So I was going through my normal morning ritual of checking out some other affiliate websites and I came across this article. Were they discuss how music impacted peoples performance while exercising. Volunteers were put on spin bikes and told to cycle for 30 minutes. They were given music to listen to while exercising, some were given faster music and some slower music. After it was all done the people who had the faster music covered more distance and had a faster pace through out the 30 minutes (no real surprise here).

As with lots of studies involving exercise I come across, I feel there are some things that need to be pointed out. First off, the instructions were to ride at a pace they could "comfortably maintain for 30 minutes." Which essentially means zone-out and keep moving. So is it really any surprise that listening to faster music while doing a mono-structural event for 30 minutes with no real goal had an effect on the pace? I could totally see this study being used for a new "fitness dvd"... "with our signature tempo paced music you will move faster and burn more calories and lose those un-wanted pounds easier then ever before... with out even knowing it!"

So what does this mean for our Elysium Athletes? I would say it means mostly... a whole bunch of nothing.

But coach, didn't the article just say that listening to my favortie music will make me faster?

NO. Have you ever heard us say, "finish this workout at a comfortable pace." If we went through the workouts on auto pilot and zoned out... then having faster music playing probably would make people move faster.

Below is a Rate Perceived Exertion Scale. Many exercise classes in the globo gym world use this as a guide for the people in the classes. I would be willing to guess that the riders in the study were probably staying around 2-4 on the scale? I would be willing to bet the the farther up you go in the scale the less impact music will have on performance. To take this back to the Elysium setting... were would you guess we operate at 90% of the time? I would say that our facility would have to get a whole

new scale that goes up to 11! Then we would probably hover between 9.5 and 11 on any given day. As all of you know, going that hard with the types of moves we use... going on auto pilot doesn't happen and doesn't work. There should be so much mental talk going on, either with remembering form, coaching yourself through the wod... or just counting reps and rounds that you can't hear the world around you... except for your coach giving you queues and advice of course.

I know every one has their preference of music style, favorite artist and so on... but none of that should matter during a CrossFit workout... did any of you hear the music playing during the Left Coast Invitational? No, of course you didn't... you were focused on the task at hand and you worked your hardest.  I will concede that listening to music pre-wod can help get you into the mind set to go all out but after 3.2.1 go, the music should mean nothing.

I have experimented with playing music that I like, don't like, hate and neutral with during wods... and I found the same thing each time. After about 30 seconds... I don't hear anything. It is just me and the movements working through it.

With all of this said, I will close with a few things... as always, if you still would prefer certain music to be played on the stereo during class, bring in your own MP3 player and be the first one to hook it up. You can bring in the fastest, slowest, most popular or most annoying music you would like! Secondly if someone brings in something that you "can't" deal with... write it on the excuse post! No one has claimed the "I didn't like the music" excuse yet, so if you want it, go for it!

 

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Coach Paul