Movement with the Beat of Music: Strategy to Control the Intensity and Increase Participation in Physical Activity

Previously studies have shown that music can be used to increase the time to engage in physical activity but music's role in controlling the intensity of PA has been studied less. The sensorimotor synchronization (SMS), the coordination of rhythmic movement with rhythmic sensory stimuli method, seems to have enough potential and can be applied instead of the previous method for ordinary people in public places and even the professional athletes. The people have strong tendencies towards responding to the rhythmical and temporal qualities of music. This tendency often results in the synchronization between the tempo or speed of music and the athlete's movement patterns. The previous studies have indicated that the humans are capable to synchronize their body movements with the music beat either as a part of dance or simply as an individual response to the music. So, the purpose of this study was to investigate the use of music to control the physical activity intensity during cycling in the one hand and in the other hand the effects of different music meters on coordination between music and physical activity. To this purpose, twenty-five subjects were involved in this study, performed four seperate sessions. For this study, six isochronous music pieces and for each music meter two pieces with two different tempos were examined. Two trails were conducted without playing the music pieces and others with it. The order trials were randomized. In the lack of music trials, the participants were asked to ride the cycle ergometer with preferred cadences, but all subjects were instructed to synchronize their cycling speeds with music tempoduring the music trials. They were instructed to maintain a 1:1 relationship between pushing the pedal and tone (sound). The participants were instructed to adjust the movement to the beat while cycling even if they could not precisely synchronize it with the beat. The trials began after a short practice. At all of these sessions, the subjects rode without the cadence feedback. In each trial, cycling speed and heart rate were measured. Data were analyzed with Repeated measures ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test. Results indicated there were a strong correlation between the music tempo and cycling speed. We also identified that music meter has no influence on beat perception and synchronization (BPS). Results indicated gender had no effect on beat perception and synchronization but heart rate was different in each beat rate and women heart rate significantly was higher than men participants. According to the comparison of existence and lack of music situation, the standard deviation of non-music condition was higher and this difference (between with and without music condition) reflected the impact of music on the cycling cadence. Therefore, the results of this study indicate that the heart rate status was not significantly different in different music meters at each music beat rate. The study showed music can be used as a method to control the intensity of physical activity. We also identified that music speed should be chosen based on physiological differences