The sun was back today
this morning when I ran to work and so were the birds singing in the trees.
Influenced by their song I felt stronger and probably ran a little bit too fast. It also made me think about the strong effect I think music
can have on athletic performance. However, what is the scientific evidence that
music really can improve running performance and in particular ultramarathon
endurance? One of my strongest personal memories of how music could affect my
mood and perceived rate of exertion when running was when I left Rifugio Sogno
di Berdzé on the second evening of Tor des Géants 2013. The race had been going
on for approximately 36 hours and I had been running for 117 kilometers and
just climbed over 1000 meters from the last life-base in Cogne. Leaving the
Rifugio I worried about some pain in my calves and Achilles tendons and I felt
quite alone in darkness and cold that surrounded me. In my misery I decided to put on some Italian pop music and suddenly
it felt like a surge of power hit me and in a blink I was at the Col Fenetre di
Champorche, having actually run up the last part of the climb. It was probably
the first time I really discovered the power of music when running.
Looking into the
literature I found a vast amount of scientific articles on the effects of music
on exercise. That music may have an effect on athletic performance has been
studied for over 100 years and the probably first publication on the topic was
published already in 1911 (Ayers “The influence of music on speed in the six
day bicycle race” Am Phys Educ Rev 1911; 16: 321-325). A good recent comprehensive
review of the research in this area is Karageorghis and Priest “Music in the
exercise domain: a review and synthesis (Parts I & II)” Int Rev Sport
Exercise Psychol 2012; 5: 44-66 and 67-84. The British Association of Sport and
Exercise Sciences (BASES) has recently published an expert statement on the use
of music in exercise (Karageorghis et al “The BASES Expert Statement on use of
music in exercise” J Sports Sci. 2012; 30: 953-6 Also available online at http://www.bases.org.uk/Music-in-Exercise).
They determine that research evidence (which mostly is generated by themselves
so this is obviously a weakness of the statement) demonstrate that music has
consistent and measurable effects on the behaviour and psychological states of exercise
participants. When music is selected according to its motivational qualities,
the positive impact on performance (e.g. increased endurance) and psychological
states (e.g. enhanced affect) are even greater. Their salient recommendations
are that music should be:
• Congruent with the socio-cultural background
and age group of listeners (i.e., reflect familiarity and preferences).
• Functional for the activity (e.g., rhythm
should usually approximate motor patterns involved).
• Selected with the desired effects in mind
(e.g., loud, fast, percussive music with accentuated bass frequencies as an arousal-increasing
intervention).
• Selected in consultation with participants
using some form of objective rating method (e.g., Brunel Music Rating Inventory-2;
Karageorghis et al., 2006).
• Characterised by prominent rhythmic qualities
and percussion in addition to pleasing melodic and harmonic structures for
repetitive aerobic and anaerobic exercise tasks. Harmony refers to sounding
multiple notes together, giving music its emotional “colour” (e.g., happy, sad,
ruminative).
• Within the tempo band of 125-140 beats per
minute for most healthy exercisers engaged in repetitive, aerobic-type activity
(slower music is appropriate for warm-up and cool-down).
• Imbued with motivating associations,
conditioned either through the media or the personal experiences of the
listener.
• Accompanied by lyrics with affirmations of
movement (e.g., “run to the beat”) or generic motivating statements (e.g., “the
only way is up”).
• Used in ways where safety is not compromised
(e.g., exercisers should not use music when running or cycling on the
roads).
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Conceptual framework from Terry & Karageorghis "Psychophysical effecs of music in sport and exercise: An update on theory, research and application" in M. Katsikitis (Ed) (2006) |
The effects of music on running and walking
To summarize the
effects of music specifically on running and walking most studies show
beneficial effects. The running experiments have, however, mostly been
conducted with healthy volunteers running short distances on a treadmill (see
articles below).
·
Baldari et al “Effects of music during exercise in
different training status” J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2010; 50: 281-7.
·
Barwood et al “A motivational music and video
intervention improves high-intensity exercise performance” J Sport Sci Med
2009; 8: 435-442
·
Bood et al “ The power of auditory-motor
synchronization in sports: Enhancing running performance by coupling cadence
with the right beats”. PLoS ONE 2013; 8: e70758.
