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Inside a laboratory trial, 29 recreationally active adults rode at about 80 percent of peak power \u2013 their best measured cycling output.<\/p>\n
A team led by Andrew Danso at the University of Jyv\u00e4skyl\u00e4 (JYU<\/a>) compared the outcome of riders who cycled with self-selected music to those who did not.<\/p>\n The results showed that listening to music extended time to exhaustion by an average of nearly six minutes compared to riding in silence.<\/p>\n Music increases workout time<\/p>\n Riders picked songs between 120 and 140 beats per minute \u2013 a simple measure of musical tempo, \u2013 before the hard test.<\/p>\n During time-to-exhaustion testing, each rider faced the same high load.<\/p>\n Music stretched the average ride to 35.6 minutes, while silence ended at 29.8 minutes under the same target intensity.<\/p>\n Because the bike<\/a> resistance did not change, the result tracks persistence rather than a hidden drop in difficulty.<\/p>\n Effort feels just as hard<\/p>\n At the finish, the riders\u2019 strain looked surprisingly familiar across the two rides.<\/p>\n Heart rate, peak oxygen use, and self-rated exertion landed in similar ranges. Post-ride lactate \u2013 a fuel byproduct that rises during intense effort \u2013 was also similar among all participants.<\/p>\n \u201cSelf-selected music doesn\u2019t change your fitness level or make your heart work dramatically harder in the moment \u2013 it simply helps you tolerate sustained effort for longer,\u201d said Danso.<\/p>\n Earlier cycling research<\/a> showed exhaustion can arrive while reserve power remains, making tolerance a serious part of performance.<\/p>\n More time in the hard zone<\/p>\n More of the music ride happened above the anaerobic threshold<\/a>, the point where muscles rely more on fast energy.<\/p>\n Crossing that point makes breathing and leg discomfort climb, because the body clears strain byproducts more slowly.<\/p>\n With music, riders spent about 5.5 extra minutes there and a larger share of each ride above it.<\/p>\n Extra minutes in that zone can build useful training volume, although one test cannot prove long-term gains.<\/p>\n Why music choice mattered<\/p>\n Choosing the songs may have been helpful because familiar music carries memory, preference, and control into an unpleasant task.<\/p>\n Earlier evidence from a review<\/a> of 139 studies supports that link, showing music can improve mood, perceived effort, and performance across exercise settings.<\/p>\n Enjoyable music can also engage the brain reward system<\/a> \u2013 nerve pathways that help mark an experience as worth repeating.<\/p>\n Those routes can make continuing feel more worthwhile while the body keeps working hard and discomfort keeps rising.<\/p>\n Body response stays similar<\/p>\n Physiology still responded for the riders, even though the playlist did not make each minute cheaper.<\/p>\n Music raised total energy use by 69 kilojoules<\/a> \u2013 a standard energy measure \u2013 mainly because people rode longer at the same work rate.<\/p>\n At matched times, heart rate ran about 2.9 beats per minute higher with music than without it.<\/p>\n That small rise fits arousal, not efficiency, since oxygen use and energy burned per minute stayed similar.<\/p>\n Comparing music to silence<\/p>\n Silence gave the experiment its cleanest comparison because every participant served as their own control during paired rides.<\/p>\n A crossover design<\/a>, where each person tries both conditions, reduces the confusion created by different fitness levels.<\/p>\n Order and time between visits did not erase the music effect in the researchers\u2019 checks.<\/p>\n Even so, the trial does not show that music works equally well for running, lifting, or clinical recovery.<\/p>\n Limitations of the study<\/p>\n Small studies can find real effects, but they leave wider uncertainty around the exact size of the benefit.<\/p>\n Only 29 healthy active adults took part, and all rode stationary bikes under laboratory rules. Playlists also had to stay within the 120 to 140 tempo range, which limits messier real-world choices.<\/p>\n Because the study tested one hard ride per condition, it cannot prove better fitness or exercise habits over months.<\/p>\n How to use music during exercise <\/p>\n For everyday exercisers, the finding supports a simple rule: choose music that makes hard effort feel bearable.<\/p>\n Fast, personally motivating tracks may help most when the workout holds a steady load and quitting feels tempting.<\/p>\n Coaches could use playlists during demanding intervals, while still watching safety, recovery, and individual warning signs.<\/p>\n \u201cOur 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 programmes, and possibly more people staying active,\u201d said Danso.<\/p>\n A favorite playlist did not turn the riders into different athletes, but it changed when they chose to stop.<\/p>\n That difference gives exercise science a practical target: help people tolerate hard work without pretending effort disappears.<\/p>\n The study is published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new study has found that people can cycle nearly 20% longer when they train to music they\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-647124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}