Taylors Tunes: Elevate Your Workout with the Power of Music

Apple Music has the ability to enhance athletic performance by physiologically and psychologically impacting exercise. It can improve speed, strength, and overall ability during workouts. Music activates every area of the brain and can affect mood and behavior. Research shows that music can distract the brain, boost endurance, improve coordination, and make workouts more enjoyable. Different types of music can trigger different physical responses. Personalized playlists can have a positive impact on mood and performance. Music can also be used to enhance mood, self-esteem, and confidence in athletes. Overall, music can significantly improve athletic performance and make workouts more effective and enjoyable. Welcome to Taylor's Tunes, elevate your workout with the power of music where the beats begin and stories unfold. Today, we're diving into a world of Apple Music, your gateway to a symphony of sounds and a playlist of possibilities. I'm your host, Taylor Ha. And let's press play on another episode filled with musical moments. Does Apple Music have the ability to enhance performance? Could the songs you choose to listen to actually impact your athletic performance? Some say that Apple Music is equivalent to a performance enhancing drug. Music has the ability to physiologically and psychologically enhance your exercise, performance, and even endurance. Hey, so I play Division I lacrosse here at Johns Hopkins. I mean, if music can help me score more goals in a playing time, I have to know. But this is not just a thing for the hardcore athlete. Even regular folks like to throw in some beats during their workouts. In today's discussion, we'll explore the impact of listening to music on athletic performance, focusing on how it can enhance speed, strength, and overall ability during workouts. Peter Rubin, a senior correspondent at Wired, shared, These days, we hear music all the time. It wakes us up, motivates our workouts, keeps us company on our commutes. It doesn't matter what kind of music it is, music itself has the ability to affect our moods and our bodies in all sorts of ways. We nod our heads, we sway, we dance. Music can give us chills, even make us cry. Music activates every area of the brain that we have so far mapped. In fact, there's no area of the brain that we know about that music doesn't touch in some way. Music goes beyond pure auditory pleasure. In observing my listening habits over three days, I discovered that the way I use Apple Music served to enrich my daily experience. The task in front of me had a substantial impact on the kind of music I listened to. Apple Music served a variety of purposes for me during my day. My electric playlist woke me up and prepared me to perform in early morning practices. I turned to my worship playlist to relax my anxious and swirling thoughts from the chaos of college work hit. Apple Music heightened my focus while reading. My go-to Pure Calm playlist that was created by Apple Music Wellbeing helped to slow my brain and prepare me for sleep. Apple Music served as a reliable companion in helping me to navigate a variety of scenarios. So, after careful consideration, I was determined to investigate the effect Apple Music listening can have on my workout performance. Can listening to specific chosen genres at a given time serve to improve my own performance? Now, let's listen in to this snippet from the TestTube Plus podcast entitled Is Music a Performance Enhancer? Use music to better themselves. How you can take music and use it to your advantage. If music has all these involuntary effects on our brains, it changes how we look at the world around us and it affects everything that it touches, really. Have you ever thought about how you may put on music or if you don't put on music when you need to study or read or do something active? Oftentimes, when you sit down to study, people will put on calming music, although some people will put on very active music. When you're sad, you might put on sad music or you might try to cheer yourself up with happy music. The streaming service Spotify has literally hundreds of playlists just dedicated to people's moods. Songs for blank. And they have things like Life Sucks, Rainy Days, Sunny Days. There's even a PMS playlist. It's actually not bad. Check it out. There are tons of studies on how music affects our behavior. Okay, so check it out. I was reading this article on how different music genres can seriously amp up your workout. Julia Delete says it's not just about making your ears happy. Music can actually impact how you perform. So in my own little experiment, I noticed that cranking up some high-intensity tunes totally helped me operate at my highest capacity. According to research, music isn't just background noise. It's a legitimate motivator. It distracts your brain, throws you in the zone, as Delete puts it, and you know what? It tricks you into thinking you're not working as hard, making it way easier to kick off and finish that workout. It's like your own personal cheerleader, encouraging you to keep going longer than you planned. And get this. The music that syncs up your moves, it's not just a groove thing. It can actually make your body use more energy effectively. My nose totally backed us up. When I blast some upbeat Apple music on my way to practice, I end up walking faster and rocking it during my sessions. Turns out syncing your exercise speed with the right tunes can boost coordination and make you a fitness rock star. Meet Professor Kostas Karagodis, a real guru when it comes to how music affects our performance. This guy's a heavyweight with over 100 studies under his belt, and he's got the lowdown on how music can seriously amp up our game in four cool ways. First off, music is like a distraction ninja. Taking your mind off the steak. According to Karagodis, music can make you feel like you're putting in 12% less effort and boost your endurance by a whopping 15%. That's like having a secret weapon in your workout playlist. Then there's this magical state called the zone. Music can teleport you there. It's like you're in this flow when you're crushing it and the workload feels like a breeze. And check this out. Music's your rhythm buddy. It helps you find that perfect pace and stick to it. Sticking up your moves to the beat keeps you going strong for way longer. They even call it synchronized music movement. Sounds like a dance party workout, right? Lastly, the cherry on top. Music turns any activity into a joyride. Why is that, you say? Let's just say you listen to lively and fast-paced tunes during your workout. Music has the ability to make time fly by, keeping things from getting boring or feeling like they're dragging on. So not only does it make you perform better, but it also makes your workout way more fun. Karagogy knows his stuff and he's basically giving us the ultimate soundtrack for success. And now in comes another article that rocked my world called The Influence of Music Preference on Exercise Responses and Performance A Review. This research is all about how music can seriously amp up your workout game. Like whether you're into jogging, sprinting, or lifting weights, cranking up some tunes can actually boost your performance. In 2018, Ballman's crew did a study on how listening to