Table 1. Music in cardiorespiratory endurance and muscle-strengthening exercises: study’s characteristics.
| Study | Participants | Music conditions | Activity | Primary findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archana & Mukilan (2016) | 18 males (22.45 ± 1.86 years) 12 females (22.81 ± 1.72 years) |
NM; M | 15 min of moderate aerobic exercise on bicycle ergometer | Lower HR during exercise in Music than NM |
| Cole & Maeda (2015) | 20 women and 15 men undergraduate active students (20.7 ± 2.3 years) | NM, NON-PREF; PREF | 12 min Cooper Test | Higher running performance in female listening to PREF |
| Dyrlund & Wininger (2008) | 200 healthy people (126 females, 74 males - 20.7 ± 4.4 years) | NM; NON-PREF (130 bpm); PREF (130 bpm) | 20 min activity at low (30% VO2 max), or moderate (50% VO2 max), or high (70% VO2 max) |
PREF small effect on exercise enjoyment |
| Ghaderi, Rahimi & Azarbayjani (2009) | 30 male physical education college students (25.66 ± 3.89 years) | MOT; REL; NM | Treadmill running to exhaustion (80-85% of maximal HR) | Greatest aerobic performance with MOT; Lowest RPE and salivary cortisol levels with REL |
| Jones, Tiller & Karageorghis (2017) | 13 males runners (20.2 ± 1.9 years) |
ST (55–65 bpm); FT (125–135 bpm); NM | Three exercise sessions of high-intensity intervals interspersed with a 3–10 min passive recovery period | Higher feeling Scale scores throughout recovery periods with FT |
| Köse & Atli (2019) | 35 Sport Science male students (22.63 ± 2.9 years) | ST (100 bpm); FT (140 bpm); NM | Bruce treadmill test with 72-h intervals | Greatest performance with FT; Lowest lactate concentration after recovery with ST |
| Patania et al. (2020) | 19 physically active people (26.4 ± 2 years) | NM; LOW (90–110 bpm), MED (130–150 bpm), HIGH (170–190 bpm) | walking for 10 min at 6.5 km/h on a treadmill or Leg Press at 80% on 1-RM | Lower RPE during walking in LOW, MED and HIG groups vs NM; in MED and HIGH vs LOW. Lower RPE after Leg Press in MED and HIG vs NM groups |
| Arazi, Asadi & Purabed (2015) | 12 well-trained resistance exercise males (24 ± 2 years) | WU+RE with music (130 bpm); WU+RE without music; WU with music+RE; WU without music+RE | Resistance exercises circuit | Higher RPE, HR, blood pressure in WU+RE without music condition |
| Ballmann et al. (2020) | 10 resistance-trained males (21.6 ± 1.7 years) | PREF (>120 bpm); NON-PREF | Bench press resistance exercise (at 75% of 1-RM) | Greatest motivation and repetitions to failure with PREF |
| Ballmann et al. (2021) | 12 resistance-trained college-aged males (20.5 ± 1.24 years) | PREF (127 ± 28 bpm); NON-PREF (126 ± 25 bpm) | Resistance exercise (bench press at 75% 1-RM) | Greatest repetitions, mean velocity, relative mean power, peak velocity, peak power and motivation with PREF |
| Bartolomei, Di Michele & Merni (2015) | 31 resistance-trained men (26.6 ± 6.8 years) | SSM (>120 bpm); NM | Maximal bench strength (1-RM) and endurance (repetitions to failure at 60% 1-RM) | Greatest endurance performance with SSM |
| Biagini et al. (2012) | 20 resistance-trained men (22.95 ±1.90 years) | SSM; NM | Bench press strength-endurance (3 sets at 75% 1-RM) and squat jump (3 reps at 30% back squat 1-RM) | Greatest take-off velocity, rate of velocity development, and rate of force development with SSM in squat jump exercise; lower RPE with SSM in squat jump exercise; greatest fatigue, vigour and tension with SSM |
| Bigliassi et al. (2018) | 19 healthy adults (24.2 ± 4.9 years) | Music track (119 bpm); NM | Hand grip test | Greatest dissociative attention and upregulated affective arousal with music |
| Crust (2004) | 27 undergraduates sport science males (20.2 ± 1.7 years) | SSM (>120 bpm); white noise | Isometric weight-holding | Greatest endurance performance with SSM |
| Cutrufello, Benson & Landram (2020) | 8 men and 7 women healthy college-aged students (20.1 ± 1.79 years) | SSM; NM | Bench press endurance (5 sets at 70% 1-RM) | Greatest endurance performance with SSM |
| Feiss et al. (2021) | 63 strength-trained young adults (25.0 ± 4.4 years) | FT (120 bpm); ST (90 bpm); NM | Wall-sit and plank-hold exercises | Longer dissociative state during wall-sit exercise with both FT and ST |
| Karageorghis, Drew & Terry (1996) | 25 men (22.9 ± 2.8 years) and 25 women (24.0 ± 3.8 years) volunteer sport science undergraduates | STIM (134 bpm); SED (90 bpm); white noise | Hand grip test | Higher grip strength with STIM |
| Köse (2018) | 26 male students (23.92 ± 2.05 years) | SSM (>120 bpm); NM | Maximal bench press (1RM) and endurance (60% of 1RM) | Greatest endurance performance with SSM |
| Moss, Enright & Cushman (2018) | 16 resistance-trained males (22.0 ± 3.4 years) | SSM (129 ± 9 bpm); electronic dance music (128 ± 1 bpm); metal (159 ± 24 bpm); NM | Power based (30% 1-RM) and strength-based (60%, 70% and 80% 1-RM) repetition to failure exercise protocol in the bench press and back squat exercises | Repetitions to failure increased by a small to moderate amount for all music conditions at low but not high intensities; increased vigour in all music conditions |
| Pearce (1981) | Undergraduate students (33 males and 16 females) | STIM; SED; NM | Hand grip test | Reduced grip strength with SED |
| Silva et al. (2021) | 20 young undergraduate students (20.0 ± 1.4 years) | PMG; NPM; NM | Hand grip test; lat-pulldown strength-endurance (75% of 1-RM) | Greatest grip strength and endurance performance with PMG; Greatest RPE with NM |
| van den Elzen et al. (2019) | 153 healthy community dwelling people (73.0 ± 6 years) | PREF; most disliked music; NM | Hand grip test | Greatest grip strength with PREF |
Note:
FT, fast-tempo; HR, heart rate; M, music according to the International Organization For Standardization MOT, motivational music; NM, no music; NON-PREF, non-preferred music; NPMG, non-preferred music genre; PMG, preferred music genre; PREF, preferred music; RE, resistance exercise; REL, relaxation music; RPE, rate of perceived exertion; STIM, stimulative music; SED, sedative music; SSM, self-selected music; ST, slow-tempo; WU, warm-up.