Running to Preferred Music

This study began with a discussion of how local military personnel were not permitted to listen to music on their headphones during their physical training drills. From there, we decided to explore the infleunce of listening to preferred music on exercise.

Through our exploration of the literature, we established that the major music-related factors playing a role in exercise performance were rhythm and tempo, volume, synchronization, musicality. Rhythm and tempo and volume are properties of the music that relate to physiological factors such as arousal and attention. Essentially, music at a particular tempo and volume may facilitate the exerciser’s ability to dissociate from the pain associated with exercise, which can improve affect and performance. Furthermore, rhythm and tempo can be used to control pace, and improve movement efficiency which can benefit speed and endurance. Finally, musicality is a property of the music relating to the abstract motivational properties of music (e.g., moving lyrics).

Taking a step back, you may notice that all of these majorly established factors are properties of the music. We decided to focus on the perspective of the exerciser. For instance, consider when you go to a gym and there is music in the background. In this case, the background music is [usually] beyond the control of the listener, and may not be to their taste. For this reason, many individuals exercise wearing headphones or earphones. For the most part, we can probably assume that someone wearing headphones is going to listen to music that they prefer. So, we sought to find out whether there is there a difference in exercise performance between individuals who listen to preferred or non-preferred music?

To test this, we had experienced runners complete a 12-minute run, and we measured the distance they ran while running to preferred music, non-preferred music, or no music. We found that female runners ran further when listening to preferred music.

In the end, we can probably conclude from our research and other studies, that music generally improves exercise performance. When considering experienced runners or other endurance athletes, the potential for improvement is less. As such, listening to preferred music (c.f., non-preferred music) is less likely to provide a noticeable boost to performance. That considered, music preference has the potential to play an important role in motivation, which can be related to longer and more frequent workouts.

Collaborators

• Hotaka Maeda, PhD
• Lawrence Bruya, PhD

Publication

The manuscript for this project has been published in Perceptual and Motor Skills! Find it here: Effects of Listening to Preferred Music on Sex Differences in Endurance Running Performance