For those looking to keep your heart rate up during cardio, it may be as simple as listening to up-tempo music during your workout.
Testing up-tempo music’s effects on cardio
New research published in Frontiers in Psychology evaluated the influence of faster music on cardio and fatigue. The team recruited 19 women (ages 24 to 31) to exercise three to five times a week. The calculated the BMI, maximum heart rate and mass for each volunteer and noted each participant’s degree of physical fitness training (endurance exercise or high-intensity training or both).
Each volunteer completed either endurance exercise (e.g., a treadmill) or high-intensity training (e.g., weightlifting) on separate days four times. The scientists varied the music tempo for three of the sessions and the fourth session included no music.
The music (which was randomly shuffled for balance) included:
- Low tempo (which was 90-110 beats per minute)
- Medium tempo (which was 130-150 beats per minute)
- High tempo (which was 170-190 beats per minute)
After each session, the team recorded the volunteers’ heart rate during the exercise and when it was over, they calculated the average and peak heart rate. The researchers also asked the participants about their level of fatigue.
The results
Up-tempo music proved to have the most beneficial effects during endurance sessions.
“We found that listening to high-tempo music while exercising resulted in the highest heart rate and lowest perceived exertion compared with not listening to music,” explains the study’s author, Luca P. Ardigo from the University of Verona. “This means that the exercise seemed like less effort, but it was more beneficial in terms of enhancing physical fitness.”
But why would music play such an important role? According to the authors, there are two reasons:
- “Repeated movements seem to be related to the phases between pulse music beats, stimulating a feedback/forward loop” and that rhythm might improve the execution of movements.
- “Music regulates processes in the autonomic nervous system and can be used to regulate the cardiovascular system with regard to both heart rate and blood pressure.”
