Headphones in your ears and off to the park: running is simply better with the right music. Rhythm and melody act like a natural turbo, motivation is right, the mood rises and so does performance. The inner pig dog is buried deep under the pleasant sounds that penetrate from the in-ears into the brain. Keep running, because slacking off is not an option with music.
But be careful: not every type of music is suitable for running. When choosing the right songs, there are a few things to keep in mind: If you're a passionate ballad fan and put songs like "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion or "Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Collins on your workout playlist, you'll probably wait in vain for the desired motivational boost.
- Survivor "The Eye of the Tiger"
- The Subways "Shake! Shake!"
- Fritz Kalkbrenner "Wes"
- Alex Claire "Treading Water"
- Ed Sheeran - "Sing"
- One Republic "I Lived"
- Faithless "Insomnia"
- David Guetta, Nicki Minaj & Afrojack "Hey Mama"
- Cash Cash "Surrender"
- Empire of the Sun "Half Mast"
Many people are familiar with this: the workout is just around the corner and you feel tired and sluggish. This is mainly due to the so-called vagotonia, in which our body is put into a kind of resting state by the autonomic nervous system. Pulse and blood pressure are down and the body is busy elsewhere, mostly with digestion and regenerative processes. Through music, our system is now stimulated anew. We are thus mentally and physically more ready to take up the upcoming training. This is also confirmed by a study conducted by several sports scientists, including Marcelo Bigliassi from Brunel University in London, which was published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2015. According to the study, music before training means a measurable increase in performance.
To really get going, we should first and foremost choose powerful songs that sweep us along and motivate us. Heavy metal, house, rock or techno - the music genre doesn't really matter at first. The important thing is that you like the songs. As the sports scientist Matthew Biagini and his colleagues were able to prove in a study published in 2012 in the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research," music that we choose ourselves and that we like has a much greater effect on our performance than music that comes from outside. So whether you prefer to rev yourself up with the "Rocky" soundtrack or favor the pounding bass of a David Guetta song is up to you. What counts are the happiness hormones that are released in us when we listen to familiar melodies and that soon have a positive effect on our health.
Incidentally, positive memories that we associate with certain songs can also be of great benefit here. For example, if you set a new personal record during your last fitness workout to a special song, you will feel the motivation of the track during your next fitness workout. There are plenty of examples here, from all areas of life.
The beginning is made and we are in the middle of fitness training - now endurance and stamina are required. Here, too, the right music can give you additional strength, or rather the right beat of the music. While at the beginning it was all about a good mood and a good portion of motivation, there is now another aspect: In order for the music to have a positive effect on our performance, the songs should now be adapted to the running speed. Hammering techno beats with 150 or more beats per minute are completely unsuitable for a quiet endurance run. For beginners who are just starting to run, it is advisable to select songs in a range of 110 to a maximum of 130 BPM in order to keep the step sequence and beat as synchronized as possible.
Songs like "Wes" by Fritz Kalkbrenner or "Superlove" by Avicii feat. Lenny Kravitz provide an optimal beat - and thus form the perfect jogging background. For shorter runs with a higher tempo or interval methods, songs with a faster frequency such as "The Rockafeller Skank" by Fatboy Slim or "Pump it" by the Black Eyed Peas are of course also in order. Towards the end of the run, slower tracks help you come back down meter by meter.
Still looking for the right songs to motivate and push you? For all those who don't want to search for a long time, we have our favorite Spotifyplaylist for running.
A colorful mix, perfect for your next endurance training. This is how running is fun!
The influence of the rhythms can also be used after fitness training. What initially had an exciting effect on the autonomic nervous system is now supposed to have a calming effect. To achieve this, calm melodies are the order of the day. With their help, pulse and respiration can return to their initial state much faster, which also has a positive effect on the regeneration processes and thus on our health.
Of course, personal taste always plays a role in the effect of music. Some techno fans tend to get excited by soft songs, so they will hardly achieve the desired effect. The individual feeling for the appropriate sounds hardly deceives us. Only try it should, the suitable music is worthwhile in the sense of our well-being and the training effect.
Even during the workout, the right beats ensure an increased willingness and ability to perform. However, according to the study mentioned above, which takes the 5K run as an example, it is remarkable that music apparently only has a measurable effect on our performance at the beginning. When listening to our favorite songs, the brain initially associates positive sensations or memories, our mood lifts significantly. Thanks to this endorphin release, pain tolerance also increases, so that we perceive efforts less intensely. However, the initial euphoria gives way to more dominant physical symptoms as the training progresses. If the load and intensity increase significantly, our body focuses more strongly on the exhaustion signals again and the influence of the music decreases.
