Music and Exercise: A Great Combo

Music and exercise seem to be a great combo for both your body and your mind. Earlier this year, Charles Emery, a clinical psychologist at Ohio State University scratched the surface of this research with 33 men and women who were completing a cardiac rehabilitation program.

For this study, Emery used Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons." This piece of classical music is complex, stimulating the brain by forcing it to sort through a wide variety of neural transmissions. The frontal lobe of the brain comes into play as it organizes the tones, timing, and sequence of the music. Interestingly enough, the frontal lobe is also the center for activities such as planning ahead and abstract thinking.

If you're not a classical music lover, don't despair! While it hasn't been scientifically proven yet, Emery believes that other styles of music can also be helpful in awakening the brain during exercise.

For this study, each participant was required to come up with as many different words as possible which all began with the same letter of the alphabet. The time limit was one minute - One minute to come up with as many new words as possible. For those who exercised without music, the results before and after exercise were the same. For those who exercised to Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons,"  the results after exercise were doubled, on average!

So, if you're looking to sharpen your mind and tone your body, crank up the classical music and get on that treadmill!

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