How Music Transforms Your Workout

Training in silence feels weird. Depending on what we’re doing, there’s an unsettling combo of heavy breathing, foot slapping and clanging weights. Time drags in front of us. And it’s not just in our heads.

There’s a fascinating wealth of research into how music impacts workouts. Some justify what we may already intuitively feel, others are more surprising.

Time Warps

A 2025 study found that people pushing themselves hard in workouts literally perceive time as moving more slowly. Intense effort distorts time. But music? It bends it back.

It’s no surprise that listening to music during training has been shown to reduce perceived exertion (RPE), letting athletes train harder, for longer, without feeling like they’re dying inside. This has been replicated across a bunch of modalities from sprinting to resistance training and cycling.

The reason, somewhat expectedly, is down to dissociation. The external stimulus of music diverts attention. We’re still grafting, it’s just that our brain has other things to focus on, too.

Mood, Motivation & Taste

Don’t be mistaken in thinking that these ergogenic (performance-enhancing) benefits stem simply from having a fast beat to follow. One consistent thread throughout all of this research is that we have to like the music.

Understood as “preferred music,” numerous studies have shown that we can tolerate more pain and improve our mood when listening to good stuff. The effect of enjoying the sounds was even more powerful than generic fast tunes or humour-based distractions.

The flipside has been borne out in the data as well. Listening to whatever participants deemed bad music led to increased perceived exertion even when their heart rate didn’t change. Put simply, listening to bad music made the workout feel even harder than doing it in silence, though their health metrics stayed stable.

Taste trumps tempo.

The allure of training to music you like encourages training adherence even among “exercise-resistant” populations. Maybe you don’t want to do 30 minutes on the stairmaster… but if it’s an opportunity to listen to Now That’s What I Call Music 2025, that might just be the decider.

Unnecessary tidbit to include but we found it funny: 83% of people in one study claimed country music as their least favourite music to lift weights to.

Beats Per Minute

Any runner will already know the power of a brilliant playlist. We’re not just vibing, though, we’re syncing. When we listen, we tap into a neural mechanism called “rhythmic entrainment,” where our brain’s internal metronome aligns with external sounds. 

Fast tempo music during high-intensity exercise produced higher salivary concentrations of cortisol than exercise performed without music. It’s also been shown to increase cardiac output and oxygen consumption (VO₂), helping you perform at higher intensities.

Recovery Sounds 

The benefits don’t stop when you drop the barbell either. Remarkably, the tempo and feeling of the music alter the way our body responds.

Listening to preferred music after a workout also “resulted in greater activity of the parasympathetic indexes,” including improved HRV. In ZAAG terms, it reduces your allostatic load.

Vibes are important.

Listening to “sedative music” for 20 minutes before training led to decreased cortisol and norepinephrine. 

Warm-Up Wins

Even if you only listen to your favourite tracks during the warm-up, the performance benefits linger.

“Higher power output, faster time to completion, and increased motivation” on a rower; “increased repetition volume and motivation across both sets” on a bench press; and “increased barbell velocity, power, repetition volume, and motivation,” on another bench press. All of these gains were made even though there was no change in perceived effort.

Researchers believe this might be due to a spike in plasma catecholamines: performance-enhancing hormones your body releases when hyped.

Final Rep

Without music, we lose access to a powerful external motivator, dissociative tool and performance enhancer. We’re more likely to focus on discomfort, feel time drag on and potentially fatigue faster. For some this is a feature–dare we say rawdogging again–in order to build mental resilience. For most though, it’s a barrier.

Music is more than background noise. It’s a neurochemical catalyst, a psychological motivator, and in many cases, a performance enhancer, too. Your setlist deserves consideration just as your sets do.

So next time you get halfway to the gym and realise you’ve forgotten your headphones… head back to secure an extra push.