Keeping the Rhythm: The Effects of Music on Hurdling Performance

Introduction

Music is everywhere. In the whipping wind, the patter of rainfall, the cooing of pigeons, the laughter of children, the roar of the tiger, the foot-strikes of the hurdler. If you think about it, there’s nothing that’s not music. Humans are musical beings. Our hearts beat. Blood flows through our veins. Whether we realize it or not, we do everything in a rhythm. We chew food in a rhythm. We converse in a rhythm. We sweep the floor in a rhythm. We mow the lawn in a rhythm. We don’t just have rhythm; we are rhythms

That’s why, when we hear music, we respond instinctively, without planning to, without deciding to. That’s because we’re not just responding to something outside of us, but to something within us. And when you’re a hurdler running over hurdles, you’re not just making the sound; you are the sound.

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In today’s world, our obsession with having music in our ears at all times reflects this inherent need to connect with our musical nature. Everywhere you go, people have earbuds in their ears or headphones covering their ears. Personal devices like iPods and smart phones give us personal access to music at all times of day. People are tuning out of the world around them and tuning into the world of the musical landscape.

This cultural trend most definitely extends to the world of sports and exercise. Whether at the gym, on the field, or on the track, most anybody who’s working out alone is working out to musical accompaniment. Working out to music does something for us. It gives us a boost. It gives us energy. It makes working out more fun. But does it make us perform better? That’s a much more difficult question to answer. Sports scientists seem to agree that it’s not easy to quantify how much, if at all, listening to music can make you jump higher, throw a ball farther, or step over hurdles more quickly. This article will address the question of music’s effects on performance, with an emphasis, of course, on the hurdling events.

The primary source I’ll be referencing is an article published July 2008 by researchers Costas Karageorghis and David-Lee Priest of Brunel University in London, entitled, “Music in Sport and Exercise: An Update on Research and Application.” In their article, which builds upon an article Karageorghis wrote in 1999 entitled “Music in Sport and Exercise: Theory and Practice,” the two authors identify five ways in which music influences performance: “dissociation, arousal regulation, synchronization, acquisition of motor skills, and attainment of flow.”

The Workout

“Dissociation” basically means that the music serves as a distraction from the pain. As the authors put it, “dissociation lowers perceptions of effort. Effective dissociation can promote a positive mood state, turning the attention away from thoughts of physiological sensations of fatigue.” The music gives the mind something else to think about. So it forgets or ignores the fact that the body is fatiguing. Distance runners often use music in this manner. TO run for an hour or more without a break can get tedious. Some music in the earbuds serves as a sort of training partner. Listening to the music makes time go by faster the same as a chat with a real live training partner would.

The dissociation factor, however, is limited to exercise of moderate intensity. You can only divert your mind from the pain but so long. “At high intensities,” the authors state, “perceptions of fatigue override the impact of music, because attentional processes are dominated by physiological feedback, for example respiration rate and blood lactate accumulation.”

So let’s say you’re a 6-minute miler doing a 5-mile run at a 7-minute pace. Any aches and pains are washed away by the peaceful melodies emanating from your musical device. But as you crank up the pace closer to race pace, your mind will be forced to focus on the running, on maintaining the pace.

To use a more anaerobic example, think of an athlete who can bench press 200 lbs. as a max. In doing 10 reps at 120 lbs. the athlete can lift to the beat of the loud music blasting through the speakers in the weight room without any problem and feel convinced that the energy provided by the music is making the lifting feel so easy. But if the same athlete is trying to do 10 reps at 180 lbs. he won’t even hear the music anymore because all his concentration will be honed in on lifting the weight.

Still, according to the authors, the presence of the music does make the workout experience more fun (even if it doesn’t make it easier) “by shaping how the mind interprets symptoms of fatigue.” So the dissociation does matter, even at high intensities, because it can make even very difficult and demanding workouts more enjoyable, which in turn will directly affect the athlete’s attitude toward training. It could even be argued that even if the music does nothing at all, the belief that it does ends up enhancing the overall workout experience.

