Monday, April 14, 2014

Music in the Gym



Music plays a huge role in workout routines here at the SFA Rec Center. You can’t go 2 feet without seeing someone with their headphone on, jamming with their music. Why is this the case? What makes music so valuable to a person’s routine that they have to carry little music devices around their arms or waists?

After talking to roughly 50 people at the Rec Center, I have found three common themes involving people listening to music during workouts.

1.)  Use different genres of music for different workouts.
2.)  Music helps tune out the rest of the world.
3.)  Listening to music helps the workout.

One person I talked to explained her choice of music to me. She used classical music for yoga and stretching exercises, Rap or Rock for weight lifting, and Pop music for cardio. If you look at her choices, they all have something to say about how music affects workouts.

It turns out that your brain waves resonate with the beat of music, which can cause your breathing and heart rate to try to match the beat of that music. This is why we tend to listen to more upbeat music when working out or doing cardio.

An abstract from a book by Mark H. Anshel indicated that, “music, particularly if synchronized to physical movement, had a positive effect on the ability to endure the task and that male subjects endured longer than female subjects.”

So ladies, don’t be surprised if some guys take the weight room more seriously than they should. They’re just in the zone.
 
Speaking of the zone, Costas Karageorghis, Ph.D. from Brunel University School of Sport and Education said, “[Music] can reduce the perception of effort significantly and increase endurance by as much as 15%.” So that explains why it seems like you can run for days on the track with music. The music gives your mind something to think about, other than the pain from your legs.

One thing to keep in mind; listening to sounds over 95 dB can reduce your mental and physical reaction time by 20%. To get a feel of how loud that is, clubs typically have their music playing at 120 dB. Though it’s good to be in the zone and have your music, you don’t want it to be too loud. You want to maximize your efforts.

Enjoy your music people! And remember to stay fit!

-Just a thought, Devonte Hill


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