·
Brownley et al “Effects of music on physiological and
affective responses to graded treadmill exercise in trained and untrained
runners” Int J Psychophysiol. 1995; 19: 193-201
·
Copeland & Franks “Effects of types and
intensities of background music on treadmill endurance” J Sports Med Phys
Fitness. 1991; 31:100-3.
·
Crust “Effects of familiar and unfamiliar asynchronous
music on treadmill walking endurance” Percept Mot Skills 2004; 99: 361–368.
·
Debarnot & Guillot “When music tempo affects the
temporal congruence between physical practice and motor imagery” Acta Psychol
2014; 149C: 40-44 [Epub ahead of print]
·
Edworthy & Waring “The effects of music tempo and
loudness level on treadmill exercise” Ergonomics 2006; 49: 1597–1610.
·
Karageorghis et al “Psychophysical and ergogenic
effects of synchronous music during treadmill walking” J Sport Exerc Psychol 2009; 31: 18–36.
·
Lima-Silva et al “Listening to music in the first, but
not the last 1.5 km of a 5-km running trial alters pacing strategy and improves
performance” Int J Sports Med; 2012; 33: 813–818
·
Savitha et al “The effect of vocal and instrumental
music on cardio respiratory variables, energy expenditure and exertion levels
during sub maximal treadmill exercise” Indian J Physiol Pharmacol 2013; 57: 159-68
·
Szmedra & Bacharach “Effect of music on perceived
exertion, plasma lactate, norepinephrine and cardiovascular hemodynamics during
treadmill running” Int J Sports Med 1998; 19: 32–37
·
Terry PC et al “Effects of synchronous music on
treadmill running among elite triathletes” J Sci Med Sport 2012; 15: 52-7.
There are not many studies
of music when not running on a treadmill and I only found a few, again mostly
looking at the effects on shorter distances like 400-meters (Simpson & Karageorghis
“The effects of synchronous music on 400-m sprint performance” J Sports Sci 2006;
24: 1095–1102) or around in a circle with 15-meter diameter in a sports hall (Leman
et al “Activating and relaxing music entrains the speed of beat synchronized
walking” PLoS One. 2013; 8: e67932). There was one study investigating the
effects of music on mood and emotions during normal running exercise (Lane et
al “Effects of music interventions on emotional states and running performance”
J Sports Sci Med. 2011; 10: 400-7), and another investigating in 19 healthy
runners whether peak locomotion frequency of ~3 Hz during outdoor running is
synchronized with different intrinsic and extrinsic frequencies using accelerometer
and electroencephalography measurements (Schneider
et al “Exercise, music, and the brain: is there a central pattern generator?” J
Sports Sci. 2010; 28: 1337-43).
The effects of music on other exercise forms
Most studies of music
as an ergogenic aid to facilitate physical performance has been performed on
aerobic exercise and with predetermined music. Above I have mentioned some of
the studies with running, but there exists many similar studies of indoor
cycling on a trainer. There have also been some studies on strength training recently
published and one cross-over study of twenty healthy males performing
resistance strength and explosive exercise in the form of bench press and squat
jump showed that self-selected music improved in particular the explosive squat
jump performance and lowered RPE and improved the mood state (measured with the
profile of mood states [POMS] scale) (Biagnini et al. Effects of self-selected
music on strength, explosiveness, and mood J Strength Cond Assoc 2012; 26:
1934-1938). These findings are supported by a recent study by Fritz and
colleagues of 52 volunteers showing that musical feedback, so called musical
agency, during use of exercise machines improved mood (Fritz et al “Musical feedback
during exercise machine workout enhances mood” Front Psychol 2013; 4: 921). A similar study also by Fritz and colleagues
was recently published in the prestigious journal PNAS where they also showed
clear beneficial effect of musical agency, compared with passive music
listening, on rate of perceived exertion (RPE) in 62 participants performing
strenuous exercises on fitness machines. For instance, very interestingly, oxygen
consumption as acquired with spirometry showed that, although exhibiting no
differences in total force under both conditions, the oxygen consumption was
lower during musical agency than during passive music listening. It thus rather
appears that participants were able to apply a comparable amount of force using
less oxygen. An effect with music on oxygen consumption has previously been
shown on treadmill running (Szmedra &
Bacharach “Effect of music on perceived
exertion, plasma lactate, norepinephrine and cardiovascular hemodynamics during
treadmill running” Int J Sports Med 1998; 19: 32–37).
