Effect of Music Intensity on Performance during ad libitum Cycle Ergometer Exercise (póster)

Abstract

This is the poster presented on the topic at the 2013 American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting. Many people see aerobic exercise as boring and unpleasant, and require a high intrinsic motivation to train. Listening to music during exercise is a tested method with a positive influence, but specific physiological responses to music need to be understood in light of the fact that it has several elements (rhythm, tempo, intensity, etc.) which may affect people differently. Meanwhile, many health club employees and clients are regularly exposed to highintensity music which may cause temporary or permanent auditory injury; apparently, some instructors perceive that the louder the music, the better theperformance or effort. PURPOSE: To determine if heart rate (HR), perceived effort (PE), and spontaneous work (WORK) are influenced by the intensity of individually selected motivational music at 100-130 beats per minute (bpm). METHODS: 7 females and 3 males (21.1 ± 3.41 y.o.; 1.67 ± 0.09m; 63.38 ± 10.16 kg) each performed three experimental sessions after one familiarization trial and one maximum heart rate test on different days, all separated by at least 1 day of rest. After a 5 min warm-up on an electromagnetically braked cycle ergometer, each participant pedaled for 16 minutes at a self-selected power: they started at 100 W and signaled the test administrator to increase or decrease the workload as often as desired. Experimental sessions without music (WM), with music at 75 (M75) or music at 95 (M95) decibels (dB) were assigned in random order in a repeated-measures design. Resting HR was measured before each exercise test. HR, PE and WORK were recorded at 8 and 16 minutes of the test. RESULTS: Two-way, repeated measures ANOVAs on HR, PE and WORK showed no significant interactions between treatments and measurement times (p>0.05). No significant differences among treatments were found for HR (182.8±15.80, 186.5±13.41, and 186±13.38 bpm, p>0.05), PE(6.75±2.20, 7.3±2, 7.5±1.9, p>0.05), or WORK (106±11.98, 113.2±12.30, 109.6±20.30 KJ, p>0.05) for WM, M75, and M95, respectively. CONCLUSION: Under the specific conditions of this study, the presence of preferred music had no effect on HR or PE in spite of performing similar amounts of spontaneous work; this was not influenced by music intensity. The use of music as a means to increase spontaneous work performance or decrease perceived or actual effort is not warranted.