Monday, December 5, 2011

Music as a warm up / ergogenic aid!

Every now and again a really nice little study pops up as I scan the news.  This morning I saw this bit of research in the International Journal of Sports Medicine:

Listening to Music Affects Diurnal Variation in Muscle Power Output.

I am only going by the abstract but they had people do the Wingate Test - a set time pedaling at maximum speed against a constant force - either at 7am or 5pm, with a 10 minute warm up..... either listening to music or not listening to music during the warm up.

Power was always better in the afternoon if there was no music in the warm up.  With music, the difference in the average power disappeared and the difference in peak power was lessened.  Music in the warm up also boosted both peak and mean power.

The researchers suggest that

as it is a legal method and an additional aid, music should be used during warm-up before performing activities requiring powerful lower limbs' muscles contractions, especially in the morning competitive
I wonder what sort of music you need to listen to to get fired up?  Does anyone know what they used in the study?  Manowar?  Mastodon?

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