Interactive effects of music tempi and intensities on grip strength and subjective affect

Abstract

Pretask music is widely used by athletes albeit there is scant empirical evidence to support its use. The present study extended a line of work into pretask music by examining the interactive effects of music tempo and intensity (volume) on the performance of a simple motor skill and subjective affect. A 2 × 2 within-subjects factorial design was employed with an additional no-music control, the scores from which were used as a covariate. A sample of 52 male athletes (M = 26.1 ± 4.8 years) was exposed to five conditions: fast/loud (126 bpm/80 dBA), fast/quiet (126 bpm/70 dBA), slow/loud (87 bpm/80 dBA), slow/quiet (87 bpm/70 dBA) music, and a no-music control. Dependent variables were grip strength, measured with a handgrip dynamometer, and subjective affect, assessed by use of the Affect Grid. The tempo and intensity components of music had interactive effects for grip strength but only main effects for subjective affect. Fast-tempo music played at a high intensity yielded the highest grip strength, while fast-tempo music played at a low-intensity resulted in much lower grip strength (M = -1.11 Force kg). For affective valence, there were main effects of tempo and intensity, with fast and loud music yielding the highest scores. For affective arousal, there was no difference between tempi although there was between intensities, with the high-intensity condition yielding higher scores. The present findings indicate the utility of fast/loud pretask music in enhancing affective valence and arousal in preparation for a simple or gross motor task.

Effect of Listening to Music on Wingate Anaerobic Test Performance. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Pre-task music has been successfully used as a stimulant [21], and such benefits may contribute to the ergogenic effects identified in empirical studies. These effects include improved strength [22] and improved endurance, such as in a 500 m rowing test [23] or in a 25-min submaximal cycling test [24]. However, other research found no improvement in athletes' performance when running at 90% of maximum VO 2 [25] or in performance in three consecutive sprints by bike [26], It has also been suggested that the timing and type of music might affect anaerobic performance response [27,28].…”

Musical Intensity Applied in the Sports and Exercise Domain: An Effective Strategy to Boost Performance?

“…In the same line, Fucci (1993) demonstrated that, when a number of musical excerpts are played at the same sound pressure level, well-liked fragments can be perceived as less loud compared to the lesser preferred. In research by Karageorghis et al. (2018), main effects of the intensity of pretask music on affective valence were retrieved, suggesting that athletes perceive loud music as more pleasurable compared to less intense sounds.…”

“…Yet, pretask music is widely used by athletes as well. Karageorghis et al. (2018) explored the impact of tempo and intensity of music presented prior to the exercise, focusing on grip strength and subjective affect (valence and arousal).…”

Correlating Grip Force Signals from Multiple Sensors Highlights Prehensile Control Strategies in a Complex Task-User System

“…While the central control process underlying grip style management is non-conscious [30], grip force excess can be made accessible to immediate awareness of the user during an intervention. Thus, multi-sensor real-time grip force sensing by wearable systems can directly help to prevent incidents or tissue damage during interventions when it includes a procedure for sending specific visual or auditory signals [28][29][30][31][32][33] to the operator or surgeon whenever his/her grip force exceeds a critical limit.…”