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Abstract: –

Music has been a fundamental part of humanity since the earliest civilizations. Since then, the uses for it in modern-day society have become endless. From social benefits such as festivals, to businesses such as record labels. It even has physical benefits such as music therapy. But how does music today benefit us, when we take part in exercise? More specifically, do musical qualities make a difference, or do we even need them at all?

Intro: –

Despite the endless benefits to talk about on music today, the topic I am specifically interested in exploring is ‘Music in Exercise’. Even more specifically, the physical effects this can have on our bodies and mind. I am undertaking this project as I am someone who exercises regularly and feels that it is an interesting topic. I am also hoping that not only will this help me gain improvement in terms of exercise, goals, and mindset, but a deeper understanding of how I can use music to my advantage with the outcomes I find. Initially, the question I will be asking is ‘Does music have a positive effect on the mind and body in exercise sports? However, as this is a simple question, I expect it to develop into something more convoluted and questionable – finally leading me to a conclusion further down the line.

Literature Review: –

Intro

Before starting my research, I realized that many of the texts that were relevant to this topic were that of psychology and exercise, rather than content solely written and recorded by musicians. However, this doesn’t mean I won’t get to discuss the element of the quality of music in exercise and sport. There are still many details and pathways to explore this topic.

What is music and does it help in exercise?

Upon starting my readings for this project, one thing became clear straight away – there was a divided opinion on if music is able to impact the body or not, within exercise and sport. Despite there being many reasons for both, there are two very clear and simple arguments for and against music with exercise. One argument in favor of music’s ability to motivate people who take part in an exercise on a beginner level, as well as on a higher, more professional level. This point is made by Costas I. Karageorghis, an author and professor in ‘Sport and Exercise Psychology’ at Brunel University, in one of his many novels on the subject. Costas states, ‘In a physical activity context, whether jogging in a park or warming up for a Judo contest, music can seem like a relatively simple stimulus that is effortlessly absorbed and appreciated’ (Costas:2017). A few pages later, he also mentions music on a bigger stage, saying, ‘Music was integral to many Olympic events.’ (Costas:2017).

The argument against became very clear when researching David Goggins. Goggins is an Ultramarathon runner, Triathlete, and Author. He is best known for his Ex-Special Forces military service, as well as countless other accolades. Goggins is a massive advocate for mental strength and being able to overcome challenges faced mentally, as well as physically. In a video posted to one of his social media accounts, the athlete states, ‘So I never train with music and there’s a reason why I don’t do that. It’s because the music isn’t going to always be there: what do you do when you have no external motivation? It’s about the internal.’ (Goggins:2018). This opposes Karageorghis’ argument of music being able to motivate people with any level of experience.

Despite the two individuals making arguments for each case, I found that there was (as of then) nothing to back them up factually or scientifically. This led me to explore the topic deeper and find out the facts behind the two opinions. Upon doing so, every article I found included a specificity in the music listened to when running a test or an experiment. This was mainly that the tempo be equal to, or above 120bpm, as talked about in an article by Dr. Christopher Ballmann, a professor of Health Science at Samford University. Ballmann mentions, ‘Previous evidence has suggested that any song with a tempo >120 bpm can be considered stimulating.’ (Ballmann:2019).

Do genre, dynamics or preference affect this?

Taking Ballmann’s statement into account led me to narrow down my argument. My question then became, ‘Do music genre, dynamics, or preference make the performance seem easier when exercising?’. The results I was studying were based only on, heart rate, anaerobic performance, and motivation levels. I also examined results from Borg’s ‘RPE Scale’. According to an article on the website ‘Whoop.com’, the ‘RPE Scale’ is, ‘Simply put, perceived exertion is how hard you believe your body is working at any given time.’ (Van Dusen:2019).

In the same article by Dr. Ballmann he mentions of a study in which he conducted, titled, ‘Effects of Listening to Preferred versus Non-Preferred Music on Repeated Wingate Anaerobic Test Performance’. In the study, Ballmann took fourteen physically active Males aged 18-25 years and got them to take part in a ‘WAnT’, (‘Wingate Anaerobic Test’) while listening to preferred, as well as non-preferred music. The Wingate Anaerobic Test is a laboratory-based study, that measures anaerobic power and capacity, on a cycle ergometer for up to 30 seconds. In Ballmann’s test, the men performed 3 sets of 15 seconds on the ‘WAnTs’, followed by 2-minute active recovery period. It was also completed in two separate visits, with a 48-hour recovery period between sessions. The study measured changes in; anaerobic performance, heart rate, rate of perceived exertion (RPE), and motivation levels. When looking at the results Ballmann discovered that, ‘listening to preferred music showed no ergogenic benefit during repeated anaerobic cycling sprints when compared to non-preferred music. However, preferred music increased motivation to exercise and decreased perceived exertion.’ (Ballmann:2019). This tells us components such as heart rate and anaerobic capacity did not differ between preferred and non-preferred music, whilst preferred music increased motivation. Not only did it increase motivation, it decreased the RPE, meaning it made the performers feel easier doing the activity.

