A Study Says That Pumping Up the Jams Will Give You a Boost in Your Strength Workout
Listening to your favorite music for a few minutes before a strength training session can boost your power and endurance, according to a new study.
Music can increase not only your desire to exercise, but may even induce your “fight or flight” response, and that, in turn, could maximize your muscular force.
If you feel like you train more effectively while you’re listening to a sweet playlist, you might be right.
A small study published in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills on bench press exercises found that those who listened to music for a few minutes before lifting showed more power and endurance than those who prepped in silence.
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Researchers recruited 10 resistance-trained men in their early 20s, and had them complete two bench press exercise trials. In one, they didn’t listen to music beforehand, and in the other, they chose pre-exercise music they enjoyed for three minutes. Then, they completed one set of bench press repetition at 75 percent of their one-rep max.
The music had a significant effect on their performance, showing increased power output and barbell velocity, which means they showed more explosiveness, strength, and endurance than reps done without music right before training. More specifically, those who listened to music before performing their bench presses increased their repetition volume by an average of 15.4 percent (about two reps) compared to those who didn’t listen to music.
One important element here is that the participants didn’t listen to music while lifting, so if you’re not fond of having music mess with your focus, you can still get benefits, according to study lead author Christopher Ballmann, Ph.D., assistant professor of kinesiology at Samford University. Consider the well-known routine of Michael Phelps, after all, or of any athlete who wears headphones as a pre-race ritual.
Another takeaway is that the music selection itself is extremely important, Ballmann told Runner’s World.
“My lab has repeatedly shown in previous research that music preferred by the exerciser results in the greatest improvements,” he said. “Self-selecting your own playlist may be an easy and effective way to optimize your performance, even if you can only listen to it before you exercise.”
For example, a 2018 study published in Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, led by Ballmann, found that when participants listened to music they preferred, they were able to increase their number of bench press reps and also had more power than when they listened to music that wasn’t their choice.
The most likely reason behind Ballmann’s findings is motivation with a touch of good stress, he added. Music can have a drastic influence on increasing not only your desire to exercise, but may even induce your “fight or flight” response, and that, in turn, could maximize your muscular force.
Best of all, it probably works for everyone, Ballmann said. Although the recent study only looked at 10 young men, he believes there’s no reason that the results would be limited that narrow demographic.
So the next time you’re gearing up for a strength session, be sure to pump up your favorite jams—you might just get the boost you didn’t know you needed.
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