Music & Aerobic Exercise

The invention of portable MP3 and disc players allowed exercisers to personalize music to listen to during exercise. Listening to music during aerobic exercise can positively affect both your mind and body, which can in turn contribute to a more successful workout session. By choosing motivational and/or upbeat tunes, you may even experience greater exercise endurance.

Psychological Effects

Music affects the mind in a number of ways when you are exercising. Psychological effects include the fact that music can be distracting, drawing your focus away from your pounding heart or aching muscles during aerobic exercise, University of New Mexico researcher Dr. Len Kravitz explains. However, this is only true when you are working at a level that is not too intense --- during high-intensity exercise, physiological feedback from your body may overwhelm any help you get from music. Music also has motivational effects on the mind. Listening to a song that empowers you or gets you pumped up can encourage you to work harder and faster.

Physiological Effects

Your body often responds to music before your mind. When your ear perceives the beat, this can stimulate your heart rate. As your heart rate speeds up, this increases your breathing rate. Your body can start working harder and faster to match the pace at which your body is now moving. The "New York Times" cites one study in which cyclists used 7 percent less oxygen when pedaling to the pace of the music than when not pedaling along to a musical pace. This is because the body naturally aligns itself to the beat of the music, allowing the heart and lungs to work less hard.

Brain Power

An Ohio State University study found that listening to music while engaging in cardiovascular exercise also helped to boost exercisers' cognitive abilities. Dr. Charles Emery and colleagues found that participants performed better on verbal fluency tests after exercising to music than before. Emery proposed that these results were due to the fact that exercise stimulates new pathways in the brain, which can increase how much of the brain you use.

Research

A study published in the "Journal of Sports and Exercise Psychology" reported on the effects of music on cardiovascular exercise. Dr. Costas Karageorgis and his team tracked 30 participants who listened to motivational pop/rock music from artists like Madonna, Queen or the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The study found that cardiovascular exercisers were able to exercise longer and felt more positive about their exercise session. "Music is like a legal drug for athletes," Karageorgis said in a Reuters interview noted in "Popular Science" magazine. "It can reduce the perception of effort significantly and increase endurance by as much as 15 percent."