By Zara Michales -
Personal trainer ZARA MICHALES shares the science behind the endorphin-boosting power of music on your training regime.
When you’re out on a morning run and your favourite song comes on, how do you feel? When your spin instructor turns up a song with a great beat in the dire final seconds of the class – do you collapse, or push harder?
Most of us have experienced that magical phenomenon whereby music helps you find energy reserves you didn’t know you had in order to pump out a few extra reps, spin a little quicker, or run a little faster. This is not just a feeling – there’s science behind how music can boost your performance.
Powerful beats can increase power
Music can move us to feel all sorts of emotions, but during a workout you want to feel powerful, motivated and strong. A 2015 study by US researchers at Northwestern University, Illinois, found that music can evoke this feeling and even produce power-related thinking and behaviour. The researchers found that upbeat and rhythmic music with a strong bassline made the participants in the study feel most powerful, which could translate into more power when lifting weights or sprinting.
