Running is a solitary sport, and because of its loneliness, many people choose to listen to music when running. However, many people don't know that music can have a wonderful influence on the human body.

In running, in addition to reducing the boredom of running, it can also affect the speed, body fatigue and heart rate of running. So how does music affect our running?

How does music affect running?

When we listen to music, we often produce different emotions because of the rhythm, melody and timbre of the music, why is this the case?

In fact, music has energy, it can resonate with human cells, causing micro-vibration on the surface cells of the human body. When the frequency of music matches the vibration frequency of a person, the music will penetrate the human body, causing resonance, thereby regulating the body's physiological and psychological activity.

This is also the case with running. When we are running, after the music enters our brain, the brain will process and convert the music and then integrate it with the whole movement control system. When the music rhythm is synchronized with the movement rhythm, the brain will release action output commands, thus guiding the output of action rhythm.

Music's influence on speed

When running a marathon, have you ever noticed that if there is some exciting music playing around us, we tend to run faster.

Why is this the case?

This is the influence of music's rhythm on our running, it affects our running rhythm through the song rhythm, thus regulating our running speed and stride length to achieve speed regulation.

British experts have studied and declared that the rhythm of music and running speed are positively correlated. The faster the music rhythm, the faster the running speed; the slower the rhythm, the slower the running speed.

Music rhythm and running speed relationship

So, if you want to run faster, you should listen to more inspiring music.

In addition, music can also effectively adjust our running fatigue. Research shows that listening to music during prolonged running can significantly reduce the runner's fatigue and extend the exercise time. Especially fast-paced music and music that you like, the effect of running is more obvious.

One of the reasons for fatigue during running is that we haven't been able to control the rhythm, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, which consumes a lot of energy. When listening to music, the music regulates the rhythm and stride length of running, turning our irregular running pattern into a running pattern guided by music, making running more rhythmic and reducing fatigue.

Xiao Ming is a rookie runner, he runs fast and slow at the beginning, he doesn't control the rhythm of running, he becomes very tired after running for one or two kilometers, and he loses interest in running.

If Xiao Ming listens to music while running, it can distract Xiao Ming's focus on running, so he won't feel so boring and lonely, which will reduce psychological fatigue.

Music's influence on heart rate

Music can also affect our heart rate during running, experts have done experiments. A group of people listen to music while running, another group of people don't listen to music while running, they measured their heart rate before, during and after running, and found that people who listened to music had lower heart rate in all three stages.

Heart rate comparison chart when listening to music

In other words, when we listen to music while running, we can run more easily, and we will recover faster after running.

How to choose music for sports

Since music has benefits for sports, how should we choose music when we exercise?

When we exercise running, we choose different running intensities according to different goals. Choosing music is also based on your training goal.

Generally, we can choose music based on target heart rate or stride rate.

If we choose by stride rate, if we want to run a stride rate of 180 steps per minute, we can listen to music with a beat of around 180.

If we choose by heart rate, we need to base it on the target heart rate.

For example, Xiao Ming is 30 years old, his resting heart rate is 50 beats per minute, today he wants to run a relaxed run, which is the maximum heart rate within 60%-70%. So the lowest heart rate he will have during running is (220-30-50) x 60% + 50 = 134 beats per minute, and the highest is (220-30-50) x 70% + 50 = 148 beats per minute.

At this time, Xiao Ming should choose music with a beat of around 140.

Within the range of beats, you can choose specific music according to your preferences. Music with strong rhythm and obvious stride rate is the first choice. Avoid sentimental music, which will affect our mood. If you can edit music, you can combine and adjust the speed of your favorite music.

Things to note when running with music

It's true that listening to music can eliminate the boredom and loneliness of running, reduce running fatigue and promote body recovery, but in some cases, we shouldn't listen to music.

If you are a serious runner, you shouldn't listen to music while running.

As a serious runner, more attention should be paid to your heart rate, breathing and running posture. The more focused you are on running, the faster your running level will improve.

If the surrounding environment is very noisy, with many cars and people, don't listen to music

In this case, listening to music can create many safety hazards, because music can isolate the sounds around you, you can't hear the sounds of cars or people behind you, which can lead to accidents.Do you listen to music when you run?