Edited by: Marinella Coco, University of Catania, Italy
Reviewed by: Andrea Buscemi, Study Center of Italian Osteopathy, Italy; Tiziana Ramaci, Kore University of Enna, Italy
†These authors have contributed equally to this work
This article was submitted to Movement Science and Sport Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
The use of music during training represents a special paradigm for trainers to stimulate people undertaking different types of exercise. However, the relationship between the tempo of music and perception of effort during different metabolic demands is still unclear. Therefore, the aim of this research was to determine whether high intensity exercise is more sensitive to the beneficial effects of music than endurance exercise. This study assessed 19 active women (age 26.4 ± 2.6 years) during endurance (walking for 10′ at 6.5 km/h on a treadmill) and high intensity (80% on 1-RM) exercise under four different randomly assigned conditions: no music (NM), with music at 90–110 bpm (LOW), with music at 130–150 bpm (MED), and with music at 170–190 bpm (HIGH). During each trial, heart rate (HR) and the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were assessed. Repeated analysis of variance measures was used to detect any differences between the four conditions during high intensity and low intensity exercise. RPE showed more substantial changes during the endurance exercises (11%), than during high intensity exercise (6.5%), between HIGH and NM conditions. The metabolic demand during the walking exercise increased between NM and HIGH bpm conditions. This study indicates the benefits of music under stress conditions as well as during endurance and high intensity training. The results demonstrate that the beneficial effects of music are more likely to be seen in endurance exercise. Consequently, music may be considered an important tool to stimulate people engaging in low intensity physical exercise.
The psychophysiological effects of music have been widely investigated in both psychology (
However, music remains a subjective experience and
In the neurophysiological context, it has been demonstrated that music influences processes in the autonomic nervous system and can even be used to regulate blood pressure and heart rate (HR) (
With respect to attention, listening to music during physical activity has been described in the literature as a dissociative cognitive strategy that enables a shift in attention away from subjective experiences of discomfort or pain (
As mentioned previously, the literature describes the capacity of music to shift the focus away from feelings of discomfort and fatigue and this has been demonstrated through the assessment of the rating of perceived exertion (RPE). In particular, it has been found that reduced RPE with music is associated with low to moderate intensity exercise, but not high intensity exercise (
However, to the best of our knowledge there have been no studies to date that have linked the effect of two different exercise types on the RPE under different music conditions. This study investigated the RPE after low intensity and high intensity exercise, conducted under different music conditions.
Nineteen female participants ranging from 24 to 31 years old were enrolled for the present study. All participants regularly performed physical activity three to five times a week and a good proportion of the participants were involved in physical fitness. The following participant information was collected: mass, height, BMI (body mass index, obtained by dividing the weight in kg of the participant with the square of the height expressed in meters), training experience [endurance intensive effort and/or high intensity effort (
Characteristics of participants.