When it comes to hurdlers, because most workouts are done at a high intensity level, the idea of playing music during workouts for the purpose of dissociation seems largely irrelevant. But because hurdling involves such a significant amount of frustration management, then music can most certainly play a role in making the workout experience more pleasurable, enabling hurdlers to stay relaxed and confident in those moments of doubt when they’re prone to get inside their own heads too much.

Hurdle guru and The Hurdler’s Bible author Wilbur Ross was a huge proponent of incorporating music into hurdle workouts. In his experiments with it he noted that “the music helped to induce the athletes to work much harder because athletes associate music with dancing and other play activities and this is quite an advantage for the extension of their work load. The athletes placed fatigue in a secondary role since they were enjoying the rhythms associated with the work, and forgot about the fatigue because of their desire to remain in sync with the music. Fatigue was the last thought on their minds.”

The Warm-up

“Arousal Regulation” has more to do with the warm-up than with the workout or competition itself. Arousal regulation is all about finding the ideal emotional balance. You don’t want to be so amped up that your emotions get in the way of your ability to execute the movements properly. But you don’t to be so calm and relaxed that your intensity level is too low. Though we tend to assume that certain sports, or certain events in track and field, require more amped-ness than others, the truth is that all athletes have to find the tenuous balance between too high and too low.

We think of a gladiator sport like football as being one in which it’s impossible to be too hyped up. But over-eagerness is taken advantage of all the time in that sport. As a Philadelphia Eagles fan, I can clearly remember defensive back Brian Dawkins being out of position on a deep ball thrown his way on the opening drive of the NFC championship game back in 2003. A warrior known for working himself into a frenzy before every game, Dawkins was so emotional coming out of the locker room that he had yet to channel that emotion into a focused attention by the time he stepped onto the field.

In track, in comparing the 110/100 meter hurdles to the 100m dash, we generally agree that the hurdles are very technical and therefore require a calmer, more analytical mindset, whereas the 100 isn’t as technical so it’s all about being a warrior. But the truth is, the 100 is much more technical than the average track fan realizes, and a hurdler has to be a warrior to negotiate those barriers. The sprinter who is too aggressive will make a mistake, and the hurdlers who is too analytical will fall behind.

So according to Karageorghis and Priest, warm-up music can play a vital role in the athlete’s quest to hit the ideal emotional balance. “Music alters emotional and physiological arousal and can therefore be used prior to competition or training as a stimulant, or as a sedative to calm ‘up’ or anxious feelings.” The best warm-up music for one athlete won’t necessarily be the best for another, even if they have similar tastes. The athlete who tends to get too nervous prior to competing needs to listen to calm, soothing music, while the athlete who has a lower motor will need more energetic music.

Even for the individual athlete, different types of music might be needed for different settings or environments. Maybe you’re at a meet that’s running way behind schedule, or a meet where you know you can win easily with little effort, or a meet that has lots and lots of heats of every running event. In such cases, even if you are usually on edge prior to races, you may need some hyped music to pick up your energy level. But while warming up before a big qualifying race or championship race and your nerves are at their highest, calmer music would most likely be preferable, since balance is the key.

The good thing about modern audio technology is that the personal mp3 players and noise cancelling headphones allow athletes to listen to their own musical preferences without interfering with the focusing strategies of their teammates. As a coach, I have no problem with athletes using music to help them focus prior to a race, as long as they turn it down when I need to talk to them, and as long as they’re able to hear the check-in calls, etc. I’ve never had an issue with an athlete’s pre-race music being a distraction. The only time I ever had an issue was when one kid a couple years ago brought some attachable speakers and hooked them up to his iPod so the whole team (and other teams) could hear his music blaring under our team tent at the state meet. I did not want a party atmosphere at such a big meet, so I had to squash that quickly.

