Working Out with Music

     Exercising regularly can become monotonous if you do not take the proper provisions to keep yourself entertained. Music is a great way to keep yourself motivated and moving at a good pace during your workouts.

Ever since aerobic dancing was introduced in the early 1970s, it has been thought that composition along with exercise provides an important beneficial effect to the exercise experience. Many health and fitness instructors regard the addition of music to exercise similarly to an ergogenic aid.

The removal or music or an inappropriate selection of music is sure to be just as unsuccessful. However, it may come as a surprise that scientific evidence has conflicting results when it comes to investigating the effects of tunes on exercise performance.

Many people have measured the effects on respiration, heart rate, physical strength, rhythmic stimuli, endurance performance, motor skills and elements on aerobic fitness. Most are in agreement that tunes influences all these indications.

As far as respiration and heart health, studies have been done to detect the effects of music in relation to health and disease prevention. The ability to control cardiac activity may be desirable in the treatment of various heart conditions.

It has been observed that respiratory rates increased significantly with the onset of jazz tunes and tend to return to pre music levels with the cessation of music. Heart rate was only moderately affected by the introduction of tunes.

Though small differences, heart rate increases in response to fast jams and decreases in response to slow tunes. But, typically any kind of music whether it is sedative or stimulating will show a moderate increase in heart rate because songs do produce some kind of emotional effect.

So, fitness teachers have the opportunity to benefit their students by playing songs that depict the intensity of upcoming workouts as students enter the workout room. This way, the blood can slightly start pumping faster which can help to warm up the participants.

This way, the increases in respiration and moderate increases in heart rate can better prepare the students for the workout which is to come. This is a small way that tunes can contribute to exercise.

Also when comparing the influence of stimulating music, sedative jams and no sounds as opposed to strength, they determined that sedative sounds decreased strength significantly when compared to stimulating sounds and silence. However, no statistical significant difference was seen between stimulating sounds and silence.

So, sedative tunes can actually decrease a person's muscular fitness and potential training ability. This is congruent with early pioneering research that shows muscle tension can be altered by choice of music.

For example, stimulating sounds will increase the amount of muscle tension while sedative sounds can decrease muscle tension. Though more research is needed, there is a lack of significant differences in strength between stimulation and silence which suggests personal trainers would be wise to survey their clients as to their perceived best workout environment with or without accompanying sounds.

The effects of tunes and rhythmic stimuli in the rehabilitation of Gait disorders has proven that many health and fitness professionals are currently working with the physically challenged and the use of sounds and auditory stimuli can be advocated to enhance a person's gait and gross motors skills. This can lead to increased stability and mobility of the clients who suffer from neuromuscular and orthopedic disorders.

Songs that accompany exercise have been proven to improve muscular endurance in the performance of junior high students participating in sit ups and college women doing pushups. However, it did not enhance the running speed of female youth.

But, it did prove able to help college aged males and females to walk farther and with less effort as compared to walking without sounds. When it comes to cycling, songs have been shown to have no significant influence on any physiological variable measured such as aerobic capacity, ventilation, respiratory exchange ratio, heart rate and blood lactates.

Additionally, the psychological perception of effort was not altered with or without the songs stimulus, although the subjects did claim they performed better with the songs. When walking or jogging on a treadmill, subjects had longer times to exhaustion when listening to slow, soft jams as compared to loud fast jams.

Therefore, the results are mixed, so personal preference comes into play. Tunes can definitely improve a person's enjoyment and compliance to a fitness program which will ensure long term benefits like enhanced quality of life and reduction of risk to coronary heart disease and other leading causes of death.

1. Prev:Finding the Correct Elliptical Equipment
2. Next:Ways To Lose Weight: Secrets To Effective Weight Loss