“Music has charms to soothe a savage breast” – the oft misquoted line from William Congreve’s 1697 play “The Mourning Bride”. But in it lies the seed of an idea, that music can change the way that we feel.
Part of the reason is because our brain links certain tones with memories. And when we hear those tones again, we re-experience the mood or emotions that were linked with that original experience.
Further, the speed – or beats per minute – of music is very important. We have a natural tend to be in time with the music. So even though you may feel uncoordinated on the dance floor, odds on your body has already made some changes to co-align with the music, like an increased heartbeat and faster breathing. This is why Baroque music, with a pace of 60 beats per minute (the same as the heart at rest) is so relaxing.
It’s been proven by scientists that music can change your mood positively or negatively, depending on the type of music you listen to. It’s amazing to think that something so simple as music has the ability to change our emotional and physical status, whether we’re in a bad mood, good mood, or sad mood.
Have a think about what music relaxes you; what helps to alleviate stress; what songs do you find inspirational; and what music really gets you motivated?
Your Life As A Movie
In you think about the soundtracks to the top grossing movies (Avatar and Titanic), their tracks usually start with calming music with a low BPM, build up to a crescendo, and then reduce their beats down again. Action scenes have fast paced impactful music, and romantic scenes have soft gentle and slow music.
With that in mind, consider what the musical soundtrack to the movie that’s a day in your life would sound like.
In the morning do you wake with the radio blaring or an electronic “beep … beep … beep ….” that jolts you from your peaceful sleep and packs the heart full of adrenalin? Is it possible it would be better to be woken up by a more peaceful track that slowly gets louder until you wake?
When it comes to exercising, do you listen to the same old mid-paced tracks over and over again. How about listening to fast BPM music to get you working out at a higher intensity? And when relaxing before going to bed could you include a piece or two of music that inspires you and gets you thinking about new possibilities and achieving more in your life?
What changes could you make to your life’s Soundtrack that would improve it?
More imortantly, how can you use music going forward as a mood changer, to get you out of a rut, off the couch, and motivated to change your life? It could be as simple as putting on music that makes you happy when you’re feeling sad. Switching off the TV and putting on dancing music to clean the house by. Listening to an action track like ‘ Eye of the Tiger’ or The theme from ‘Rocky’ when you’re angry or bored.
Finding the right music can turnabout your mood in an instant. But did you know that some music tracks can help you lose more weight than others?
Creating an Exercise Play List
A 2010 study published by the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports discovered a direct correlation between fast-paced music and athletic performance. In fact what they discovered was that when music tempo slows, so does effort and heart rate. And when the music tempo rose the reverse occurred. As the researchers wrote, when “the music was played faster, the participants chose to accept, and even prefer, a greater degree of effort.” Sounds pretty simple, right? Well they also discovered that people enjoyed their workout more with higher tempo music.
So, it would seem that a great way to ensure a complete workout to help you lose weight is to put together a personalised Exercise Play List. Here’s how to do it.
- Decide what BPM you want to start with (for your warm up) and what your maximum BPM will be.
- Determine the BPM of your favourite tracks, and rank them in order. You can google the BPM or alternatively there is software to help you out. Both BPM Calculator (Windows) and BPM Assistant (Mac OS X) let you tap along with the song to calculate its BPM
- Rank the songs in order of BMP (low to high) eliminating the ones outside your BPM range
- Decide on the structure of your workout, BPM and length of warm up, BPM range and length of workout, BPM and length of cool down, length of stretch
- Arrange your songs according to the structure
- Listen and enjoy your workout!
For example, it may go like this:
- 60 BPM – 5 minutes for stretching
- Range 80 increasing to 110 BPM – 10 mins for warm up
- Range 130 increasing to 160+ BPM – 30 mins for work out
- Range 110 decreasing to 80PM – 10 mins for cool down
- Range 60 BPM – 5 mins for stretching