In The Hurdler’s Bible, Wilbur Ross says that “music has the power to reduce stress and tension that builds up in the athlete. That’s why you see athletes with headphones listening to music during the competition, because the intent and purpose is to help them relax and concentrate on their event… [T]hey have a long time before they race when their mind could be cluttered with negative thoughts.”

The Rhythm

Of all the effects that music has on athletic performance, synchronization is the one that seems most relevant to hurdlers. When you’re talking about synchronization you’re talking about rhythm, you’re talking about tempo, you’re talking about cadence. You’re also talking about the parts of the body themselves. Synchronizing the lead leg with the trail leg, synchronizing both legs with the lead arm, synchronizing the lead arm with the trail arm, synchronizing the steps between with the motion over the hurdle. Hurdling, you could say, is the art of synchronization, as timing is everything in the hurdles.

Karageorghis and Priest state that “Research has consistently shown that the synchronization of music with repetitive exercise is associated with increased levels of work output. This applies to such activities as running, cycling, cross-country skiing, and running.” And running over hurdles.

But when adding music to the mix, the logistics can be a bit tricky for hurdlers. While iPod wires are easy for distance runners and even sprinters to manage, clearing a series of barriers without getting a hand tangled up in the wire, or without one of the earbuds popping out, can prove to be difficult. Warm-up drills are one thing, but full-speed reps are another. But if you can figure out a way to do it, then I say go for it.

Really for the practice setting, it would seem that the old school boom box is probably the best way to go. It’s just a matter of finding music that everyone in the training group can agree upon. But because every hurdler has a different cadence, music that is synchronous for one hurdler may throw another off of his or her rhythm. If that’s the case, then it might be best to stick with personal devices, or to only play music when you’re hurdling by yourself.

What I like for my hurdlers to do on hurdle days is get a rhythm in their heads during warm-ups, prior to the beginning of the workout. Then take the earbuds out of the ears and let’s get to work. That way, they have the musical beat in their heads and can synchronize their cadence to it.

Which brings up another point. For a hurdler, music doesn’t have to come in the form of music, if you get what I mean. It can come through any means that puts the race cadence into the muscle memory. One of my former athletes, Keare Smith, mentioned that he had a pre-race ritual of closing his eyes and clapping his hands to the beat of his race cadence.

“I believe hearing your own cadence is of equal importance as the action of hurdling itself,” Smith said. “When I began hurdling one of the first lessons I learned was the practice of recognizing my cadence and playing out the three-step sound in my head and with my hands. Focusing on your race and zoning in on the speeding up of your cadence during a race becomes easier once you master your own sound. You can start off slow and then proceed to speed up the hand claps to help your mind hear how your feet should sound in between the hurdles. It helps you hear how fast you want your cadence to be.”

Another former athlete would record his race cadence then play it back to himself prior to races and hurdle workouts. To make himself run faster, he would slightly speed up the playback.

The idea is, if you’re, let’s say, a 14.9 hurdler trying to get down to 14.6, then it helps to hear what a 14.6 cadence sounds like. Of course, that doesn’t mean that a 14.9 hurdler can get down to 13.9 by listening to a 13.9 cadence. But within reason, ingraining tempo into the mind can be beneficial. In a 2010 article entitled “ACE-sponsored Research: Exploring the Effects of Music on Exercise Intensity,” Carl Foster of the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse Exercise and Health Program states that “people will naturally follow a tempo. It’s just something about the way our brains work.”

One of the reasons I’m so big on quick-step drills and for practicing starts with the hurdles bunched is because such training methods help to ingrain a race rhythm. If you always practice with the hurdles at the regular race marks, then the tempo at which you practice will be slower than the tempo at which you race, because in races the adrenaline rush will make you faster. For experienced hurdlers, practicing tempo and pushing the tempo is more important than focusing on technique, unless the technical flaws are major. Just like I said in the “Jazz of Hurdling” article from two issues ago, a hurdler has to develop, quite literally, his or her own sound, and master it.