This also agrees with a study taken by Karageorghis. The study was a similar, high-intensity cardio exercise, however, this measured ‘responses to asynchronous music during submaximal treadmill running’, rather than cycling. The results showed, ‘Results indicated that the motivational music had the most positive effect in terms of the FS, RPE, and the Vigour component of mood, although as expected, no differences were evidenced for heart rate. ‘The differences were evidenced primarily between the motivational and control conditions with no differences between the oudeterous and control conditions.’ (Costas:1998).

Professor of ‘Applied Psychology’ Judy Edworthy, made an equal counter argument to both Ballmann and Karageorghis’ statements. Edworthy tested thirty volunteers in 5, 10-minute exercise sessions on a treadmill, while varying the dynamics of background music. The dynamics of the music were either fastloud, fastquiet, slowloud, slowquiet or absent. Equal aspects such as heart rate and perceived exertion were taken, as well as running speed. The results showed, ‘More positive affect was observed during the music condition in comparison to the ‘no music’ condition. No significant differences for perceived exertion were found across conditions. These results confirm that fast, loud music might be played to enhance optimal exercising, and show how loudness and tempo interact.’ (Edworthy:2006).

This directly dismisses Ballmann and Karageorghis’ results by showing that despite music having an effect, the qualities didn’t make a difference.

This is backed with a study by Dr. Anuprita Thakur, a professor and head of dpt. in ‘Cardiovascular and Respiratory Physiotherapy’ at DY Patil University. The study was similar in terms of music types and results analysed, however Thakur tested people walking instead of running. Her out comes showed, ‘It was observed that level of RPE was the same at the end of every exercise session. The reason for increase in exercise duration with music could be because of various factors like dissociation, arousal, motivation, etc.’ (Thakur:2013).

Methodology: –

Author Tests

Now that I had two clear sides that opposed each other, backed with scientific evidence and testing, I decided to take what I had researched and put it into practice. Being a runner myself, I decided that practice as research would be a good way to go about it. Firstly, I took two contrasting studies from my literature review and tested them. I found that Karageorghis and Edworthy’s tests were the most similar to test and compare – in terms of music types (Motivational, loud, no music, etc.), activity content (High intensity treadmill running with rest time), and factors analysed (Heart rate, RPE, and Motivation levels). I completed both methods in the gym, on a treadmill, with headphones in.

Questionnaire

After running both tests, I completed a questionnaire for people to fill out on music and exercise. The demographic of the questionnaire was anyone aged 18 or above, and ranged from casual gym-goers, to more advanced performers. This would give me data to analyse in conjunction with my other findings to help with my conclusion. For this, I had to fill out any necessary ethical forms required and make sure consent was given.

My Tests

I then ran my own tests based on the results from the questionnaire, as well as the literature review studies. My test had similar features that of both Edworthy and Karageorghis’ however with my own structure, approach, etc. I decided to do three separate tests over three days, to give me time to recover and make the results fair. In each test I would: Run 5km (3.1 miles) at my usual pace, recover for a 2-minute period, then run a mile at my fastest pace possible. The 5km would be done while listening to either no music, my own preferred playlist, or a genre that was popular in the questionnaire (that I didn’t necessarily prefer). The mile would be done with no music, as this is how I would see the motivational qualities each piece of music had. As well as ‘Motivation Levels’, the factors I measured were all ones that I previously recorded in my tests with the author’s approaches, (‘Heart Rate’ and ‘RPE’). All statistics were measured accurately on my running watch. I felt that this approach of methodology, gave me a good combination of qualitative and quantitative data, whilst being able to analyse the two.

Discussion, Critiques and Findings: –

Author Tests

Upon completing both author’s tests, I found some interesting results. Due to their experiments both being so broad and involving multiple participants, I decided to test all the variables and music types of the study. First I had to find out what defined ‘Motivational Music’ for Karageorghis’ test. This was because he stated he used ‘Motivational Music’, as opposed to Edworthy who simply stated the qualities of here music. In his study, Karageorghis uses Brunel’s BMRI scale to test the motivational qualities of music. According to an article by Imogen Clark, the ‘BMRI’ is, ‘a 6-item scale with motivational quotients ranging from 6 to 42 developed to facilitate music selection for exercise, has been validated with young adults.’ (Clark:2015). After researching this, I accessed a template of the scale’s questionnaire, then looked through a workout playlist of music I thought would motivate me most, as well as least.

