Why Self-Selected Music Makes Running Less Tedious

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Do you listen to music at the gym? What types of songs motivate you in daily life and during your workouts? Most gym-goers like to wear headphones and listen to self-selected music while they're doing cardio. Why do songs from personalized playlists seem to increase motivation and make aerobic exercise more enjoyable (or at least tolerable) when someone is walking, jogging, or sprinting on a treadmill?

A recent study provides new empirical evidence that listening to music while running on a treadmill combats mental fatigue and improves performance. According to a news release, this study is "the first to investigate the effect of listening to music playlists on endurance running capacity and performance when mentally fatigued." These findings (Lam, Middleton, & Phillips, 2021) were published online ahead of print on June 22 in the Journal of Human Sport and Exercise.

For this study, the University of Edinburgh researchers had a cohort of experienced runners do a high-intensity 5K treadmill run with and without self-selected motivational music after they'd performed a series of cognitive exams designed to put them in a mentally fatigued state. The researchers found that "listening to self-selected music in a mentally fatigued state negates the negative impact of mental fatigue on endurance running capacity and performance, potentially due to altered perception of effort when listening to music."

"Mental fatigue is a common occurrence for many of us and can negatively impact many of our day-to-day activities, including exercise. Finding safe and effective ways to reduce this negative impact is, therefore, useful," Shaun Phillips of Edinburgh's Moray House School of Education and Sport said in the news release.

"The findings indicate that listening to self-selected motivational music may be a useful strategy to help active people improve their endurance running capacity and performance when mentally fatigued," he added. "This positive impact of self-selected music could help people to better maintain the quality and beneficial impact of their exercise sessions."

The first Sony Walkman went on sale in the U.S. on July 1, 1979.

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Songs With Fast, Slow, or Midtempo Beats Per Minute (BPM) Can All Be Inspirational Running Anthems

In the summer of 1983, when I was first inspired to start running after seeing a Flashdance matinee, the Walkman was widely recognized among music lovers as a technological marvel. Before this invention, it was impossible to listen to music on a headset while working out.

In the early '80s, I was living just outside of Boston, home to one of the world's oldest and most prestigious marathons. As I've said many times before, I credit my first running mixtape, which started with "Holiday" by Madonna and ended with Irene Cara and Giorgio Moroder's "Flashdance (What a Feeling)" for kick-starting my ultra-marathon career, which resulted in me breaking a Guinness World Record by running six back-to-back marathons on a treadmill.

Runners who were part of the late '70s, early '80s jogging scene in Brookline, where I lived as a teenager, didn't seem to embrace the Walkman or running with music. Most marathon runners, many of whom religiously wore Bill Rodgers' tracksuits and iconic New Balance 574s, viewed the Walkman as a crutch for people who didn't really like to run. As purists, they vehemently opposed listening to music while running.

From my vantage point, this clique of runners seemed like joyless ascetics. In their eyes, "real" runners didn't rely on music to make running more enjoyable or less monotonous. But to me, as someone who's always been inspired by pop songs and disco music, runners who eschewed listening to music while running seemed self-righteous and puritanical.

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Thankfully, the stigma of listening to music while doing cardio became a non-issue in the early 21st century. By the time the iPod was invented in 2001, it seemed that almost everyone—including elite-level athletes and ultra-endurance runners—were listening to earbuds while training and working out.

Listening to music on headphones as part of a pre-game ritual curtails performance anxiety that can cause athletes to choke. Earlier this month, when Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open, she said in a statement: "Anyone that knows me knows I'm introverted, and anyone that has seen me at the tournaments will notice that I'm often wearing headphones; as that helps dull my social anxiety."

Source: Christopher Bergland

Regardless of Tempo, Self-Selected Music That Resonates Deeply Can Combat Mental Fatigue

When I broke a Guinness World Record in the spring of 2004, I compiled an eclectic mix of self-selected music that inspired me in daily life and as a runner. Of course, my personalized soundtrack for that 24-hour event included dozens of faster (120-140 BPM) tempo songs and "Pride" anthems that resonated with me as an openly gay athlete and helped to silence my inner critic.

Notably, during this ultra-running event, my mental toughness and psychological endurance benefited most from two slow-tempo tearjerkers, "Everything" by Alanis Morrisette and "Love's Divine" by Seal, with a snail's-pace BPM of 96. Even though these ballads don't have a fast tempo, they strike a deep emotional chord that, to this day, combats my mental fatigue and motivates me to keep going during long and potentially tedious endurance runs.

The latest (2021) evidence-based research corroborates my anecdotal observations. After each study participant self-selected some motivational running songs, the researchers observed that BPM wasn't the only determinant of how effectively a self-selected song helped to combat mental fatigue while running on a treadmill.

"It is difficult to determine objectively the optimal characteristics of music required to induce an ergogenic effect during endurance exercise," Lam, Middleton, and Phillips conclude. "Since it is hard to determine the optimal music tempo, and other characteristics of music are likely to influence its ergogenic effect, self-selection of music may be a more effective approach."

Shuffle Mode Helps the Self-Selection Process During Potentially Boring Treadmill Runs

Not every self-selected motivational song on a playlist automatically provides the same "dose" of motivation during every stage of every run. Therefore, I tend to keep my finger on the shuffle button and will advance through songs till I find one that's "just right" for that moment.

Having a wide range of fast, slow, and midtempo songs at your fingertips during a run makes it easier to find music that will reduce mental fatigue. Remember to mix it up when self-selecting songs; this will reduce your odds of experiencing mind-numbing boredom and lower perceived exertion during treadmill workouts.