What are your thoughts when it comes to listening to music while working out? An old timer I know says it destroys concentration. At the gym where I train they often play “light” music, which really kills my energy. I often ask them to change it and when they do I feel my energy rise. Could this really be happening, or is it my imagination?

What are your thoughts when it comes to listening to music while working out? An old timer I know says it destroys concentration. At the gym where I train they often play “light” music, which really kills my energy. I often ask them to change it and when they do I feel my energy rise. Could this really be happening, or is it my imagination?

To answer your first questions, I’d have to say that whether or not one listens to music is a very personal thing. Back when I was a young gym rat there was no such thing as music at a gym. Of course, that’s if you don’t include the “music” of the clanging of plates against one another as we lifted.

Of course nowadays every gym that I know of plays music. Indeed, recent studies have shown that music can indeed boost a workout. Researchers have found that music with a beat range of 120-140 can help drive cardio workouts. Maybe not coincidentally, that is also the range at which the average adult’s heart beats during a cardio session.

Athletes in a variety of sports – from basketball to swimming to powerlifting – can often be seen rocking in their seats with a pair of headphones over their ears in the moments before a contest. Certainly they already know the power of music to affect performance.

If the gym where you train plays music that lulls you to sleep I suggest getting yourself a personal audio player with good sound isolation so you can block out the gym’s ambient noise and listen to the music that inspires you most. They say “music soothes the savage breast,” which is great almost any time, except when you’re working out.