The Technique

Another effect that music can have on athletic performance is that it can enhance the acquisition of motor skills. Karageorghis and Priest state: “Scientific studies have shown that the application of purposefully selected music can have a positive effect on stylistic movement in sport.”

For a hurdler, “stylistic movements” would consist of leading with the knee, leaning from the waist, etc. While it’s virtually impossible to quantifiably prove the veracity of the authors’ point, it does make sense. Music and motion go hand in hand. Music frees us to move more naturally, with less inhibitions. “Purposefully selected music” means that you choose specific selections to help you master specific movements. Ultimately, the goal is for the music and the movements to become one. So if you’re trying to get your lead leg to snap down faster instead of letting it hang in the air, it makes sense that music with the right beat would help you to do that. As with any dance, your body moves to the rhythm, and it responds to the beat.

It could be argued, however, that for the hurdler who has ingrained technical flaws, or for the beginner who is just starting out, music could potentially further ingrain flaws or encourage them. A hurdler whose lead leg kicks, for example, might kick even more forcefully with the music playing.

Yet one factor that can’t be ignored is how much music invigorates the training atmosphere. As Karageorghis and Priest point out, “music makes the learning environment more fun, increasing players’ intrinsic motivation to master key skills” (italics mine). In other words, because music makes workout out so much more enjoyable, mastering technique no longer feels like a chore. That concept goes back to elementary school, learning the times tables, learning the alphabet. You remember your abc’s because you remember the song, because you remember the melody, not because you remember the letters.

For me back in my hurdling days, I definitely found that I enjoyed practice more, performed better, had better focus, and improved upon my technical flaws more quickly when music was playing. I remember one workout I did with my athletes in the mid-‘90’s when I first started coaching. The cd The Score by The Fugees had recently come out, and we did a whole workout while playing that cd from beginning to end. One of my athletes pulled up his care by the gate on a Saturday morning and blasted it out of his speakers. I felt like Allen Johnson, Renaldo Nehemiah, and Colin Jackson all rolled into one during that workout. Hurdling had never felt so effortless as it did that day.

Coach Ross in The Hurdler’s Bible says that with music playing, his “hurdlers [were] more inclined to run the hurdles with enthusiasm and comfort, which enabled them to have less contact with the hurdle and more speed and better execution of their technique.”

Music goes with hurdling like butter goes with toast. I’ve never had an experience, neither as an athlete nor as a coach, in which playing music while hurdling has had a negative effect on technique, focus, or energy level. I’ve never had an experience where it didn’t help in all these areas.

The Zone

According to Karageorghis and Priest, the final effect that music has on athletic performance is “attainment of flow.” Being “in the zone” is something I’ve talked about at length in previous articles. So for here, let me just emphasize the fact that the zone is a musical place. It’s the place where the competition becomes a dance, where you are both the dance and the dancer.

Whether music is in your earbuds, in a pair of speakers, in your head, in your heart, in your foot-strikes, in your hurdling rhythm, or in any combination of the above, the music takes you down the track, and you’re just along for the ride. Really, if you think about it, that’s the greatest benefit of listening to music while hurdling – it reminds you that the music is inside you, that you are the music, and that that’s what being a hurdler is all about.

Works Cited

Foster, Carl, John Pocari, and Mark Anders. “ACE-sponsored Research: Exploring the Effects of Music on Exercise and Intensity.” September 2010. February 24, 2014.
http://www.acefitness.org/certifiednewsarticle/805/

Karageorghis, Costas and David-Lee Priest. “Music in Sport and Exercise: An Update on Research and Application.” July 7, 2008. February 24, 2014.
http://thesportjournal.org/article/music-sport-and-exercise-update-research-and-application/

Ross, Wilbur. The Hurdler’s Bible 2. 1997. Pgs. 293-295. Print.

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