Tip This Type of Workout Music is Best Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip This Type of Workout Music is Best Music can power your workout to new heights but the wrong kind can trash your nervous system by John Paul Catanzaro January 30, 2018August 18, 2019 Tags Bodybuilding, Motivation, Powerlifting & Strength, Tips, Training Research shows that the right type of music can help you manage fatigue better and improve your performance in the gym. It does so by decreasing perceived exertion, increasing blood flow and lactate clearance, reducing pain and discomfort, and allowing you to train longer and more intensely. But we don't need research to tell us that. Music has been used for centuries to raise the testosterone levels of warriors and soldiers going into battle, but it needs to be used wisely. The wrong music at the wrong time could do more harm than good. Here's the gist: don't blast anything aggressive while you're introducing a new exercise (or tapering down a training cycle) because it can actually compromise your performance. Loud Hard Music Can Kill Performance To understand how music can affect your performance, take a look at the classic inverted-U arousal curve. Think of soft music at one end and heavy metal at the other. If you come into a workout all jacked up on caffeine, blasting vintage Metallica might not give you the results you were hoping for. It could overstimulate you and shoot your nervous system to hell, especially on a technical lift. No, you don't have to play Kenny G, but it may be best to have no music at all at that moment. (Some actually do better with classical music in the background, believe it or not.) When to Crank It As you fatigue, however, you'll need the stimulation. That's when it'll be time to crank up the tunes and shift the curve appropriately. A good tip would be to save your favorite song or the "heavier" stuff for a big lift when you're trying to set a PR. Only pull out the heavy artillery when you need it – not all the time – or else you'll become desensitized and it'll lose its effect. On the flip side, music in general has been shown to improve your performance during cardio, so crank it up then. Just don't bang your head on the treadmill. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training Tip Dead-Stop Trap Bar Press The neutral handle angle makes the trap bar perfect for pressing. Try it dead-stop style: reset every rep from the pins. Exercise Coaching, Overhead Press, Shoulders, Tips Ben Bruno June 12 Training The Volume of Strength Program 4 Weeks To a New Personal Best! Training Chad Waterbury November 8 Training Tip The Cure for Narrow Shoulders Modify a classic exercise to really add some width to your delts. Here's how. Bodybuilding, Shoulders, Tips, Training Dave Bonollo August 13 Training Booty Call A Glute-Dominant Workout for Increased Strength Training John Romaniello December 20