Preparing for a workout includes equipment, a bottle of water, a membership card, headphones, and – a favorite playlist… Do you belong to a group of fitness enthusiasts who can’t imagine their training without music?
Here’s how it affects the effectiveness of the workout and what’s the best music for training and motivation…
For many, workout in the gym is unthinkable without energetic music that gives them motivation and that makes them exercise harder and more. Still, have you ever wondered if music really helps you have better and more complete training, and does it really drive you to exercise more?
What Does Science Say?
Many studies have addressed this very issue. The scientists wanted to determine if music leads to better results in the gym. It was selected by a group of men to work out in the presence or absence of music for a long time. At the beginning of the experiment without music, while after a certain time they could listen to the music of their choice. The results were astonishing when compared.
Roughly, all men were better by up to 30 % at training where they listened to music. They said that music enabled them to be more energetic, to find hidden inner strength but most importantly, they had greater motivation and desire to exercise.
Those who trained also added that their workouts were more pleasant and interesting because of the music, while the training without music was boring and monotonous, so much that they didn’t even want to go to such workouts.
The Most Important Characteristics of Music That Affect Workout
This shows only one thing, and that is – music is very important when it comes to training and you’re free to listen to it if that’s your wish. If you go to the gym where you’re bothered by the music played on the speakers, then use headphones and mp3 players, and you can listen to whatever you want. Thus – have a dream workout.
The two most important features of music for training in the gym that stand out are tempo and rhythm. Both encourage a reaction in the form of synchronization of movements in accordance with the music. The synchronization of movements in the rhythm of music leads to a stable tempo and proper breathing, which results in less energy consumption.
If we use an interactive chart showcasing the 20 songs that have spent the most time at top of charts in 22 countries in the last decade as an indicator, we can see that listeners in some countries prefer songs with great tempo and fast pace – meaning that gym workout is quite a pleasure for them. For example – Mexicans. They enjoyed the most intense music with an average tempo of 128 BPM (beats per minute). Mexican chart for the last 10 years has also a song with the joint-fastest BPM across the entire chart, Camila’s “Bésame”, which settled at the No.10 in the overall chart.
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Other, additional aspects that encourage motivation for training are musicality, the meaning of the song for you and your environment, and an intimate connection with the song.
The musicality of the song will affect the mood and enjoyment, while the intimate connection and meaning of the song will arouse emotions. Identification with words is one of the easiest ways to find motivation in a music track.
Tip: Avoid melodies and lyrics with which you are sentimentally connected, in order to further avoid the feeling of sadness. Choose songs that bring back beautiful memories or wake up positive feelings and motivate you to progress and work out better.
