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Music affects the quality of your workout
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
Probably, every person who visits a gym would like to make their workout as effective as possible. However, some people “work out” at 90-100%, while others – only at 20%. How to improve the results?
A group of international experts from Italy and Croatia shared information that rhythmic music increases the effectiveness of sports activities, increases endurance and improves performance.
It is safe to say that most people prefer to listen to music during workouts. Some researchers previously suggested that this habit could act as a distraction, block the body's signals of fatigue and thereby increase the effect of exercise. But we cannot ignore the fact that different people listen to different music and perceive it differently. Both cultural characteristics and individual preferences play a role here. There is a lot of different music, with different rhythms, melodies, arrangements and lyrics. Therefore, it cannot be said that any music track has the same effect on everyone.
Until now, researchers have had no understanding of how exactly this or that music can influence the quality of training. For example, it remained a mystery what rhythm is optimal for effective performance of certain exercises.
In their new project, experts from the Universities of Split, Milan and Verona had to clarify these questions. The study involved women who practiced treadmill walking and strength exercises such as leg presses. The participants first exercised in silence and then with melodies playing at different tempos.
During the study, all sorts of indicators were recorded, and the women's own feedback on the training sessions was taken into account. As a result, it was discovered that the sound of high-tempo music during the sessions increased the heart rate most and reduced the subjective perception of the exercise's difficulty - compared to those moments when it was necessary to train in silence. The "musical" effects were more noticeable in athletes who trained on a treadmill - that is, trained for endurance.
The experts expressed hope that the results of their work will be useful for people who want to raise their own level of physical capabilities – and most likely, this will be a fairly large number of people. Despite the fact that a relatively small group of volunteers took part in the project, the results were quite clear. However, the scientists do not rule out conducting further, larger-scale experiments to continue studying the influence of music on other aspects of our lives.
The results of the study can be found in the publication Frontiers in Psychology - www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00074/full