I am a child of the 80s. If you scroll through my Ipod playlists you will see a musical timeline from the decade of big hair and shoulder pads. So I think my response/over-reaction was entirely within reason. How can anyone who calls themselves a child of the 80s not love Michael Jackson and Prince? And both of them? Back to back? In one class? They had me at "Michael". The hubby saw the crazed look in my eye and quickly offered his babysitting services for the night before it got ugly!
The class was awesome, completely exceeding my expectations! It was my first time taking instructors Jesse and Danielle and they were amazing, really complementing each other's teaching styles.
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| Jesse and Danielle setting us up for a fun class! |
I left feeling so pumped, on such a high. This doesn't happen after every spin class, especially not those where techno is the name of the game. Ugh! I hate those classes. Happens often when I try out a new instructor. I always leave those classes feeling so mad, more at myself for not having stuck to the tried-and-tested instructor whose playlist works for me.
This got me thinking about music and how it can be such a motivator for exercise.
Costas Karageorghis, a sports psychologist from Brunel University in London, has studied this phenomenon extensively and has shown that music not only affects motivation but it can also improve athletic performance upto 20%. Specifically, synchronization of music to repetitive exercise like running or cycling regulates movement, thereby prolonging athletic performance.
The Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebrselassie, who holds the world record of 2:03:59 at the 2008 Berlin Marathon, has credited listening to "Scatman" with setting several world records. "Scatman," a song with a tempo of 135 beats per minute (bpm) perfectly matched Haile's target stride rate, and helped him establish and sustain a steady cadence.
For best results, the tempo must concur with the preferred work rate. I found the following rather interesting table. It's from a study and gives examples of motivational music suitable for the different components of an exercise's training session.
Personally, I love running or cycling to remixes, especially 80s remixes. I find that the key here is that the song style (80s) appeals to my musical aesthetic and a remixed version switches the song up so the tempo aligns with my rhythm.
A sampling of my favorite running/spinning songs:
Kid Cudi Vs Michael Jackson (Working) Day and Night Mashup
Wanna Be Starting Something- Akon ft Michael Jackson
Hollaback Girl Vs Give It To Me (DJ Hero mix)
Come on Eileen-Dexy's Midnight Runners
Man in Motion (St. Elmo's Fire)-John Parr
Notice a theme?
Question: Does music motivate you? What style of music? Any favorite songs you'd like to share?
Note: The information from this blog post was gleaned from the following articles/references:
http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/music-sport-and-exercise-update-research-and-application
http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol10Iss2/Music.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/health/10iht-fitness.1.9126209.html
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/sundquist.html
