Music & Exercise...plus our St George Playlists

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So we wanted to repost and talk about music for a second. I love listening to music. When I train for a marathon and in running I listen to music. However, because of safety issues I choose not to listen to music when I am biking. Or if I do it is in one ear and turned down very low! Competing in any Triathlon music is not aloud so I try and do some training without music to just get ready for what lies ahead for that day of racing. See below as we take you through a few pros and cons of music! And then we wanted to share what will be on our playlists for the St George Marathon that we have coming up and see if anyone has any other suggestions!!

 



Music has been a debate with racing, running, working out for awhile now on the pros and cons of music and exercise! It has been said that certain songs can spike your heartrate without increasing your intensity, while it can also help push you through workouts because you get lost in the tunes. In any race or any running path you will more often see runners wearing headphones than not!! I personally love running with music but there has been some debate whether it should be allowed or not. They have even suggested that it can have a negative effect on people from time to time. What do you think?

Here is an bit taken from Runner's World when they asked the question...

What's the big deal about running with music?

PRO

Music can sometimes make running feel easier. Studies find that music reduces your perception of how hard you are running by about 10 percent. An external stimulus such as music can actually block some of the internal stimuli trying to reach the brain—such as fatigue-related messages from muscles and organs. When these messages are blocked, this reduces a runner's perception of effort, so you feel like you can run farther, faster. Music also elevates positive aspects of mood such as excitement and happiness, and reduces negative aspects such as tension, fatigue, and confusion, so it can be used pre-performance to get runners into an optimal mind-set. (I think this would have been a real big help in Ironman! :)

CON

One big problem is that listening to music can remove you from the other sounds that running produces, such as breathing and foot strike, which are essential cues. They give you feedback on your effort. Running while listening to music also removes you from the environment you're in, which can be unsafe. You may not hear a car or person behind you. You may not hear thunder in the distance. And in races, it makes you oblivious of other runners and you can't hear the directions being given by officials. Would you ever drive or ride a bicycle with headphones on? Not likely, because doing so reduces awareness and increases reaction time. Those are things we may want working for us. Finally, we believe runners can become dependent on music. Eventually, you can lose a sense of what might be truly motivating to you, such as the energized feeling you get on the run.

So how can runners use music to their best advantage?

The benefits from music tend to occur at low to moderate running intensities. It is best to use on your easy running days. We've also been investigating the synchronous application of music. This is where an athlete consciously ties in his or her stride rate to the rhythm of music. This can actually result in more efficient oxygen use during running. To do synchronous running, you figure out your stride rate for your pace, then find music with beats that are slightly above that stride rate—one or two beats per minute higher than your normal stride rate should do it (thebpmbook.com; ez-tracks.com). We've also found that the optimal method is generally two sessions with music for one session without. If you use music for every workout, you can become desensitized to it or rely on it in races.

So...there are some different things to think about.  I personally always run with music..especially on the treadmill and when I am not running with friends. I like to drown out what I am doing and just get lost in my thoughts and the music. Sometimes even if I am running with friends I chose to listen to music and do my own thing because we are all on different training plans! And like I said, when I cycle, if I do listen to music, I always have the earphone closest to the road out and my music on a lower volume so I can hear things going on around me. I don't swim with music, but many people do and love it!!

Music for me is a huge motivator for me. Even sometimes if I am not feeling like working out I will put on a good "angry" song on my way to a run or the gym and get in the mood. That being said, we have got the question from several people about the music we have on our own playlists...so here you have some of our favorite songs! These are songs that will be on our playlists for St. George Marathon.

Jess Perry
All I Every Wanted - The Airborne Toxic Event
Apologize - One Republic
Beauty & a Beat - Justin Bieber
Beggin For Thread - Banks
Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke (This makes me want to dance when I run...really smooth like!)
Boyfriend - Justin Bieber
Cinema (Skillrex Remix) - Benny Benassi
Fancy - Iggy Azalea
Fly / I believe I can Fly - Glee Cast
Ghosts n Stuff (Nero Remix) - Deadmau5 & Rob Swire
Gravity - Sara Bareilles (Softer but sometimes I like to slow and soften things up!)
Try & Just Give me a Reason - PINK
Lessons in Love - Kaskade featuring Neon Tree
Let It Go - Frozen Version
Love Runs Out - One Republic
Marathon - Rush
My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark - Fall Out Boy
Numb - Usher
Runnin Down a Dream - Tom Petty
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
Shake It Off - Taylor Swift
Shell Shocked - Juicy J, Wiz Kahlifa & Ty Dolla $ign
SuperHero - Simon Curtis
Swagger Jagger - Cher Loyd
'Til I Collapse - Eminem
Wrecking Ball - Miley Cyrus
Wobble - V.I.C
ANYTHING IMAGINE DRAGONS & MAROON 5 - Love them and they make me happy!


Debbie Tebbs

The Distance--Cake
Undressed--Kim Cesarion

Black Widow--Iggy Azalesa feat.Rita Ora
Fireball--Pitbull feat. John Ryan
Baby got Back--Sir Mix a lot
All about the Bass--Meghan Trainor
Love Runs Out--OneRepublic
Heaven Knows--The Pretty Reckless
Wild Wild Love--Pitbull
Body--Young the Giant
Berzerk--Eminem
Click Click Boom--Every Six Seconds
Gotta Work--Amerie
Hands in the Air--Timbaland
Shake it off--Taylor Swift
Let it Go--Demi Levato
Let's Go--Travis Barker feat.Yelawolf,Twista, Busta Rhymes
Monster--Skillet
Move--Little Mix
Phat Brahms--Steve Aoki &Angger Dimas vs. Dimitri Vegas Vegas &Like Mike
Roll away your Stone--Mumford and Sons
Shawty Got Moves--Get Cool
Still Getting It--Foreign Beggars feat Skrillex
Till I Collapse--The Junkyard Scoller
Tsunami--DVBBS & Borgeous

Hopefully you can find some similar songs that you have or some new ones for you to try. I found this picture and thought it was funny...I know we have all been there...the moment when the Ipod dies during the middle of a run...

 

 

Do you listen to music?

What are some songs that top your playlists?