The Effects of Music in Sports

9 minute read · Issue Number 87 · September 24th, 2021

Sep 24, 2021

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What’s cracking?

Music has been a fundamental element of the evolution of human culture.

From entertainment and relaxation to religious rites and physical activity, music complements our daily lives quite frequently.

It’s hard to imagine a world without music, and sports has its relationship with it.

In today’s edition of Sports-Tech Biz, we’ll learn about music in sports and its effects on athletes and performance.

Let’s turn it up!

Music in Sports

Kobe hate-listened to 'Don't Stop Believin'' for 2 years after Celtics loss - CBSSports.com

Music in sports began in aerobic classes in the 70s, but its rapid development since then could be primarily attributed to the introduction of personal listening devices.

Take a second and read that again.

Our ability to have access to billions of songs from a hand-sized device from anywhere in the world at any time is utterly extraordinary.

I bet Mozart would have had a heart attack if you had told him that in 1790.

Seriously though, you may be too young to remember, but the first iPod was released just 20 years ago. ¡God bless Steve Jobs!

Today, music is used almost everywhere in sports:

Exercise and training sessions
Warm-ups
Motivational pre-match rituals
During and after competitions
Physical recovery

In sports, athletes use music to relax, feel stimulated, or generate a particular precompetition mindset.

Organizers of sporting events use music to create excitement, patriotism, or tension amongst the spectators.

The use of music as a motivational tool in exercise and sports performance has produced many interesting findings.

Amongst others, I found tons of research from professor Costas Karageorghis who set out to understand the effects and benefits of music in exercise and performance, and here’s what he found.

Effects of Music in Sports

These Are The 20 Most Popular Workout and Exercise Tracks

Research has found that music improves physical performance in a broad range of exercise and sports-related activities in all contexts (pre, post, and during the action).

Music can have an impact in three different ways: psychological (mind), physiological (body), psychophysical (sensations).

For instance, pretask music successfully works as a stimulant or as a relaxant.

During the action, it can produce positive emotions and distract athletes from fatigue or tiredness.

Post-action, music can help athletes relax and deliver pleasant effects on the body.

Music creates effects in the human brain that can translate to physiological improvements related to strength, power output, endurance, and work rate.

This stimulation results in elevated heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, skin conductance, and muscle tension.

Furthermore, enough evidence proves music's capacity to induce a range of physiological changes in a human body, such as respiration, heart rate, skin conductance, motor patterns, neuroendocrine response, and immunological function.

The Bottom Line

Should We Run with Music? The Pros and Cons — Paragon - Personal trainer and Fitness Classes Leamington & Warwick

Music benefits sports performance, and we’re blessed for living in a time where it’s super accessible.

By knowing this cheat code, use it to your advantage!

The effects depend on multiple variables, including music genre, tempo, beat, type, speed, volume, and others.

For example, fast, loud music will stimulate you by activating the central nervous system— elevating your heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, skin conductance, and muscle tension. Soft, slow music will have the converse effect.

Figure out what music puts you in “the zone” to get the effects you need to succeed!

🔗 Links:

10 Best Pump-Up Songs for Sports; If you're looking to spice up your pregame playlist. Here are ten pump-up songs that are fit to be blasted through headphones, speakers, and the like.
Does listening to music help athletes in their performance?; “I feel that listening to music helped increase my performance no matter my skill level.”
Music does more than hype athletes, it helps prep the brain for action; Athletes tend to stick to a routine when preparing for a game: the same food, same exercise, and same playlist. Here’s why.

🎙 Halftime Snack of the Week

Augmented Reality (AR) in Sports & Marketing

My last Halftime Snack features Chad Goebert – a sports tech researcher with experience in immersive technologies in sports marketing.

Chad's goal is to understand the role and value of AR as a tool to improve the fan experience.

In the episode, we discussed AR, its relationship with sports and marketing, the value and adoption curve of this technology, applications, trends, predictions, opportunities, and so much more!

Listen on Apple | Spotify | Google