How Music Can Boost a High-Intensity Workout

The New York Times reports:

Intense, highly demanding exercise has many health benefits and one signal drawback. It can be physically unpleasant, which deters many people from beginning or sticking with an intense exercise program. An encouraging new study, however, suggests that listening to music makes strenuous workouts feel easier and may nudge people into pushing themselves harder than they had thought possible.

Strenuous exercise, especially in the form of high-intensity interval training, has interested many scientists and exercisers in recent years. High-intensity intervals are brief bouts of hard, draining exercise interspersed with rest periods. Past studies have shown that 15- or 20-minute sessions of interval training improve people’s fitness and reduce their risk for many chronic diseases as effectively as much longer bouts of moderate, continuous endurance training.

In other words, high-intensity interval training promises a hefty fitness bang from a small time investment.

An article well worth your time.