A COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF MUSIC ON RATINGS OF PERCEIVED EXERTION AND HEART RATE DURING MODERATE INTENSITY EXERCISE 339

Abstract

The use of ratings of perceived exertion to monitor intensity may become inaccurate if individuals use passive external distractors during exercise. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of different types of music on ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and heart rate (HR) during 20 min of moderate intensity exercise. Thirty physically active subjects (age 18-30 y) participated in the study. Each subject performed a graded exercise test on a cycle ergometer to determine peak aerobic power (VO2 peak). Four 20 min exercise sessions were performed on a cycle ergometer at an intensity equal to 70% of VO2 peak. The four sessions were randomly assigned from the following conditions: fast upbeat music (FM), classical music (CM), self-selected music (SM), and no music (NM). The exercise was performed in a soundproof, visually sterile room. Heart rate, overall RPE (O-RPE), peripheral RPE (P-RPE), and central RPE (C-RPE) were measured at 5 min intervals. Repeated measures ANOVAs and paired t-tests employing Bonferroni correction were used to identify differences among the means. No significant difference(p>0.05) was observed in HR among the four conditions indicating a similar metabolic intensity was achieved during each exercise bout. No significant differences were found for P-RPE, C-RPE and O-RPE among the four conditions(p>0.05). A significant time effect was found within each condition(p≤0.05), with each time measurement significantly different from all other measurements (p≤0.017). These results indicate that music does not act as a passive external distractor influencing peripheral, central or overall ratings of perceived exertion. The lack of differences among the treatment conditions indicates RPE is effective for monitoring exercise intensity when individuals use a passive external distraction such as listening to different types of music.