The effects of music on ultramarathon running
There are no published
scientific articles on music on ultramarathon running performance. However, I
came around a great PhD dissertation thesis from 2012 entitled “Effects of
synchronous music in sport and exercise: a meta-analytic review and field
studies of ultra-distance athletes” on the topic by Michelle Louise Curran from
University of Southern Queensland in Australia in Professor Peter C Terry’s
laboratory. It is freely available at http://eprints.usq.edu.au/23670/
. In the thesis she performed a meta-analysis of 86 published research studies of
general effects of music on athletic performance showing, albeit small to
moderate, clear statistically significant positive effects of music on
performance, feelings, heart rate, oxygen utilization (VO2) and rate
of perceived exertion (RPE). In the thesis there is also an interventional
study specifically of two ultra distance runners completing a 20 km training
session on four occasions listening to synchronous motivational music,
synchronous neutral music, an
audio book, or no music. Motivational music provided the two runners with
significant benefits compared to no music and audio book conditions. In a
second interventional study in the thesis the same interventions was studied in
nine ultramarathon runners completing ultra-distance races of 6, 24 and 48
hours duration and showed, quite interestingly, superiority of motivational
music over other interventions during in particular the 18-24 hour period. In
general, that music can influence fatigue is supported by the central governor
model advocating the effects of not only biochemical reactions in the muscle,
but also the central nervous system in endurance activities (Noakes “Fatigue is
a brain-derived emotion that regulates the exercise behavior to ensure the
protection of whole body homeostasis” Front Physiol 2012; 3: 1-14).
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From Noakes 2012. The central governor hypothesis of fatique |
What music to listen to during running?
The BASES
recommendation states that synchronous music (i.e., when an exerciser consciously moves in
time with a musical beat) in particular has been shown to provide ergogenic and
psychological benefits in repetitive endurance activities. For example,
motivational synchronous music used during treadmill walking improved time to
voluntary exhaustion by 15% compared to motivationally neutral and control
conditions in 30 participants waling on a treadmill (Karageorghis et al
“Psychophysical and ergogenic effects of synchronous music during treadmill
walking” J Sport Exerc Psychol 2009; 31:
18–36). BASES also suggest that synchronous music may increase rhythmicity of
movement, resulting in an efficiency gain that is associated with lower
relative oxygen uptake. However, in the metaanalysis performed in Curran’s
thesis there was limited difference in outcome benefits between synchronous and
asynchronous music. Other findings indicate that, among young adults, preferred
music tempo generally falls within a narrow band (125-140 beats per minute)
regardless of exercise intensity (Karageorghis et al “Revisiting the exercise
heart rate music tempo preference relationship”
Res Quart Exercise Sport, 2011; 82: 274-284). Contrary to theoretical
predictions, the relationship between exercise movement and heart rate and preferred
music tempo was found to be nonlinear, characterized by a series of inflections.
A very interesting
recent study investigated the relative effects of auditory-motor synchronization
and the motivational impact of acoustic stimuli on running performance (Bood et
al “The power of auditory-motor synchronization in sports: Enhancing running
performance by coupling cadence with the right beats”. PLoS ONE 2013; 8:
e70758). In this cross-over study, 19 participants ran to exhaustion on a
treadmill in 1) a control condition without acoustic stimuli, 2) a metronome
condition with a sequence of beeps matching participants’ cadence
(synchronization), and 3) a music condition with synchronous motivational music
matched to participants’ cadence (synchronization + motivation). As expected,
time to exhaustion was significantly longer with acoustic stimuli than without,
but unexpectedly, however, time to exhaustion did not differ between metronome
and motivational music conditions, despite differences in motivational quality.
Thus, acoustic
stimuli may have
enhanced running performance because runners worked harder as a result of motivational
aspects (most pronounced with motivational music) and more efficiently as a
result of auditory-motor synchronization (most notable with metronome beeps). The
authors conclude that the findings imply that running to motivational music
with a very prominent and consistent beat matched to the runner’s cadence will
likely yield optimal effects because it helps to elevate physiological effort
at a high perceived exertion, whereas the consistent and correct cadence
induced by auditory-motor synchronization helps to optimize running economy.
