Turning up the tempo on your workout playlist may do more than just make the miles feel shorter. A small Finnish study finds that exercising to fast-paced music—roughly 120 to 140 beats per minute—was linked to people lasting about 20% longer before hitting a wall than when they worked out in silence, per Outside. Published in the Psychology of Sport and Exercise journal, the research had 29 "recreationally active" adults complete two tough cycling sessions at 80% effort or so—one session with their chosen tunes, one without.
Average time to exhaustion climbed from 29.8 minutes to 35.6 minutes with music, even though heart rate and lactate levels barely budged. The study's lead author, Andrew Danso of the University of Jyvaskyla, says music appears to alter the "experience of effort," helping people stick with discomfort longer than if they were exercising to the sound of nothing. Sports psychologists say upbeat, personally meaningful tracks can lift mood, distract from fatigue, and help you lock into a rhythm.
"Many people struggle to stick with hard training, because it feels exhausting too quickly," Danso says, per ScienceDaily. "Our research shows that letting people choose their own motivating music may help them accumulate more quality training time, which could translate to better fitness gains, improved adherence to exercise programs, and possibly more people staying active." The effect may extend to other types of workouts other than the cycling used in this study, but whether listening podcasts can achieve similar results isn't yet clear, per Outside.
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