Effects of preferred music on internal load in adult recreational athletes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: When exercising to preferred music (PM), participants found more satisfaction and less typical exercise-related fatigue, which made it easier and more enjoyable to maintain the physical activity (PA) until the exercise goals were achieved. The purpose of this review and meta-analysis was to determine whether changes on internal training load in adult recreational athletes were modified by listening to PM and non-preferred music (NPM), during different PA.

Evidence Acquisition: A music-focused search was performed on the Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science databases to identify relevant articles to this topic published after 2000 to investigate the effects of PM on psychophysiological responses to PA.

Evidence Synthesis: Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the qualitative analysis. The research studies' sample sizes varied from ten to twenty-five participants. Heart rate (HR) and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) on internal training load were the selected indicators. The use of different kinds of music had mostly, non-significant effects on HR and RPE toward the ability of music to allow participants to dissociate from the intensity level they are experiencing.

Conclusions: The meta-analysis confirmed that preferred music had no significant effect on HRmean or RPE. The results of this review contradict the idea that listening to music improves exercise performance.