In my free time, I teach high-intensity group exercise classes at a local gym. The sound system once stopped working for ten minutes while I was teaching a class. This is a group fitness instructor’s worst nightmare. As I frantically fiddled with the stereo, one woman in class looked at me and said, “This is really boring without music.” She is not the only person who feels that way.
Brunel University psychologist, Dr. Costas Karageorghis, has spent more than twenty years studying the relationship between music and exercise. His work has demonstrated that certain kinds of music can motivate you to train harder, faster, and longer. He says that the right music can significantly reduce the perception of effort and increase endurance by as much as 15%. [1] (I would argue that the actual performance benefits can be much higher, although I haven’t conducted experiments that validate my belief.)
Dr. Karageorghis’s research has also shown that different kinds of music are better for different kinds of activity:
- Songs with a slower beat (80-120 beats per minute) are generally better for warming up, cooling down, or exercising at a lesser intensity [2] —when your heart rate will be lower.
- Songs with a faster beat (120-140 beats per minute) are generally better for exercising at a higher intensity [3] —when your heart rate will be higher.
When I work out on my own or teach exercise classes for groups, I typically play a few slower songs (i.e. slower hip-hop or slower pop music) during the warm-up. Then, I usually switch to higher-energy songs (i.e. faster hip-hop or dance music) during the more difficult part of the work-out. Finally, most of my workouts finish with a couple of slower songs (or no audio at all) for the cool-down at the end.
A picture after a group workout that I led. (I’m in the middle of the back row in the black shorts with the red and white stripe.)
For workouts that I do by myself, I usually play some classical or meditative music during my cool-down. I’m probably the only guy at my gym who listens to EDM and classical during an exercise session. The fast pace of EDM can definitely help you push harder during your workout, but you probably don’t want to carry that aggression with you after your workout. Listening to gentler, softer music for a few minutes at the end of an exercise session serves as a nice buffer to enter into a calmer, more peaceful state before you move on with your day.
Volume
You can also match the volume of your music to the intensity of your exercise. When you are warming up (or cooling down), a lower volume usually works better. When you are training harder, a higher volume is typically best. Louder music can inspire you to train harder. It can also increase your focus and block out distractions and noise around you, which is especially important if you are working out at a gym that is loud or crowded.
Location
You can also tweak your audio based on the kind of workout that you are doing and your location. For example, if you are going for a leisurely trail run in the woods, you might prefer to listen to classical music or a book on tape, instead of high-energy music. Or, you might not want to listen to anything at all, so that you can fully appreciate the environment and scenery around you.
Even if you love listening to fast-paced music during workouts at the gym, you might prefer to listen to more peaceful audio or nothing at all during workouts in nature.
How can you create playlists for your workouts?
I recommend Spotify, a digital music, podcast, and video streaming service. For only $10 a month, you can download unlimited songs and other content, and you can create playlists that you can listen to anywhere, even without internet access. Each weekend, I like to create a new playlist with 15-20 songs to use for my workouts and the group exercise classes that I plan to teach during the upcoming week. If I get tired of those songs during the week, I mix in some music from a playlist from a prior week. Changing it up each week helps keep your workouts fresh.
Summary
The more you enjoy your workouts, the more likely that you will turn exercise into a consistent, long-term habit. Tweaking the music or audio that you listen to is one of the simplest and most effective ways to make exercise more enjoyable and to get better results.
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About the author: Pete Leibman is the Creator of StrongerHabits.com. He is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, executive recruiter, athlete, and peak performance coach. His work has been featured on Fox News, CBS Radio, and CNNMoney.com, and over 500,000 people across the world have read his articles.
References for this article:
- Carl Foster and John Pocari with Mark Anders, “ACE-Sponsored Research: Exploring the Effects of Music on Exercise Intensity,” ACE, accessed on June 11, 2017, https://www.acefitness.org/certifiednews/images/article/pdfs/MusicStudy.pdf.
- “Dr. Karageorghis reveals science behind Spotify Ultimate Workout Playlist,” Brunel University London, January 16, 2014, https://www.brunel.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/articles/Dr-Karageorghis-reveals-science-behind-Spotify-Ultimate-Workout-Playlist.
- “Dr. Karageorghis reveals science behind Spotify Ultimate Workout Playlist,” Brunel University London, January 16, 2014, https://www.brunel.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/articles/Dr-Karageorghis-reveals-science-behind-Spotify-Ultimate-Workout-Playlist.
