Introduction
Music is widely used to provide entertainment and relaxation, it’s impossible in today’s world to imagine any event without the presence of music, hence inviting psychologists, sociologists and many others to research the application of music in various aspects of life. Music has given a successful leap to many industries like fashion, television and events; the list is long however it is important to notice that despite having no direct relation with these industries music has added a great value to them. In a similar fashion, music has a great impact on the fitness industry as well and there are multiple researches going on, in order to understand this impact and judge the right relation from psychological and medical perspectives to enhance the advantage. In this paper we will look at the arguments and evidences to establish that music has a very important role to play in the modern day fitness industry.
There are many factors which relate to the use of music in order to enhance the effects of exercising and suppress the fatigue feeling after exercising. Research has really helped in order to relate the exact medical reasons behind the above observation, and it will be not only interesting to analyze these factors but are these are the key reasons behind such a strong relationship between music and exercising. We will first study the commonly observed impact of music on exercising and then we will move on to the theories supporting the observations. [ CITATION Har07 \l 1033 ]
When music is played in an environment, it is observed that the sensation of fatigue due to the music is suppressed, thus making it easy to work out more and get better results. Music is an accepted method to provide a better motor co-ordination of our body, however this is also related to the type of music but this study is out of scope for our analysis. It is a widely accepted fact that music provides relaxation and hence it is an important tool to provide simultaneous relaxation while exercising. Lastly, music increases the level of mental arousal and that is how it helps to motivate an individual to put best possible efforts in his workout. [ CITATION Har07 \l 1033 ]
In order to establish the facts as mentioned above there are a couple of experiments performed and their results are observed. In the first experiment ten healthy and well-trained male participants are asked to complete two treadmill sessions of 15 minutes each. Half of the participants are subjected to music and the others complete their sessions without the music. In order to identify the stress level, heart rate, perceived exertion and stress rate, plasma lactate and norepinephrine levels are observed in the body.
The results suggest that the participants who completed their session along with music, had plasma lactate and norepinephrine component 70% lesser than the others, and therefore we can deduce that with the help of music the impact of exercise increases as acidosis and hemodynamic activity is enhanced. [ CITATION Har07 \l 1033 ]
The impact of music on exercise also depends on the kind of music which is played during a workout and in order to test that [ CITATION Jho04 \l 1033 ] conducted some experiments with Polka, Rock, Country and no music in place; the results were analyzed according to the difference in Power Output, Heart Rate, RPM and RPE. During the analysis of the results it was observed that the power output was not impact by the kind of music however it showed a decrease with no presence of music. Similarly, with the heart rate as well only the absence of music made a difference and the rest of the observations were statistically the same. As far as the RPM and RPE are concerned they showed a difference and the analysis of the difference revealed that both the RPM and RPE rates increased according to the tempo of the genre which was being observed. [ CITATION Jho04 \l 1033 ]The above mentioned experimental observations clearly suggest that music plays an important role in maintaining power output, heartbeat, RPM and RPE.
Apart from the physical and psychological aspects of the role of music in fitness, there is another factor which is really important, in a study [ CITATION Fel06 \l 1033 ] observed that according to the kind of music played and the type of music equipments are available the number of customers was greatly impacted in the Gyms in UK and this study helps us understand that music not only enhances the results from exercising but also makes it interesting and a regular activity.
Conclusion
With the results of the studies done, in order to understand the relationship between music and exercise we understand that music is definitely an important factor impacting the fitness industry and considering the wide range of researches going on, the fitness instructors and fitness centers also understand this fact.
From the experiments that we have discussed above, this fact is established that music can really help to enhance the output from the workout and not only this, it really helps to make the exercise routine interesting and results in a regular participation by people. Therefore we can conclude that music is a very important aspect of fitness industry and is proven to play a vital role in its success.
Works Cited
Falstead, Alan, Daniel Bishop and Alison Fuller. Moving to the Music: Learning Processes, Training and Productive Systems – The Case of Exercise to Music Instruction. Research. Cardiff: Cardiff School of Social Sciences,, 2006.
Harmon, Nicole M. and Len Kravitz. The Effects of Music on Exercise. 2007. 26 May 2011
Jhonson, Victor W. "EXERCISE AND ENJOYMENT." Thesis. 2004.
