Running to music breaks records

You only have to look at the runners that fill parks, mountain trails or city streets to verify that the vast majority of ‘runners’ listen to music while completing their routes. It is not a fad or a way to make the effort more bearable –which also–, there is research that shows that it improves physical performance. How? It exerts a kind of ‘doping’ effect that distracts the brain from signals of tiredness and provides motivation to reach higher goals. Experts and athletes detail the keys to the benefits of music for people who train.

«When I go running without music I do it fatally. I need my songs, they make me forget about tiredness and pain and increase my resistance. I can take it longer, calm down that part of my mind that tells me: ‘I’m not going to be able to’. Without music it becomes harder for me, ”says Amanda Ruiz, 42, who goes out to do between three and four days a week about 8 kilometers. She has the musical ‘tricks’ of her. «I listen to heavy metal and, if I do sprints, I put on rock or reggeton, very moving music, with a march. And when I’m already cooling down at a trot, I usually listen to classical music, ”adds this Cantabrian History teacher.

The high Amanda experiences when she puts on her running headphones is scientifically based. “Music produces positive stimuli in the brain. It causes the hypothalamus to secrete hormones, endorphins and dopamines, responsible for well-being, for us to feel good”, explains the Catalan doctor Pedro Berbel, a specialist in Anesthesiology and an expert in the use of music with patients. “These hormones have effects on the organs. They increase the irrigation of the muscles, making them more efficient, synchronizing the rhythm of breathing and heart rate, thereby improving physical results. You achieve greater performance with less effort”, summarizes Berbel, author of a doctoral thesis on the use of music as a tranquilizer in patients who are going to undergo surgery.

At the same time, these positive stimuli “encourage and motivate” people in such a way that they “feel less fatigue,” says the specialist. «For example, it happens when you listen to songs that you really like and you start dancing. You don’t even realize how tired you are », he says.

Professor Costas Karageorghis of Brunnet University in the UK has spent twenty years researching the effects of music on runners. He carried out a trial with Australian triathletes and put figures on this best physical performance. He specified that music “increases our resistance up to 15% if we are able to synchronize movements and rhythm.” “7% less oxygen is consumed; the fatigue perceived by the body is reduced by 10% since, although the messages of fatigue reach the brain, it is distracted thanks to the music; and multiplies motivation, so performance grows”, summarizes this research.

Concentration

But every runner is different, and for some, music isn’t a pick-me-up. “It can help some athletes and not others, as there are scientific studies that show this improvement in performance and others do not make it one hundred percent clear,” says David Barranco, professor of cycling and researcher at the European University of Madrid. This member of the General Council of Physical and Sports Education (COLEF) highlights that the beneficial effects of music have to do, mainly, with the fact that it makes us forget tiredness and favors the “rhythm” of the race. “You adapt your stride cadence – the number of steps you take when running – to the rhythm of the music and follow it automatically,” says Barranco. According to experts, one of the most effective ways to improve technique is to run at a pace of 180 steps per minute. For this reason, many athletes look for songs composed by that tempo of 180 bpm.

Barranco points out another function: «A number of athletes put on music to concentrate and isolate themselves before the races. They are calmer because they reduce the pressure around them, they avoid listening to people talking around them, which distracts them… », he highlights. What is certain, he comments, is that its use has spread among athletes and coaches as a “motivational tool.”

However, “not just any music will do,” warns Dr. Berbel. He should choose “the one that makes each one feel good.” The Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, who set world records in 5,000, 10,000 meters and the marathon, used the song ‘Scatman’, by the singer of the same name. Professor Costas Karageorghis highlights in his research that the most representative example of music having a doping effect is the figure of the greatest Olympic medalist in history, the American swimmer Michael Phelps, with 22 medals (18 gold). The Baltimore shark listened to hip hop in training and before competing.