Mass (kg) | Height (cm) | BMI (kg/m2) | Age (years) | Theoretical maximal HR (bpm) | Training experience | Training experience (years) | |
Participant 1 | 67.2 | 175 | 22.0 | 24 | 187 | EIE | 16 |
Participant 2 | 61.3 | 168 | 21.7 | 26 | 186 | EIE | 13 |
Participant 3 | 63.8 | 170 | 22.1 | 24 | 190 | EIE | 12 |
Participant 4 | 67.5 | 177 | 21.6 | 26 | 175 | EIE | 15 |
Participant 5 | 56.6 | 167 | 20.3 | 29 | 186 | HIE | 7 |
Participant 6 | 63.9 | 175 | 20.9 | 31 | 184 | EIE | 3 |
Participant 7 | 62.0 | 173 | 20.3 | 25 | 185 | EIE | 14 |
Participant 8 | 48.9 | 160 | 19.1 | 24 | 179 | HIE | 2 |
Participant 9 | 61.3 | 169 | 21.5 | 24 | 177 | EIE | 1 |
Participant 10 | 57.4 | 165 | 21.1 | 24 | 190 | HIE | 5 |
Participant 11 | 53.0 | 170 | 18.3 | 24 | 170 | HIE | 1 |
Participant 12 | 62.9 | 164 | 23.4 | 25 | 185 | HIE | 3 |
Participant 13 | 70.0 | 170 | 24.2 | 29 | 184 | EIE | 11 |
Participant 14 | 53.7 | 170 | 18.6 | 31 | 187 | HIE | 7 |
Participant 15 | 61.3 | 157 | 24.9 | 27 | 187 | HIE | 0.6 |
Participant 16 | 57.3 | 177 | 18.3 | 31 | 178 | EIE | 2 |
Participant 17 | 54.5 | 170 | 18.9 | 27 | 184 | HIE | 1 |
Participant 18 | 55.0 | 168 | 19.5 | 26 | 184 | EIE | 4 |
Participant 19 | 54.5 | 173 | 18.2 | 25 | 188 | EIE | 3 |
MEAN | 59.58 | 169.37 | 20.78 | 26.42 | 183.47 | – | 6.35 |
SD | 5.65 | 5.30 | 2.02 | 2.57 | 5.31 | – | 5.39 |
The participants were enrolled in different fitness centers located in Rome using a convenience sampling based on the following inclusion criteria: (1) female gender; (2) age between 18 and 35 years old; (3) at least 1 year of experience in fitness training (minimum three to five session of training per week; and (4) at least high school graduation. To assure the safety of the procedure and the correct interpretation of the data the following exclusion criteria were instead applied: (1) presence of relevant disease or other condition (temporary or permanent) incompatible with the proposed interventions; (2) history of relevant cardiopulmonary disease; (3) BMI > 25 kg/m2; (4) presence of relevant disease or other condition (temporary or permanent) potentially influencing the physical performance of the participant. The participants were all volunteers and were invited for an individual appointment in a Sports Science Laboratory in order to explain them the procedure of the study and in order to collect the information via survey. The survey aimed to investigate and collect the data reported in
Each participant was asked to perform two different training sessions: (1) walking at 6.5 km/h (endurance exercise) on a treadmill for 10 min to reach a steady state (
The Shapiro–Wilk test was used to evaluate the normality of the data distribution. Successively, multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures (RM-MANOVA) was conducted to determine whether significant differences existed between the four different music conditions. This was considered as the factor of the analysis (named CONDITION). The following five variables were considered dependent variables: aHRwalking (average HR during walking at 6.5 km/h); pHRwalking (peak HR during walking at 6.5 km/h); RPEwalking (RPE during walking at 6.5 km/h); 1-RMlp (one-repetition maximum during leg-press); and RPElp (RPE during leg-press). The alpha test level for statistical significance was set at
On leg-press exercise the 1-RM was 133.26 ± 41.78 kg with the starting load of 62.11 ± 4.19 kg and concluded with 4.21 ± 1.90 sets/3.32 ± 0.89 reps. The ICC for external load time (treadmill/leg-press) on the four conditions was >0.985 for high intensity and endurance exercises, respectively. The results of the RM-MANOVA indicated significant differences between the four conditions (
Results with pairwise comparisons among the four music conditions.