I also had to learn how to use the ‘RPE’ scale (to measure perceived effort) for these experiments. I quickly found that there was a difference between the ‘Borg RPE Scale’ and the ‘Modified RPE scale. The Borg Scale is measured from 6-20, whilst the modified 1-10. As stated by Elizabeth Quinn on ‘Verywellfit.com’, to measure your RPE a good rule to follow is, ‘if your RPE is 12, then 12 x 10 = 120 beats per minute.’ (Quinn:2021). She then mentions, ‘The main difference between the two scales aside from the numerical ranges is that the Borg RPE scale is a measure of exertion to determine heart rate and the modified scale is measured by an individual’s breath from deep breathing to shortened breaths.’ (Quinn:2021). After discovering this, I felt it was more fitting to measure RPE in the traditional ‘Borg Scale way, as I was already measuring my heart rate on a watch. Also, I found this scale would be more effective in measuring the motivational qualities of music based on heart rate and perceived effort. For example, if I saw my heart rate was 130bpm, I could divide it by 10 to get myself a score of 13 on the Borg Scale (Somewhat Hard).

Questionnaire

After conducting both experiments, my findings shown a similarity to that of Karageorghis’. My heart rate for my preferred music was certainly lower than music I didn’t prefer. Whilst the quality of music (fastloud, slowquiet) didn’t make any difference in either test.

After completing these tests, I decide to move to the survey I distributed online. The questions were structured like so:

The survey provides mostly a quantitative income of answers, with some questions open to qualitative answers. I felt the results from the survey mostly agreed with Karageorghis’ outcome that certain musical qualities make a difference to RPE. For example, if we look at ‘Question 5’, a majority of 65.6% of people said ‘Yes’ to listening to music when exercising, 18.4% of people said ‘Sometimes’, with the minority of 16% of people opting for ‘No’. ‘Question 6’ provided some further qualitative insight, with some people answering, ‘To give you motivation’, To give you rhythm’, and even ‘To relax the mind’. Despite the majority of answers being in favour of Karageorghis’ results, the latter did provide some interesting answers. Especially ones from ‘Question 9’ with answers such as, ‘To Concentrate’, and ‘It messes up my breathing’. These answers strongly support Edworthy’s results, that RPE is not affected by genre, tempo, etc.

My tests

After completing my tests, I found some very peculiar results that again supported Karageorghis’ findings in that music that motivates you more, improves RPE. However, I also had one result that disagrees with both authors findings.

My test results were as followed:

Preferred Genre (Rock): – 5km= 8:09mile, Mile time= 7:20, Average HR= 172bpm, RPE= 17.2

Non-Preferred Genre (DanceEDM): – 5km= 8:09mile, Mile time= 7:33, Average HR= 175bpm,

RPE= 17.5

No Music: – 5km=8:09mile, Mile time= 7:33, Average HR= 173bpm, RPE= 17.3

It is interesting to see that the results show that ‘No Music’ can be just as effective as ‘Non-Preferred’. This leads me to my final question, ‘Does music and certain musical qualities, only have a positive effect on people who exercise infrequently’. This is discussed by Dr Kimberly Brownley of North Carolina University, in a study she conducted on trained and un-trained runners. After testing, Brownley concluded, ‘Collectively, these results suggest listening to fast, upbeat music during exercise may be beneficial for untrained runners but counterproductive for trained runners.’ (Brownley:1995). This is also backed up by my earlier David Goggins quote. Since Goggins is a trained athlete who can run ultra-marathons, it is clear he doesn’t need any external motivation or distraction, whereas the average gym-goer might. This was further backed up by my questionnaire, when a total of 21 people answered ‘No’, when asked if they listen to Music when exercising. A majority of 57.14% of those same people exercised at least 3-4 days a week. These statistics are backed up according to Sara Lindberg, who holds a BS Degree in Exercise Science. Lindberg states, you should aim for ‘at least 25 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity three days per week.’ (Lindberg:2020).

Conclusion: –

After researching various studies, ideas and experiments, I have managed to narrow down my initial question, and come to a conclusion. When looking at my final question, ‘Does music and certain musical qualities, only have a positive effect on people who exercise infrequently’, I have concluded that the statement is true. I have decided this as it is backed up by qualitative data, as well as quantitative. The quantitative data is from the results of my own experimentation, whilst the qualitative being from questionnaires I have distributed. Not only is this shown from my results, but also from results from more significant sources, such as Dr. Kimberly Brownley and the studies she has conducted.

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