Music and Exercise
Exercising is good for both our physical and mental health. When one works out endorphins are released causing the person to feel happy. So, it’s no wonder people find a good workout rewarding. A similar effect can be observed when a person listens to music, so it’s only natural that the two would be paired together.
You’ll often see it in the gym or when someone’s going for a brisk morning jog. “See what?”, you may ask. People listening to music. Music was used as a tool to help people push past their perceived physical limitations for a long time. Research dating as far back as 1911 supports this. The aforementioned research, by Leonard Ayres, discovered that cyclists peddled slower in silence than those who listened to music during the cycling.
One explanation as to why music can benefit us when exercising is that music makes it so we don’t realize we’re tired as quickly as a silent environment would. When our bodies become tired and fatigued we no longer what to exercise, however music adds an extra cognitive load to our brain; essentially dividing its attention and effectively distracting us. Nevertheless, if the exercise is too intense the benefits of music start to diminish.
The benefits of music on exercise seems to cap off at a certain point, however, this cap changes depending on the genre and tempo of the music. It is important to note that everybody’s is different so the impacts will be stronger or weaker depending on the person. Generally, faster-paced songs will help distract us more and keep us motivated longer than a song with a slower tempo. Music containing drums and base seem to be the most effective in distracting us from the fatigue of the workout, with tempos typically associated with genres like disco and pop, not being as effective.