One thing that’s nearly ubiquitous among recreational runners at health clubs and on the roads is an iPod or mp3 player strapped to their arm.
Most of these folks probably just use them as a distraction, especially if they don’t particularly enjoy running. But even at high-level competitions, you’ll often see top athletes listening to music before they race.
The idea of music as a performance enhancer is a fairly new topic in exercise physiology and psychology, and as such, has been mostly relegated to lesser-known authors and journals. Nevertheless, there’s a substantial amount of work that’s been done of the effect of music (and different types of music) on athletic performance, so that’s where we’ll turn our attention today.
The research on music and athletic performance
The first study we’ll look at is representative of many of the basic studies on the issue of music and performance.
A 2003 paper by Atkinson, Wilson, and Eubank looked at how sixteen physically active subjects responded when listening to fast-paced electronic dance music over the course of a simulated 10km cycling time trial on a stationary bicycle.1 A trial with no music was conducted as a control.
The outcome showed that when listening to the fast-paced (142 beats per minute) music, the subjects cycled significantly faster for the overall distance, but interestingly, the difference came chiefly in the first few km and over the final km—the riders’ splits from 5km to 9km were nearly identical. The riders also perceived that they were riding slightly harder throughout the time trial while listening to music.
Music tempo and loudness
As you might suspect, there are so many factors to take into account when considering how music affects performance that scientists have a hard time comparing studies directly. Music can be fast, slow, loud, quiet, or anywhere in between. To help clear up some of the confusion, Judy Edworthy and Hannah Waring at the University of Plymouth in the UK authored a 2006 study on the effects of music tempo and loudness.
Using two variables, music tempo and music volume, Edworthy and Waring tested 30 “physically active” participants in five conditions (loud/fast, loud/slow, quiet/fast, quiet/slow, and no music) at a self-selected pace for 10min on a treadmill.
The results showed that both loudness and tempo boosted the participants’ speeds and heart rates in a predictable manner. Louder and faster music resulted in the subjects selecting a faster treadmill pace than slower and quieter music.
Read more at: https://runnersconnect.net