Music and Your Exercise Workout

Yes, music and exercise can go hand-in-hand. Music is an important aspect in a person’s life. It makes you feel good and positive. You hear music everywhere – at sporting events (football, hockey, baseball games), in your car, in nature, on TV and as background music in public places. A good movie always begins and ends with the most appropriate song for that film. Also, studies have even been done showing that people who play or have played instruments in the past tend to have better memories.

Similarly, music and exercise go hand-in-hand along. Music is important when working out because it takes your mind off part of the task at hand, pumps up your adrenaline and helps to motivate you. Often I am at the gym and the music is so low that all you can hear is the monotonous hum of the treadmills, elliptical machines and the creaking of ceiling fans. The atmosphere in the gym is absolutely dead, so I often ask the people working there to turn up the volume so that I can actually hear the music.

When I am weight training or when I am doing my ab workout at the gym, I prefer what I like to call “driving music”, in other words music with a beat, a rhythm, songs that can drive you to perform to your maximum potential and really pump you up; songs with lyrics that subliminally mention and instill in you the idea of motivation, feeling motivated and the desire to perform in order to look and feel good, the best you possibly can. What I like to listen to can vary from groups and artists like Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chicago (Feelin’ Stronger Every Day), Bon Jovi, Deep Purple to Lady Gaga and Rihanna’s Shut Up and Drive.

Of course there are so many different artists, types and genres of music that you can listen to in order to enjoy your workout. It doesn’t really matter what type of exercise activity that you are doing, there is always music that is appropriate for that physical activity and that you can enjoy while at the same time as getting fit.

The trend for the last couple of years that I have noticed particularly at the gym is for people to exercise using those high-tech, high quality and big headphones like Beats Headphones. These are headphones that provide superior and incredible sound quality.

Many people also still listen to music using either their iPhone, Smartphone or iPod which also provide for a great music listening experience but whichever device you prefer and whichever can effectively motivate you, that’s what you should be using but be careful when exercising with headphones because they do make many people oblivious to their surroundings. They cannot hear what’s happening around them or they end up in an accident. This is especially a problem outdoors for bike riders on public streets or while jogging or rollerblading, so just be careful and use caution. Personally I do not use headphones at the gym or rollerblading, but when blading I usually have a particular song in my head from memory or perhaps a memorable song has stuck in my head that I heard at my gym or elsewhere.

Technology and the Internet have also made music so easily accessible. You can create any type of playlist with your favorite songs using any device for any type of workout. You can create your own fitness music playlist using YouTube, iTunes or using free music websites like Songza that will do this for you. Although I found that their selection of music for custom playlists is rather limited because I tried to create my own exercise playlist, but couldn't find the exact songs that I was searching for, so I gave up and created my exercise playlist on YouTube.

To conclude, music can be important when exercising because of the many intangible and enjoyable benefits that it provides no matter what type of music that you prefer to listen to or how you like to listen to it.