It’s the height of Summer and you know what that means? It’s festival season! Get ready to dance to the big hits and did you spot the groovy wellies at the Glastonbury festival on the 22nd – 26th of June? But how does music help your workouts? At Banish, we’re totally behind listening to music during your workout. It’s not only scientifically proven to boost your mood, but there are other great mental health benefits. So dive into why you need to head to boogie town every once in a while…
Whether you’re a heavy metal-ist or a pop queen you’ll find that putting your favourite playlist on in the gym helps get that pump. It’s all science really… the beat and tempo in music make us push ourselves faster and for longer. You may notice that when your song comes on the radio you can’t help but tap your foot along, or even dance in your seat. We have an instinct to synchronize our bodies to the beat. So when you’re on that treadmill and Dua Lipa comes on you’ll find yourself timing your stride perfectly to the beat. Trust us, it’s futile to resist!
Another way music helps our workout is by distracting us, which in hand helps us to increase our endurance. After a certain amount of time during your exercises, you’ll start to feel physical fatigue and exertion. When we play music we can often be distracted by the tunes and miss these early signs. That isn’t to say we’ll just continue to workout to dangerous levels but where you’d normally want to bail after 5 minutes you may find you’ve managed 10 minutes with ease!
Not only is music good for your workout but it’s also great for your mental health. Music helps to improve mood and decrease pain and anxiety. You may find some psychotherapists offer music therapy. This is because music can help promote the hormone dopamine, which is a natural anti-depressant and known to help with depression and anxiety.
Fun fact: music is actually processed by the amygdala which is the same part of the brain that’s involved with your emotions – cool, right?