Similar findings that the motivational qualities of music may be less important
than the prominence of its beat and the degree to which participants are able
to synchronise their movements to its tempo was also recently found in a study
by Terry and colleagues of 11 elite triathletes running on a treadmill (Terry
PC et al Effects of synchronous music on treadmill running among elite
triathletes J Sci Med Sport 2012; 15: 52-7).
Quite interestingly,
some music appear to be activating as it can entrain the speed of beat synchronized
walking, supporting the hypothesis that recurrent patterns of fluctuation
affecting the binary meter strength of the music may entrain the vigor of the
movement (Leman et al “Activating and relaxing music entrains the speed of beat
synchronized walking” PLoS One. 2013; 8: e67932). This may be attributed to an
attentional shift, a subliminal audio-motor entrainment mechanism, or an
arousal effect, but further research is needed to study this further.
In summary, there is still
no clear evidence that one type of music is preferably over another when
running. Quite interestingly, looking at the playlists of elite ultrarunners, compiled by Daniel Rowland, it is indeed a great variety of music.
The motivational effects of music versus video
on exercise performance
There have recently
been some studies looking at the effects of both music and video during
exercise. A small cross-over study was performed on six healthy male volunteers
by Barwood and colleagues investigating the effect of motivational music plus
video intervention on running distance during a 30-minute exercise bout on a
treadmill in warm (~26°C) and moist (~50% RH) conditions in
the presence of motivational music and video, non-motivational intervention, or
control conditions with no intervention (Barwood et al “A motivational music
and video intervention improves high-intensity exercise performance” J Sport
Sci Med 2009; 8: 435-442). Despite the small number of participants, they found
that motivational music and video increased the running distance and led to
higher blood lactate concentration, but that the peak rating of perceived
exertion (RPE) did not increase (P < 0.05). The motivational ergogenic music
used in the experiment rated high on the so called Brunel Music Rating
Inventory (BMRI)-2 and -3 by the participants and included a high beat (>120
bmp) and a strong rhythm. In order to “psych up” (arousal regulation), shift
attention focus (association to dissociation) and to encourage psychological
skills usage (positive mental imagery) videos of influential sporting feats
that the participants were likely to have seen in the media previously was also
shown. The non-motivational intervention consisted of 30 minutes of public speaking
from a recent political trial in the USA.
The study opens up for more research with regards to the relative
importance of the music and the video intervention. It becomes little of a
theoretical question as when running a mountain ultramarathon I am absolutely
convinced that breathtaking scenery and the mountain surroundings in itself is
highly motivating.
Lastly, when I reviewed the scientific literature for the effects of music on running I came across a set of recent articles forming a very interesting hypothesis that running, or more correctly the bipedal locomotion of humans, has influenced our evolution of rhythmic abilities. It appears rhythmic entrainment (beat-based timing) is specific to humans among primates and not found in for instance macaque monkeys (Merchant & Honing “Are non-human priamtes capable of rhythmic entrainment? Evidence for the gradual audiomotor evolution hypothesis” Front Neurosci 2014; 7: 274). These findings based on new cross-species research generates a challenging view questioning Darwin’s hypothesis that our capacity for musical rhythm reflects basic aspects of brain function broadly shared among animals (Patel “The Evolutionary Biology of Musical Rhythm: Was Darwin Wrong?” PLoS Biol 2014; 12: e1001821). One very interesting hypothesis, formed by the Swedish physician Matz Larsson, is that human locomotion and ventilation generates sounds that needs to be masked by synchronization of locomotion when humans walk and run in groups and that thus bipedal gait and the associated sounds of locomotion influenced the evolution of human rhythmic abilities (Larsson ”Self-generated sounds of locomotion and ventilation and the evolution of human rhythmic abilities” Anim Cogn 2014; 17: 1–14). This is a virgin research area that I think will be very interesting to follow in the coming years. I like the idea very much though and I will when running home today try to listen to not only the birds but also the rhythm and music of my own body when moving.
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From Merchant & Honing 2014. Auditory stream in the brains of non-human primates and humans |
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