An experiment has been carried out by insurance company Direct Line, who wanted to see what the link was between people watching films and improving their wellbeing by working out.
The set up a unique cinigym for the night, and instead of seats they put in treadmills. The film was an hour-long montage, made up of bits from all different films that were supposed to be inspirational or motivating (for example, it included the Indiana Jones boulder dash and the ‘steps’ scene from the Rocky film).
The aim of this experiment was to consider whether it is beneficial to your wellness to be distracted while you are taking exercise. The exercise industry claims that exercising with a soundtrack is highly beneficial and that you are more likely to complete a high intensity workout if you are not totally focusing on the pain and strain in your muscles! A new app called NOW Running even takes high energy tracks from their catalogue and matches them to the proposed intensity and length of your run, to help you get through it.
Jog.fm is another app, and this one uses Spotify to play songs to you that have a certain beats-per-minute value. Scientists are now suggesting that as well as making workouts less boring, music can also have other beneficial effects.
During some research, where students were put onto exercise bikes whilst listening to music, some interesting observations were recorded. The tempo of the music was varied, and researchers noted that when the music was sped up, the participants unconsciously rode their bikes harder and faster. When the music slowed down, the pedaling became slower again, in time with the music.
A separate study has also proved that music is a great way to help professional athletes prepare for a big game or other sporting event, as it helps them to get into the ‘zone’ mentally.