Dependent variables | Music conditions | Mean | SD | 95% CI |
Pairwise comparisons |
||||
Lower | Upper | NM vs. | LOW vs. | MED vs. | HIGH vs. | ||||
aHRwalking (bpm) | NM | 83.37 | 4.166 | 81.360 | 85.376 | LOW: |
NM: |
NM: |
NM: |
LOW | 95.79 | 4.237 | 93.747 | 97.832 | MED: |
MED: |
LOW: |
LOW: |
|
MED | 99.47 | 3.289 | 97.888 | 101.059 | HIGH: |
HIGH: |
HIGH: |
MED: |
|
HIGH | 110.11 | 4.054 | 108.151 | 112.059 | |||||
pHRwalking (bpm) | NM | 95.95 | 4.731 | 93.667 | 98.228 | LOW: |
NM: |
NM: |
NM: |
LOW | 104.37 | 4.044 | 102.419 | 106.318 | MED: |
MED: |
LOW: |
LOW: |
|
MED | 109.05 | 4.020 | 107.115 | 110.990 | HIGH: |
HIGH: |
HIGH: |
MED: |
|
HIGH | 125.37 | 4.044 | 123.419 | 127.318 | |||||
RPEwalking (Borg’s scale score) | NM | 9.26 | 0.653 | 8.948 | 9.578 | LOW: |
NM: |
NM: |
NM: |
LOW | 8.58 | 0.692 | 8.245 | 8.913 | MED: |
MED: |
LOW: |
LOW: |
|
MED | 8.05 | 0.848 | 7.644 | 8.461 | HIGH: |
HIGH: |
HIGH: |
MED: |
|
HIGH | 7.47 | 0.772 | 7.101 | 7.846 | |||||
1RMlp (kg) | NM | 133.26 | 41.777 | 113.127 | 153.399 | LOW: |
NM: |
NM: |
NM: |
LOW | 133.26 | 41.777 | 113.127 | 153.399 | MED: |
MED: |
LOW: |
LOW: |
|
MED | 133.26 | 41.777 | 113.127 | 153.399 | HIGH: |
HIGH: |
HIGH: |
MED: |
|
HIGH | 136.47 | 43.004 | 115.746 | 157.201 | |||||
RPElp (Borg’s scale score) | NM | 16.26 | 1.447 | 15.566 | 16.961 | LOW: |
NM: |
NM: |
NM: |
LOW | 15.89 | 1.595 | 15.126 | 16.663 | MED: |
MED: |
LOW: |
LOW: |
|
MED | 15.53 | 1.541 | 14.784 | 16.269 | HIGH: |
HIGH: |
HIGH: |
MED: |
|
HIGH | 15.21 | 1.228 | 14.618 | 15.803 |
Rating of perceived exertion (RPE) in both exercises during the four conditions. *
The results of this study support the findings of other studies regarding the effects of music on cognitive motor processes (
As mentioned previously, music perception involves both cortical and sub-cortical areas, but it has an effect on the whole brain. Music influences emotional responses (i.e., the limbic system), associate/automatic movements (i.e., the basal ganglia), coordination (i.e., the cerebellum), and the organization and planning of movements (motor, pre-motor, and supplementary motor areas). The rhythmic patterns of music facilitate error correction and the execution of movements (
This study presents some limitations. First, the results refer to a physically trained adult female population. Consequently, these results need to be confirmed for other populations such as male subjects, untrained people, older people, or adolescents. Furthermore, music cannot be described only using tempo, but also other characteristics need to be considered such as lyrics, melody, and genre. These characteristics were not considered in this study, but they could influence the performance of the participant. Also, the preference of the participants concerning their musical preferences were not collected and considered in the present study. Finally, the effect in the different moments of the same exercise was not considered as in previous study (
This study indicates the benefits of listening to music under physical stress conditions as well as during endurance and high intensity training. The results of this study demonstrate that the beneficial effects of music are more apparent for endurance exercise. Consequently, music may be considered an important tool to stimulate people engaging in physical exercise. The finding of this study underlines the efficacity of the tempo of music in improving the performance and simultaneously reducing the RPE during the exercises. With this in mind, it is important to understand how this music influence can be used to improve training load and performance in trained people, but also the risk of an “altered” RPE during the exercise (both endurance and high intensity) needs to be clarified.
The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the local Ethics Committee. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.
VP, JP, and AD: conceptualization and writing. JP and EI: methodology and formal analysis. EI and LA: validation. DČ, AM, and VP: investigation. LA, DČ, and AM: resources. EI: data curation. AD and JP: review and editing. AD: supervision.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.