Listening to music increases strength endurance in your workouts

[Nelson Vergel]

EFFECTS OF SELF-SELECTED MUSIC ON MAXIMAL BENCH PRESS STRENGTH AND STRENGTH ENDURANCE.

Bartolomei S, et al. Percept Mot Skills. 2015.


Author information

[SUP]1[/SUP]1 Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna.


Citation

Percept Mot Skills. 2015 Jun;120(3):714-21. doi: 10.2466/06.30.PMS.120v19x9.

Abstract

-Listening to music during strength workouts has become a very common practice. The goal of this study was to assess the effect of listening to self-selected music on strength performances. Thirty-one resistance-trained men (M age = 24.7 yr., SD = 5.9; M height = 178.7 cm, SD = 4.7; M body mass = 83.54 kg, SD = 12.0) were randomly assigned to either a Music group (n = 19) or to a Control group (n = 12). Both groups took part in two separate sessions; each session consisted in a maximal strength test (1-RM) and a strength-endurance test (repetitions to failure at 60% 1-RM) using the bench press exercise. The music group listened to music in the second assessment session, while the control group performed both tests without music. Listening to music induced a significant increase of strength endurance performance and no effects on maximal strength. These findings have implications for the use of music during strength workouts.