Rock the fitness club
It has been suspected for a long time now that there must be a correlation between music and bodily exertion, but such a connection with music making has not yet been researched in more depth from a neuroscientific perspective.
Up until now it was assumed that being active with music would relieve the severely stressed from the self awareness of one’s own body – proprioception – so that the bodily response to the stress would be simply less clearly perceived.
Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and other research facilities have contributed significantly towards a first explanation for the development of music. Contrary to what was previously suspected, music does not simply distract us when physically working hard by making the work seem a lot easier, but actually the music reduces the effort. This new insight permits on the one hand a conclusion to man’s historical development of music, and on the other hand provides an important impulse for the expansion of the therapeutical use of music.
Muscles use less energy
To be able to clarify the question, the scientists developed series of tests in which three different fitness machines were used. In one of the first tests, there were always three participants using the fitness equipment and at the same time passively listening to music.
In the second condition, the researchers had prepared the machines so that once the participants began to use them, music would start. During their training, participants would thereby make music interactively. During all conditions the scientists measured metabolic data such as oxygen intake and changes to muscle tension, and they questioned the participants about their sense of exertion.
The questioning revealed that the majority of the participants felt the strain less severely while they were producing the music. Coincidently, the measurements revealed that during the music making the muscles used less energy and were therefore more effective physiologically. “This implies that the developed technology is more favourable as a new athletic sports technology, presumably because more emotionally driven motor control occurs with the musical ecstasy”, says scientist Thomas Fritz.
Synchronizing increases the fun
The trial therefore showed that the participants perceived the exertions at a higher output to be less, and in doing so they still had a more effective muscle activity. Synchronizing their actions with others increased the fun even more. “These findings are a breakthrough because they decisively help to understand the therapeutic power of music”, explains Thomas Fritz. “A down-modulating effect of musical activity on exertion could be a yet undiscovered reason for the development of music in humans: Making music makes physical exertion less exhausting”.
Stepper, Tower and Stomach Trainer (close up) from Ben Van den Berghe on Vimeo.
