Can Listening to Music Improve Your Workout?

By Kartikeya Rokde Jul 26, 2020

Ready to step on the gear through your workouts? Besides stylish activewear and training shoes, there’s another important thing that you need in your arsenal - a peppy playlist! Here are enough reasons for you to curate those energetic numbers (read workout music), while you work your muscles. 

8 Ways Exercise Music Can Improve your Workouts

1. Makes you Move

The right kind of music can get you into the groove. For those who have been sitting on the fence wanting to begin their workout but haven’t been able to quite get there, music can lead you a dose of high-energy to get you into the zone!

2. Lowers Perception of Effort

We all want to push ourselves to peak but often the exhaustion holds us back. Well, there is good news. Research says music could lower the perception of effort by as much as 15%. Not just that, exercisers who have control over the music (compared to those who have to listen to a pre-selected playlist) have reported feeling that the workout wasn’t too hard. Call it a distraction or pain-masking, the end deal is that you get is more exercise time!

So, go ahead and put on those headphones and make your exercise regimen far more enjoyable. And, since we are on the topic of headphones, wireless ones work much better for intense workouts. We also only make wireless audio devices, convenient!

3. Enhances Athletic Performance

Studies have shown that the tempo of the music (measured in beats per minute) impacts one’s exercise performance. For example, the best performance for cycling is seen to be achieved when the tempo is between 125 to 140 beats per minute. Similarly, for the treadmill, the tempo was ascertained to be between 123 and 131 beats per minute as per a study conducted in 2014.

Essentially, all you need to do is to follow the rhythm of your workout music playlist and zip through to a fitter you! Make sure you load your playlist with some high-tempo tracks to get the most out of your cardio.

4. Exercise Tolerance

Lively music is also known to have a direct correlation with exercise tolerance. Think of it as making it to the finish line in a race or being able to last on that treadmill for a few extra minutes. A research team at Texas Tech University measured the impact of lively music on exercise tolerance during cardiac stress testing and found that people listening to music outlasted those who weren’t listening to music by an average of 50.6 seconds.

Upbeat workout music can therefore not only make you want to exercise longer but actually get you to do it too!

Exercise Music for Effective Workouts
Exercise Music can set the base for an exhilarating workout session

5. Fitness Goals

We all want to make every second on the treadmill count. Yet many of us are looking at the watch each second and wanting time to just zip by. The mounting exhaustion, especially if you are a beginner,  does not particularly help the case. With your favourite track, odds are that you will land up losing track of time until that timer reminds you that you are much closer to your fitness goals!

6. Improves Rhythm and Coordination

Using music during workout improves motor skills like coordination and balance. This happens because music provides a pattern of beats which assist the mind and body to work with better coordination. Further lyrics can also play an important role in improving the overall rhythm.,

7. Happiness Boost

Researchers at McGill University in Canada came up with a study that shows how listening to music releases “dopamine” the feel-good neurochemical in our brain. While exercise has always been known to reduce anxiety and depression, music and exercise is really then a power combo to get you going through those times when you are feeling particularly low!

8. Exercise your Brain

Now, who would have ever thought that in the hour that you are giving your body that workout, you could also exercise your brain.  Professor Daniel J. Levitin in his book, This is your brain on Music, tells you how music involves every region of your brain. So while parts of the brain are decoding the pitch of the music, another part is stirred by the lyrics of the song. Yet another reason to love your music-filled exercise regimen!

Exercise Music: The Weapon of Choice

Now that we’ve covered why, let’s get into the how! We’ve said it before, we make some snazzy wireless audio devices. Adding to that, having a pair of noise-cancelling headphones on also means you also do not run the risk of a chatty fellow exerciser wanting to indulge in social chit-chat. Now, if you are an introvert, that’s an advantage beyond compare!

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