Music and Athletic Performance

February 28, 2008 | in Hella Sound | 0 Comments

If you're on this site, you know that the right music can propel you through a workout. A good song can put you in the right frame of mind and keep you there for as long as it lasts. That's the entire basis of Hella Sound music. But I'd like to break it down for you a bit so you see where I'm coming from.

Ergogenic aids improve performance, remove psychological constraints, and increase the speed of recovery.—Wikipedia.com

In academic-speak, the right music is an ergogenic aid—an external influence that positively affects your physiological performance. Wikipedia’s definition breaks ergogenic aid benefits into 3 facets: performance improvement, minimization of distraction and increased recovery.

This is Hella Sound’s mission: We aim to provide you an ever-growing selection of music specifically designed to keep you psyched up and going for 30 minutes. Because searching for the right running music sucks almost as much as having the wrong music during a run.

I’m gonna focus on the first 2: performance improvement and removal of psychological constraints.

Performance Improvement

As a musician, I’m particularly aware of a song’s rhythmic and harmonic elements and their impact on my workout. Does the song psych me up? Does it drag me down? Are there tempo changes? Does it do the stop-start thing to a fault? Does the singer whine too much? The right BPM is of central importance, but it’s not the only factor.

In popular music terms, many of Tool’s songs (Aenema, Hooker with a Penis) resonate with me if I’m in an aggro/testosterone mood and I want to attack a workout like it stole something from me. But then Rufus Wainwright‘s Greek Song also has a serene, calm beauty to it that fits a certain mood when running. Another one is The Shins‘ Sea Legs. These are all very different songs and music styles, but within each are rhythmic and harmonic elements that are incredibly effective at improving run performance.

Psychological Constraints

You’re tired. You’re a little sore. Your sock is riding sorta weird. You’re breathing loudly (a psychological cue telling you subconsciously that something’s up). All these little distractions can detract from your workout. When you’re running and engrossed in the right song you forget all that. You’re so in the moment and focused that you don’t even notice these things. You keep your pace and you stay motivated.

Conversely...

I’m a strong believer that the wrong music can really blow a good pace. I mentioned three mass-market songs above that I like to run to, but it took a long time to find those songs, and a lot of trial and error. Good running songs from the traditional music industry are few and far between, and finding enough of them back to back can be a real hassle. Also, god forbid you put your iPod on shuffle: no sooner do you find your stride than shuffle throws you into some song that really doesn’t work with your run at all. You frantically start pushing your Next button only to be met with a string of songs that don’t work, either. Major distraction. Before you know it, you’re frustrated, you’re no longer on pace, and you’ve wasted energy on something that should be automatic and seamless.

This is how most music can be a detriment to your run.

“Music provides a timing cue,” said Professor Gfeller, who after taking an aerobics class several years ago where the teacher picked music whose tempo didn’t match the moves, was inspired to study the components of music most important to a gainful workout. “It helps you to move more efficiently, which, in turn, can help you with endurance.” —NYTimes.com