Music and Health: How Incorporating Music into Your Fitness Routine Can Help You
Recall the last time you heard pop music and felt like dancing along with it. How did you feel? Did the music make you feel relaxed and full of energy? Did you notice your thoughts synchronizing with the music to form a relaxed and energized state of mind?
They say that music is an international language. Well, that’s one of the greatest things about music. It has the ability to calm your soul and bring up emotions that can give you energy. The type of music that does this may be different for everyone, but generally, music makes the mind more active.
Scientific research has also shown the positive effects of music on depressed and sad people. Listening to music has been linked to an improvement in behavior and an upliftment in the mood.
However, today we’re here to discuss the effects of music on your fitness routine. Have you ever noticed that most gyms, especially the good ones, always have some background music on? Well, that music performs many functions, all of which help enhance your fitness routine, one way or the other. Here are a few ways of incorporating music into your fitness routine can help you:
Music Has Been Associated with Increased Energy Levels
The right kind of music can elevate your energy levels. You might have noticed this yourself too. After listening to songs, especially fast songs, you might have noticed an increase in your energy levels. This is often why people listen to music in order to wake themselves up and energize themselves. Increased energy levels greatly help your workout because they enable you to push your limits further and work harder!
Music Lowers Your Pain
Music helps lower the pain you feel during a long and hard workout session. It’s true that there’s no gain without the pain. However, music can lower the amount of pain you feel while working out. Music stimulates neurons in the brain, which helps block the arrival of painful stimuli to the brain. This, in turn, will help you work out harder and it will help improve your workout efficiency. After all, it’s very easy to quit squatting just after a few repetitions because they become too painful but if you’re squatting with music on, you’ll be able to do a lot more repetitions because you won’t feel as much pain. This can be especially beneficial for those who have an extreme intolerance to even the slightest amount of pain and skip workout routines thinking of the pain it may cause.
Listening to Music Increases Blood Flow
Music can increase your heart rate, especially fast music. This increase in heart rate can be beneficial for your workout because it can provide the added blood required by your muscles to perform movements efficiently. A high blood supply, in turn, reduces the accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles, making the muscles less prone to painful spasms and soreness.
Music Doesn’t Let You Get Tired
Music keeps you from feeling tired. Getting tired in the middle of a workout session is something that we’ve all faced at some point in life or the other, and the only thing that determines whether or not you’ll move forward from that point is your willpower and motivation. However, when you’re listening to music, you feel less tired and you can perform your workout routine with greater ease and efficiency.
Music Enhances Muscle Coordination
Music stimulates the part of your brain that helps control bodily movements. Therefore, in a way, music enhances the production and coordination of movements in your body. While listening to music, you can exercise a lot more efficiently even if you exercise for the same amount of time, as compared to when not listening to music.
Music as a Relaxant
Music relaxes your mind and your body. If you listen to music during your workout session, it’s more likely that you’ll enjoy your workout sessions. Thus, you will start looking forward to your workout sessions as it will become the time of the day where all of your stress goes away while you dive deep into the music and start working out. Therefore, music plays a very important role in your mood during the workout session.
Music as a Distraction
Music serves as a great way of reducing distractions and focusing on your workout, especially if you work out at a gym. While your earphones are on, nobody will bother you or try to socialize with you and you can perform your workout peacefully.
So what are you waiting for? Get yourself a pair of wireless Bluetooth earphones and start working out while listening to your favorite music!