were receiving the musical feedback. “It thus rather appears that participants were able to apply a comparable amount of force using less oxygen,” the researchers write. So why does this musical feedback allow us to work more efficiently? We believe that the effects may be due to a greater proportion of emotional motor control due to musical ecstasy during the musical feedback condition, Fritz wrote in an e-mail message. He and his colleagues suspect another factor is “the calming effect of music, leading to reduced muscle tension and more efficient oxygenation.” In addition, they write, “the musical feedback may have provided the participants with ‘virtual goals.’” Perhaps the fact they could manipulate the soundtrack by pushing themselves just a bit harder “enabled them to regulate and monitor the extent and timing of their movements more effectively.”
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 22:42:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015