Music Makes You Stronger, And Here's a Workout Playlist to Prove It
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High intensity interval training is all the rage. Less than 15 minutes of banded sprints—a particularly hellish form of Cross Fit branded sado-masicism—will turn your legs to jelly and risk the reappearance of your breakfast. But then you’re done. For the day. Which is awesome, except for those 15 minutes. That’s why we’re so excited about new research which finds that blasting music can dramatically improve your performance during intense workouts.
The study, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Ercise, followed 20 young, healthy newcomers to interval training: first they tried "all-out" pedaling, using stationary bikes at the highest resistance each volunteer could handle, without music. Scientists observed the participants’ raw power output and surveyed them on the degree of their misery.
The volunteers returned to the lab/gym, this time with some of their favorite music queued up. They pedaled again, once with music and once without. Again researchers recorded their power output and quizzed them on their experience. Here’s the crazy part: discomfort was equal with music and without music, but the power output with music was substantially greater than the power output sans music. In other words, A$AP Rocky spitting bars in your ear will increase the intensity, not the discomfort, of your workout.
In honor of this development, and of course the T. Swift album launch, GQ has assembled the definitive workout playlist. Throw this on when you hit the gym, and observe the performance boost.
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