Music Turns Our Bodies Up, Sometimes

How does music influence our workouts? Gretchen Reynolds, writing for the New York Times Well column, helps us count the ways. In one study cited by Reynolds, stationary bicycle riders were told to ride their bikes at a comfortable pace for 30 minutes while listening to music. As researchers tweaked the music, speeding it up and slowing it down, the riders pedaled faster or more slowly. The bottom line: faster is better. The researchers found that the riders enjoyed the music — the same music — about 36 percent more when it was speeded up than when it was slowed, even while none of them found the workout easier. Reynolds also reports that basketball players did better with free throws after listening to upbeat music. But the strange powers of music apparently have their limits: one study found that during exceptionally hard runs, music was of no benefit. Fine.

Read more from Gretchen Reynolds.