The sweet spot for the music being loud enough without damaging your hearing is 75 to 80 dBA (about the volume of a vacuum cleaner), he adds. When it comes to running tunes, not all songs are created equal: “For music to have a rousing effect, it needs to be both loud and fast,” Karageorghis says. Pick your running music to match your kind of run for optimal results.Įven so, it can still elevate aspects of your mood, such as happiness and excitement, and that can make the experience much more enjoyable overall, Karageorghis says. That’s because your brain is flooded with fatigue-related cues and it becomes much harder for it to process the music. ![]() “At running intensities above 75 percent of aerobic capacity, music is ineffectual at reducing perceived exertion,” he says. Karageorghis’ research shows that matching your cadence to a song’s BPM only benefits a low- or moderately intense run. This hack might not work for all kinds of runs, though. “However, studies show that if you make changes to your natural cadence greater than about 5 percent,” she says, “you’re likely to feel an increase in perceived exertion and a decrease in running economy.” (Meaning it will feel harder and take more effort.) Because of this, Hamilton recommends introducing gradual changes to your selected song BPM - to the order of two to six steps per minute - giving your body time to adapt. “Running with music is one of the ways I gradually adapt a runner to a slightly faster cadence,” says Janet Hamilton, C.S.C.S., founder of Running Strong Professional Coaching in Atlanta. ![]() So if your body will match your running cadence to the song BPM, can you hack your brain to increase your speed? Yes, you can. And that, in turn, can have a profound effect on endurance. “When movement is synchronized to music, the body becomes more energy-efficient,” he explains. His team published a small study in the The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness and found that cyclists who match their cadence to music tempo can reduce oxygen consumption by seven percent, as compared those who listened to unsynchronized music. This means that the best running playlist isn’t just good for keeping you distracted while you run, but it can actually help your performance.Īnd Karageorghis’ findings aren’t limited to running. His findings show that listening to music while pounding the pavement can enhance mood by 10 to 20 percent, reduce perceived exertion by 10 percent, delay time to exhaustion by up to 15 percent, and significantly increase the likelihood of entering a flow state, in which your brain goes into autopilot because you’re so immersed in the enjoyable experience. ![]() Karageorghis has authored more than 100 studies on the relationship between music and athletic performance. Music stimulates the part of the brain responsible for regulating wakefulness (the ascending reticular activating system) which energizes us and makes us want to move, he explains. “Humans have a natural predisposition to respond physically and emotionally to music - it is almost as though we are ‘hardwired’ to respond to it,” says sports psychologist Costas Karageorghis, Ph.D., author of Applying Music in Exercise and Sport. Your brain has an inclination to sync your footsteps with the beat in your ears, which is why the best running songs can actually help you run more efficiently. Why? It’s all about song BPM - aka beats per minute, or the measurement of a song’s pace. ![]() If your runs double as your own personal Jay-Z concert (often with special appearances by Katy Perry and Eminem), you may be boosting your performance without even realizing it.
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