Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of listening to preferred and non-preferred warm-up music on upper-body resistance exercise performance. Resistance-trained males (ages 18–24) participated in two separate bench press trials each with a different warm-up music condition: preferred warm-up music (PREF) or non-preferred warm-up music (NON-PREF). In each trial, participants listened to PREF or NON-PREF music during a standardized bench press warm-up. Following the warm-up, motivation to exercise was measured using a visual analog scale followed by two sets × repetitions to failure (RTF) at 75% of 1-RM separated by 1 min of rest. A linear position transducer was used to measure mean barbell velocity. Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) was obtained after each set. RTF, velocity, RPE, and motivation were analyzed. RTF were significantly higher during the PREF versus NON-PREF trail (p = 0.001) while mean barbell velocity remained unchanged (p = 0.777). RPE was not significantly different between PREF and NON-PREF trials (p = 0.735). Motivation to exercise was significantly higher during the PREF versus NON-PREF trial (p < 0.001). Findings show that listening to PREF music during a warm-up improves subsequent RTF performance during bench press exercise. However, barbell velocity was largely unaffected. While perceived exertion was similar between trials, motivation to exercise was markedly increased during the PREF warm-up music trial. These findings suggest that competitors listening to warm-up music before giving maximal effort during resistance exercise could optimize performance by ensuring self-selection of their own preferred music.
Highlights
Music is widely regarded as an effective ergogenic aid across multiple modes of exercise including endurance, sprint, and resistance exercise [1,2,3]
Recent evidence has further cemented that an important mediator for ergogenic potential of music is musical preference, whereby listening to preferred music improves both performance and psychological factors compared to non-preferred music [1,9,10]
Post hoc analysis rerevealed that mean velocity for set 2 was significantly lower than set 1 for both NON-PREF
Summary
Music is widely regarded as an effective ergogenic aid across multiple modes of exercise including endurance, sprint, and resistance exercise [1,2,3]. Various timing strategies of when music is applied have been investigated including pre-task, warm-up, or during exercise which may differentially affect performance benefits [4,5,6]. Regardless, performance improvements from listening to music may be moderated through physiological (i.e., heart rate, neuromuscular fatigue), psychological (i.e., motivation, enjoyment), or psychophysiological (i.e., rate of perceive exertion, arousal) factors [6,7,8]. Recent evidence has further cemented that an important mediator for ergogenic potential of music is musical preference, whereby listening to preferred music improves both performance and psychological factors compared to non-preferred music [1,9,10]. Whether preferences influence the efficacy of music with different timing strategies is currently less clear. While there is a large amount of evidence supporting the use of warm-up music, there are conflicting reports on the degree of efficacy [2,5,11]
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