Does Listening to Music Help You Work Out? Yes! Here’s How Music Can Improve Your Workout

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Whether you’re working out indoors or going for a long run, music should be on your list of essential exercise equipment - right up there with water, a yoga mat, dumbbells, the right footwear, and a good sports bra.  It’s not just because music can make a workout more fun (it can) but it can also make your workout more effective. Here are some of the reasons why the right music can improve how you exercise along with tips and tools for getting the most out of the soundtrack to your workout. 

There’s a Neuro Connection Between Movement and Music

There’s a reason some songs just make you want to get up and dance. Music stimulates almost every part of our brains including the brain stem, cochlear nuclei, the hippocampus, the frontal lobe, and the cerebellum. That last one being the part of our brain which is involved in the coordination and timing of movement. The way we physically respond to music is related to a phenomenon called auditory-motor synchronization which causes us to match our movements to a musical rhythm. Its the force behind that irrepressible instinct we have to nod, tap, or dance to a tune. 

Even people without any musical training have an innate ability to “keep the beat” because a sense of tempo may be an ability we are born with. That link between, rhythm, our brains, and our bodies makes music a natural companion to any activity that includes movement, especially exercise. 

Music Can Lift Your Mood and Distract You

Several studies suggest that music can boost your mood under a number of circumstances, which can be particularly useful when you’re working out. Listening to music can stimulate your brain to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in making us feel happy. Working out also produces dopamine, so pairing music with exercise, kind of helps you double down on dopamine. The positive emotions you feel serve as a counter-balance for strain as well as an endurance booster. 

There’s also evidence that external sources that compete for your attention can be effective in decreasing ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) during low-to-moderate intensity exercise. This means that music you enjoy can be a valuable distraction from pain and fatigue and can affect the way your brain perceives time allowing you to workout for longer, whether you realize it or not.

In short, the music itself makes you feel good and it distracts you from the effort you’re putting into your workout. That reaction makes the whole process seem a little easier. As an added bonus, listening to songs you like with lyrics that empower you, builds on this response by strengthening other positive associations in your brain. 

Music Can Help with Pace and Performance

This is a big one, and potentially the most impactful reason to score your workouts - it can make everything you’re doing more consistent and effective. 

Listening to music, particularly while doing rhythmic exercises, can help you achieve the right cadence and keep it steady. Findings imply that running with motivational music that has a prominent and consistent beat, which is matched to a runner’s cadence, can help to elevate physiological effort. Additionally, “the consistent and correct cadence induced by auditory-motor synchronization helps to optimize running economy.”

Basically, the right tunes can help you to run harder and more efficiently. 

Everyone has go-to songs that motivate and distract them but finding the right songs for working out can be a matter of science, and that begins with finding your current stride rate. 

Find Your Stride Rate

To start, determine your current stride rate by counting the number of times that your left leg hits the ground during a span of 30 seconds. Take that number, quadruple it, and there you have your stride count. You can use that baseline number to pace yourself throughout workouts and set new goals by striving to raise your stride rate incrementally. 

Find the Right BPM

Music comes into play when you match your stride rate to songs with a corresponding BPM. A song’s BPM, is the number of beats per minute that make up the tempo. By coordinating your stride rate with your BPM you can find the right soundtrack to maintain or improve your pace. 

But using music and BPM to optimize your workout pace and performance isn’t just for runners. Any kind of workout can benefit from choosing music with complimentary BPM. Here is the suggested BPM for various types and phases of exercise:

• Cooling down after exercise: 60 to 90 BPM

• Crossfit & HIIT: 140 to 180 BPM

• Cycling: 135 to 180 BPM

• Dance & Zumba: 130 to 170 BPM

• Jogging: 120 to 140 BPM

• Running: 150 10 175 BPM 

• Swimming: 99 to 125 BPM

• Walking: 135 to 140 BPM

• Warming up for exercise: 100 to 140 BPM

• Weight Lifting: 108 to 150 BPM

• Yoga/Pilates: 60 to 90 BPM

Those broad ranges can help accommodate you as you grow from where you are, to where you want to be. You should also use an ebb and flow of songs throughout your workout, so that you can warm-up, push hard, ease off, and cool down in time with the music. 

These tools can help with creating your playlist:

• Song BPM - Find the BPM for your favorite songs

• BPM Database - Find songs for any BPM

• Sort Your Music - Reorganize your Spotify lists by BPM

As as you narrow down your selections, pick songs you like (which you’d probably do anyway), and think about motivational lyrics to help maximize your effort and positivity. 

Maybe you’re thinking about switching from TV to iTunes or maybe you already use music religiously in your workouts but want to do it better. Either way, we have to think it helps to get the full sense of how music relates to exercise. It starts with the fact that our brains are hard-wired so that we basically can’t help but move to the music. Add to that, music produces happy hormones and creates a distraction. Then top it off with the fact that beat-to-stride coordination can be the tactical skill that takes your progress to the next level. 

So whether your looking to “just get through” your next workout or you’re going for a new personal best, music is the perfect workout partner to help you achieve both goals.

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