your favorite or not-so-favorite jams can affect your bench press skills. Crazy, right? And get this, different types of exercises trigger different physical responses and music plays a role in stuff like heart rate, calcamines, by the way, that's a fancy word for chemicals made by the nerves in our cells that send signals to other cells, and muscle activation, making us perform better overall. And how about this? Turns out whether you're jamming to your favorite tunes or cringing at the ones playing during your workout can seriously mess with how well you perform. It's not just about the beat, it's a whole deal that messes with your body and mind. Sure, you can pop in your headphones to take control, but when the gym's splashing your tunes for everyone it could be a game changer for how we all rock our workouts. So, next time you join a gym, go in and preview their tunes. If you're not feeling their vibe, it may actually limit your fitness outcome. Check out this selection from ASAP Science Daily episode on music as a performance-enhancing drug. Music can really set a mood. A little classical or jazz might relax your whole body while pop or rock music can get your blood pumping for a night out on the town. But if music can seemingly enhance a mindset or help you resist mental fatigue, can it also affect athletic performance? The term synchronous music refers to simple songs with a strong beat that coincide with the repetitive movements of a sport. And it's this type of music that leads to a higher work output in athletes, particularly in sports that involve endurance with rhythmic or repetitive movements such as cross-country skiing. This is put into practice as Haile Gebrselassie famously synchronized his running stride to the rhythmical pop song Scatman when breaking the 10,000 meter world record. Studies show that music can act as both a cognitive and physical stimulant especially when the music has a personal meaning For athletes who suffer from pre-competition anxiety music can be used to enhance mood, self-esteem, and confidence. Even during competition, music can narrow an athlete's attention, diverting focus away from sensations of fatigue. In studies of athletes using music, those who listened to pop songs during training or warm-ups had higher heart rates and an increasing tool. So get this, music isn't just about beats and lyrics. It can totally affect your mood and how you perform. One article I read called Mind, Mood, and Body and it's wild. Apparently, just having music in your daily life can release some dopamine vibes. You know, the happy neurotransmitter. It's like your own little mood booster. And here's the cool part. Apple Music is all about giving you the power to create playlists that match your vibes. Like no two people are going to feel the same about the same song, right? So Apple Music takes notes from your history and playlists to suggest tunes that'll hit the spot. It's like having your own personal DJ. And let me tell you, when your music is on point, it's not just about enjoyment. It actually helps you step up your game. Props to Apple Music for boosting our performance one playlist at a time. Additionally, here's another clip from the ASAP Science Daily episodes which discusses music as a performance-enhancing drug. Athletes are told they can use music during training sessions only once they have reached a specific productivity level. Does music work best? Almost all findings found that listening to music, period, regardless of composition or speed, enhanced performance compared to no music. However, music with an upbeat tempo of greater than 120 beats per minute yielded the greatest improvements. Science says, make a pump-up playlist full of your favorite upbeat songs of the time and blast the competition away. Guys, this stuff is true. I saw it firsthand. Music lifted my mood and served as an adrenaline boost that helped me prepare to compete. As soon as I started listening to Apple Music, I was confident that I would receive the benefits it provides. My playlists provide me with a familiar hit of dopamine that increases my mood and releases positive endorphins. If I needed a jolt of energy before a workout, my workout playlist was there to help. A run on the treadmill was a lot easier when I cranked up my running playlist. I can't imagine attempting to finish a three-mile run while listening to classical music. On the treadmill, I found myself pushing to run at the same pace as the beat I was listening to. When it was time to get down to business and attack the books, my music with minimal lyrics created a consistent background that helped to minimize distractions and allowed me to maintain my concentration. I prepared to slow down and sleep for the night. I chose to play my playlist. It signaled my brain that it was time to lie down and prepare me for sleep. The slow tempo and gentle melodies made me all zen in no time. And the people that really know this stuff, the ones that do the real research, they agree. You know what's pretty awesome? Researchers say music has this magical power to chill you out, drop your heart rate and bring down your blood pressure. Like who needs meds when you have music? Hold up. There's more from the TestTube Plus series on music. Listen to this. Music, if you've taken anything away from this series, helps generate positive feelings. It correlates to our memories and it helps kind of make us better. Music can crank internal motivations, it can trigger good emotions and researchers believe that by listening to music, people can stick with an exercise program for longer periods of time. I don't know about you, but I listen to music when I work, when I really want to get into that flow state and just work really hard because music helps drown out extraneous noises and things that might bother me. After all this exciting news, I am, however, still left with some unanswered questions. Do people have the same brain response to upbeat music? Would high anxiety athletes perform better with more calming music before engaging in competition? Do some students concentrate better with up-tempo music or with more calming rhythms? Does a person's past memories or personal experiences with music affect their brain's response? More research is needed to uncover the answers to all these questions. For now, let's just stop and digest the fact that your Apple Music really does affect your performance. If we can continue to investigate and unlock the link between music and performance, this is a game changer. If we can determine what music affects us in what ways, we may have the key to creating an advantage for ourselves in achieving our goals. All with just the click of a playlist. Does your classical music playlist help you to focus more when reading? Does your pump-up playlist actually help you perform better? Research says it does. So let's unlock the potential benefits behind Apple Music. Let's optimize performance and our own mental state by harnessing the power of Apple Music's libraries and personalized recommendations. Let's not be naive. Let's embrace the benefits of Apple Music. I hope this podcast will spark your curiosity and encourage you to analyze your performance as you listen to Apple Music. Together, let's capitalize on the Apple Music app to achieve greater success and satisfaction in our lives. Thank you.