Presented at the 2017 Indiana Physiological Society Conference on investigating the use of music in a training environment, specifically controlling its tempo, and its effect on perceived exertion of swimmers or recreational exercises.

1. Effect of Music on Perceived Exertion during a 15-minute Run
Alexander Garcia, Alysia Funderburg, Darrius Crite, and Brett McCory
Franklin College
Department of Kinesiology
People are trying to become more active in their daily lives by exercising more,
eating healthier, or changing their lifestyle. A current trend shows individuals
incorporating music into training sessions, whether it be a personal session, group
fitness, or during competitive sport settings (10) as a possible way to stay motivated.
Motivation is the psychological reason or desire of the individual to want to work harder
during exercise. In the field of athletics, the music as a motivational tool leads to overall
sports performance and hopefully the athlete’s success. While most sports can easily
access music during practice and competitions, swimming has very limited applications.
There is a need to further investigate the effects of music on swimming performance
(12). Swimmers were chosen due to their training in the water and limited on land
exercise. The recreational exerciser group was compiled of individuals who moderately
exercised in accordance to ACSM guidelines to ensure for adherence to the study.
Music does have an effect on exercise (12). When deciding on what music to
listen to, tempo plays a role, whether it’s calming nerves before a race or match, or
moderate-fast tempo to keep the athlete on a consistent pace (4). Beats per minute
(BPM) was used as the measure of tempo during this study. The tempo is the easiest
part of a song to manipulate and does effect an individual’s heart rate (13). There are
studies that have questioned different tempos, but answers are still needed to
determine if an improvement in performance or change in perceived exertion (RPE) will
occur. Specifically controlling the tempo of pre-selected music has yet to be examined.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of music in a training
environment, specifically controlling its tempo, and its effect on perceived exertion of
swimmers or recreational exercisers. It was hypothesized that non-athletes will
experience a greater RPE in the music condition.
Introduction
Our data suggests recreational exercisers experienced a greater
challenge when correlating their RPE with their intensity in both trials.
Specifically during trial 2, the RPE of recreational exercisers dropped
significantly, explaining the greater effect of listening to music. The recreational
exercisers perceived a higher exercise intensity running with music rejecting
the null hypothesis. Recreational exercisers perceived themselves to be
working at a higher intensity with an exponential increase when compared to
the swimmers who had a gradual increase of RPE during the second trial.
Through this study, we learned that music does have some effects while
running, specifically its overall intensity. Because music seemed to make the
run more pleasurable, it is possible that music will help with the adherence to
exercise. The music seemed to make a difference on the level of comfort on
the participant which would further improve performance. A practical
application for the study would be to implement music into practices to help
athletes push themselves beyond what they currently do, more intensity, in
order to be more prepared for games.
Future research could test the psychological difference of self-selected
music and pre-selected music and how that affects the intensity of participants
during different activities. It would also be interesting to see this study
conducted with a different athlete group to determine if all athletes perceive
their exertion at a rate that correlates with their intensity.
Conclusion
A multivariate data analysis was used and showed there was not a statistical significant in the difference in
RPE between the two groups, F (4.20, 1.0), p = .068, Greenhouse-Geisser 7.752, η2 = 2.51. The swimmers perceived
a mean RPE score of 11.35 on the Borg Scale in trial 1. During the second trial, with music, mean RPE score went
up to 11.52. The recreational exercisers perceived a lower intensity than the swimmers with a mean RPE score of
10.00 for the first trial. The second trial saw a decrease in mean RPE score to 9.58. Without music, swimmers
perceived a lower mean RPE score 13.80 and increased compared to the intervention of music with a mean RPE
score of 14.08. Without music, the recreational exercisers perceived a high mean RPE score of 16.40, while the
intervention of music decreased mean RPE score down to 13.98.
Results
music, tempo, bluetooth headphones, swimmers
Key Words
Participants were to run two 15-minute trials with a two-week break in between.
Research was conducted on an indoor track roughly 175 meters around. A heart rate
(HR) monitor and watch was worn by all participants. Prior to the run, participants
completed an informed consent and a dynamic warm-up consisting of high knees, butt
kicks, Frankenstein’s, lunges, karaoke, and ten leg swings on each leg - in that order -
conducted on the track, approximately 10 meters, down and back. Participants then
jogged a lap before beginning the timed run. A Borg scale was used to measure rate of
perceived exertion (RPE) which determined the intensity with which participants ran.
The scale ranged from 6-20. Every other lap, HR and RPE were taken. After the two-
week break, participants ran another 15-minute run with the addition of a pre-selected
playlist at 135 bpm and a pair of Bluetooth headphones. The same warm-up and data
collection was done.
We used SPSS 24 to perform a repeated-measures MANOVA to determine the
difference in RPE between swimmers and recreational exercisers during a 15-minute run
with and without music.
Methods
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The effect of music as a motivational tool on isokinetic concentric
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References
We would like to thank the athletes of the Franklin College Swimming and
Diving teams for participating in this study.
Acknowledgements
Figure 1. Shows the difference in RPE between the
swimmers and recreational exercisers from the first run
and the intervention with music.
Figure 2. Shows the difference between the mean RPE
scores of swimmers and recreational exercisers, taken
at the end of the duration of trial 1 and trial 2.
17 Subjects
Swimmers Recreational Exercisers
Non-Music Trial Music TrialNon-Music Trial Music Trial
Dynamic Warm-Up
Collect HR & RPE
Dynamic Warm-Up
Collect HR & RPE
Compare Results
1. What is the impact of music on overall performance?
2. Does music need to be implemented in training in order to enhance performance?
3. Could other sports teams experience the same effects?
Important Questions