Good morning and happy Thursday. I’m feeling chirpier than usual today because I’ve just returned back to work after completing an excellent training course. I’ve got something slightly different for you this morning, some information about a study which was the first to find that high-tempo music may increase the benefits of exercise and reduce perceived effort, particularly during endurance training.

Reading this press release and research article gave me some serious research #FOMO. I sometimes wish I could go back to university to complete a second PhD.

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology – The psychophysiological effects of different tempo music on endurance versus high-intensity performances – is the first to show that listening to music at a higher tempo reduces the perceived effort involved in exercise and increases its benefits. These effects were greater for endurance exercises, such as walking, than for high-intensity exercises, such as weightlifting. The researchers hope that the findings could help people to increase and improve their exercise habits.

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Many people listen to music while exercising and previous studies have documented some of the benefits. For instance, music can distract from fatigue and discomfort and increase participation in exercise. However, “how” we experience music is highly subjective, with cultural factors and personal preferences influencing its effects on individuals. Music is multifaceted with various aspects such as lyrics, rhythm, and melody contributing to the experience.

Until now, researchers did not understand the specific properties of music that affect us during exercise, including which types of music are best suited to enhancing certain types of exercise. Understanding these specifics could help to unlock the full potential of music as an exercise enhancer.

The researchers set out to investigate the effect of the tempo of a piece of music on female volunteers performing either an endurance exercise (walking on a treadmill) or a high-intensity exercise (using a leg press).

The volunteers completed exercise sessions in silence, or while listening to pop music at a range of tempos. The researchers recorded a variety of parameters, including the volunteers’ opinions about the effort required to complete the exercises and their heart rate while exercising, as a higher heart rate would mean that the exercise was more beneficial for physical fitness.

“We found that listening to high-tempo music while exercising resulted in the highest heart rate and lowest perceived exertion compared with not listening to music,” explained Professor Ardigò of the University of Verona in Italy. “This means that the exercise seemed like less effort, but it was more beneficial in terms of enhancing physical fitness.”

These effects were more noticeable in volunteers completing the endurance exercise sessions, compared with those performing high-intensity exercises, suggesting that people performing endurance activities such as walking or running may receive the greatest benefit from listening to high-tempo music.

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The researchers hope that these results will provide a simple way to improve levels of physical activity. While the current study involved a small group of volunteer subjects, larger studies in the future will be needed to continue exploring the nuances of how music affects our training.

“In the current study, we investigated the effect of music tempo in exercise, but in the future we would also like to study the effects of other music features such as genre, melody, or lyrics, on endurance and high intensity exercise,” said Ardigò.

So, you could try playing fast-tempo music next time you hit the gym for a turbo-charged workout. Otherwise, it might at least get your foot tapping while you sit on the couch and eat chocolate.

**Full disclosure: I didn’t receive monetary payment for writing this post; I personally found the research paper interesting and wanted to share the main findings on my blog. All photographs were obtained from Pexels **

Do you listen to music while you are running? I don’t tend to listen to music when I’m running as I always run outside and I like to be aware of my surroundings. However, after reading this research I may finally dust off my AfterShokz.

Do you have any favourite running tunes? If you do, please could you share them with my just in case I manage to work out how to use my AfterShokz.