Do you listen to music when you workout? If so, do you feel like it helps you have a better workout? The answer is probably yes! Research has shown that listening to music while exercising allows people to enjoy exercising more, perceive it to be less difficult, and encourages people to exercise harder.
Music can be used in a few different ways. If you are someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy exercise, music can be used as a distraction from the workout by giving you something else to focus on! In this case, put on whatever your favorite tunes are! Pop, oldies, rap, heavy metal, rock, techno, whatever keeps you distracted and gets you through it!
Music can also be used to help keep you on a certain pace or tempo during your workout. We often use this during group exercise classes such as spinning or Zumba, but it can also be used for individual workouts such as running. If you are wanting to use your music to keep you on pace during a run, you want to make sure you put slower paced songs at the beginning of your playlist. People often tend to think that they need something fast paced at the beginning to get pumped up, but that can cause you to go too fast too soon. This is especially important in a race! You already have the energy of the environment and people around you that will make you want to go faster at the beginning anyway, so it’s important to have those first few songs be a little slower to keep your pace under control. Since real races aren’t happening right now, give this a try on a regular run or any cardio workout and see if the music helps keep you on pace!