Listening to music while exercising really does boost your endurance, researchers have shown.
Doctors found people who listened to upbeat music through headphones could run for nearly a minute longer during a tough stress test on a treadmill.
The researchers, from Texas Tech University, believe doctors should encourage their patients to listen to music as a way of helping them exercise.
They said music acts as a powerful motivator – improving mood and triggering feel-good and energy-boosting chemicals in the brain.
Doctors found people who listened to upbeat music through headphones could run for nearly a minute longer during a tough stress test on a treadmill
The scientists, who are due to present their findings at a major heart conference in Florida later this month, said music could help people stick to exercise routines.
Study leader Dr Waseem Shami said: ‘At least on a small scale, this study provides some evidence that music may help serve as an extra tool to help motivate someone to exercise more, which is critical to heart health.
‘I think it’s something we intuitively knew, but we found to be true. I suspect if it had been a larger study, we’d see a bigger difference.’
His team carried out the experiment on 127 people who had been scheduled to carry out a routine electrocardiogram (ECG) treadmill stress test to examine the heart of their heart.
During the test, patients are asked to run for as long as they can while hooked up to a heart monitor.
Dr Shami’s team asked half the patients to wear headphones and listen to fast Latin music, while the other half wore headphones but with no music playing.
The patients, who had an average age of 53, ran for eight and a half minutes if they were listening to music – 51 seconds longer than those with no music.
Dr Shami, who will present his findings at the American College of Cardiology conference in Orlando later this month, said the tests are very tough because the treadmill speed and incline is increased every three minutes.
He said: ‘After six minutes, you feel like you are running up a mountain, so even being able to go 50 seconds longer means a lot.’
The NHS and World Health Organisation recommend each week people do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise such as cycling, walking or gardening, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise such as running.
But very few people hit this target – with polls suggesting 44 per cent of people in Britain do no regular exercise at all.
Dr Shami said music could help this.
‘Our findings reinforce the idea that upbeat music has a synergistic effect in terms of making you want to exercise longer and stick with a daily exercise routine.
‘When doctors are recommending exercise, they might suggest listening to music too.’