Health Choices

Because its fall there are tons of marathons taking place throughout the country. For runners the three most important things are their broken-in shoes, heart rate monitor and their music. Trying to exercise let alone run can be tough if you don’t have music blaring in your ear.

The music provides runners with motivation, entertainment, and even stimulation. Because of the tie between the two factors researchers have been trying to unearth the close connection between our ears and feet. Sports psychologist Costas Karageorghis has been trying to understand the connection between moving and music for 20 years.

In the course of his research he has discovered that there are four factors contributing to a songs motivation qualities: rhythm response, musicality, cultural impact and connection. The first two are known as “internal” factors as they relate to the music’s structure while the second two are “external” factors which reflect how we translate the music.

Karageorghis explains that rhythm response is linked to beats per minute of the song and how well it matches the heartbeat of the jogger. The song structure such as melody and harmony also contributes to the musicality of the song. The external factors include what genre of music we choose and what we’ve learned to correlate with specific songs and artists.

Science has proven that by syncing beats per minute with your pace can boost your efficiency. A recent study found that individuals that cycled to music required 7 percent less oxygen that others who did the equal amount of work that just listened to music in the background. Music can also help you ignore the idea that its time to quit.

The current study shows that when our hearts perform between 30 and 70 percent of the maximum, we prefer an increase from 90 to 120 bpm. Yet when our anaerobic threshold is between 70 and 80 percent of maximum, we prefer a jump in rhythm from 120 to 150 bpm. But when it reaches above 80 percent of maximum heart rate faster music isn’t favored.

Researchers even found that if they raised or lowered the speed of a song by 10 percent the listener didn’t notice but it impacted performance. Speeding up the music led to an increase in the miles covered in the same amount of time. Then when they slowed down the music the distance also decreased. Researchers concluded that when exercising individuals match their exertion with the speed of the music.

Since determing the right music can boost the workout that you’re getting in the same amount of time; there are great tools that can help you match your bpm with music. You can create a custom playlist on your iTunes library which allows you to arrange songs in a number of different tempos that you can then cater to your warm-up and warm-downs along with the better part of you run.

Diane Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Utah. She likes to write about the news, politics, online colleges, online education, distance learning, and the college experience.