Music and sport: Exactly in the winter of 2007 the world of sport suffered an unexpected blow:
Ban on earphones at the famous New York Marathon.
The first rumors, which led the ban to safety reasons, were useless, it was immediately declared and then demonstrated that music can modify the athlete’s performance and therefore considered as doping .
Now, beyond the ethical and moral aspect linked to this aspect, let’s try to understand how and why we arrived at this conclusion and this deprivation.
Studies of the relationship between Music and Sport
First of all, obviously, is Doctor Costas Karageorghis, scholar and expert in the sports sector at Brunel University in London. Doctor Karageorghis, after decades of studies on the subject, has not only demonstrated in the field the ability of music to increase performance , but has also managed to make a specific breakdown of how a certain song inserted at the right time has positive effects on performance. sporty .
The subdivision distinguishes:
- Pre-Race Music : acts on concentration and the state of anxiety before going into the race but also on the physiological warm-up phase, improving the athletic gestures of the preparatory routine.
- Music in Competition : when music acts directly on conditional abilities, increasing concentration and preventing fatigue from being perceived.
Another recent and important study on the subject comes from the US National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health, which in 2013 conducted tests on the relationship between musical rhythm and strength , heart rate and lactate accumulation .
The Right Song at the Right Time
Before our considerations, however, it is absolutely worth mentioning an interview given by Doctor Karageorghis to the BBC in 2014. In the above the expert explains how and why to match the characteristics of a song at a specific moment of training or competition:
- Warm-up : put on songs that inspire the athlete’s nature, with motivating phrases and medium-slow rhythms that do not consume the so-called psychological energies .
- First Phase of training : the choice of song must favor the ” Asynchronously ” method, i.e. the matching of the bpm of the song with the average heart rate required in that phase of work. All without exceeding 140 bpm (ceiling effect).
- Central Phase : In this specific part of the performance, songs are recommended that synchronize with the execution of the movements and no longer with the heart rate.
The Role of Music in the World of Fitness
Although obviously there are no studies on how music can modify performance in the various fitness disciplines, with a bit of experience in the sector I can however give my opinion and make some (absolutely debatable) considerations:
- The use of music in fitness is an ethical , clean and therefore free choice practice.
- Rhythm lovers will use earphones, regardless of the influence the music has on aerobic or anaerobic activity. The energy received from one’s playlist is perceived as an added value to the well-being of the moment and not to the performance itself.
- Music is often an aggregative tool . In musical fitness lessons for example, the genre of music used by the instructor ( in addition to obviously outlining the rhythm of the movements ) is a fundamental means for targeting the class.
- Equally common is the use of earphones with the opposite objective to the previous one, therefore a strong search for isolation . This happens not only to concentrate or train with increased potential, but simply to detach the mind from the surrounding environment to dedicate time to oneself.
When Music becomes an obstacle
As in every element that is studied and analyzed, it presents positive elements (many in the case of music) but also negative repercussions.
The musical element within training can often become an obstacle , especially in those group lessons where music should only be a background and not a priority.
Interruptions and distractions in the central phase of training are quite common due to musical tastes and volume, but the peak of the counterproductive reaction occurs when with a favorite song, the athlete commits to humming the song. Dedicating gestures and attention to the song causes the rhythm of the gesture to be lost, consequently lowering the quality of the performance and increasing the risk of injury .
In my opinion, music should not be associated with the word Doping .
If used in a certain way, it has been shown that it can increase aerobic performance and determine a rhythm track, but unlike the doping substances and practices known and considered in modern society, music does not cause physiological damage, does not create addiction, does not invades ethics and legality .
Hearing the opinions of other qualified personal trainers (who have attended a recognized personal trainer course ), music during training can give an extra boost, improving performance and reducing the feeling of tiredness.
