Apr 14th, 11:30 AM Apr 14th, 1:30 PM

ANALYZING THE EFFECTS OF MUSIC TEMPO AND CYCLING FAMILIARITY ON PERCEIVED EXERTION IN STATIONARY CYCLING

PUB NCR

ANALYZING THE EFFECTS OF MUSIC TEMPO AND CYCLING FAMILIARITY ON PERCEIVED EXERTION IN STATIONARY CYCLING

1. Watson, J. Stanislaw, K. Taylor, FACSM, K. Wiegand

Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA Music can influence exercise enjoyment and potentially lead to lower perceived efforts despite increasing intensity of exercise. This is particularly true of faster tempo music, which tends to result in a lower perceived effort despite greater physiological effects. It is less known whether this relationship is consistent across varying music tempos, and how familiarization with a type of exercise might influence these effects. PURPOSE: To determine the effect of music tempo on rate of perceived exertion during stationary cycling and assess whether familiarization with stationary cycling contributes to this effect. METHODS: Fourteen of 30 participants have completed the study (19.8 ± 1 y). Participants completed a short questionnaire about exercise and audio preferences and indicated how often they exercised on a stationary bicycle. The “no cycling” (NC) group (n = 8) was comprised of individuals who indicated they “never” exercise on a stationary cycle, while the “familiar” group (CYC) consisted of participants (n = 6) who indicated any weekly frequency of stationary cycling. During data collection, participants wore noise-cancelling headphones while cycling at a fixed load of 25W. One of six playlists was played based on preferred music genre (rock, pop, classical, rap, country, metal). Each playlist contained 4 tracks: low tempo (LOW; 60-90 bpm), medium tempo (MED; 100-130 bpm), fast tempo (FAST; 140-180 bpm), and a three-minute track of white noise (CON). The track order was shuffled for each participant. At the beginning, middle, and end of each track, rate of perceived exertion (RPE) was measured (6-20 scale). The average RPE for each track was calculated, and the effect of tempo on RPE between groups was analyzed using a 4 (tempo) x 2 (group) ANOVA (α = .05). RESULTS: While not significantly different, the average RPE was 8.3 ± 0.3 in CYC and 9.7 ± 0.1 in NC. Preliminary results indicate no interaction effect (p = 0.8), nor any main effects of tempo (p = 0.7) or group (p = 0.1). CONCLUSION: Based on these preliminary findings, music tempo does not have a noted effect on perceived exertion, regardless of familiarity with exercise type. Continued data collections will provide more substantial results, particularly regarding the influence of cycling familiarity.