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Music and athletic performance
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
It’s proven that music brings pleasure to our lives. It’s a tool used in many therapies precisely because of its power over the human mind; you only have to see how babies react to it. The same is true in sports; it has a direct impact that makes us better, helps us perform better, and allows us to enjoy training. At the Tenerife Athletics Center (CIAT), we see this every day.
If we stop to think about our attitude when we have one type of music or another during training, we’ll see how our performance can change. It’s been shown that fast-paced music, with a faster rhythm, encourages us to keep up and, for example, makes us run faster.
The effect of music on our training
Music increases our capacity. Music can increase levels of productivity, strength, and endurance, according to this study. It has also been shown that fast, loud music helps us perform optimally, as we have already mentioned.
It reduces fatigue. Music makes us lose track of time and immerses us in the moment, distracting us from the effort we are making. This results in decreased fatigue and reduced body aches.
It increases concentration. Depending on the sport we practice, one type of music or another will be more suitable, although the most important thing is that we like it. Energetic music will help us if we do physical sports like athletics, but it would be detrimental to other sports like golf or archery, for which we would need much more relaxing music. Ultimately, what music does is help us concentrate on our goals.
It increases cardiovascular capacity. If we listen to music we like during training, cardiovascular capacity could increase by up to 15%, according to another study carried out by researchers at Brunel University (United Kingdom).
