Andy Lane, Costas Karageorghis & Greg Whyte Using music to facilitate fatigue management during long-duration, high-intensity exercise Andy Lane, Costas Karageorghis & Greg Whyte

Background Intense exercise is associated with increasing sensation of fatigue A prolonged state of fatigue becomes dysfunctional for performance when coupled with unpleasant emotions such as anger, tension, and depression (Lane et al., 2005; Linderman et al., 2003)

Background Athletes seek strategies to manage fatigue (Stevinson & Biddle, 1998) Successful endurance athletes learn to manage intense fatigue through accepting it as a necessary consequence of performance (Lloyd, Pedlar, Lane, & Whyte, 2007)

Lane, Whyte et al., 2007

Feelings and thoughts that help performance “I will work harder” “I will use shorten strides” Feelings “excited, happy, lively” (could be nervous) Performing successfully

Feelings and thoughts that hinder performance “This is exhausting, and pointless” “If I go any slower, I will stop” “I am letting down the team” Feelings “miserable, tired, anxious, angry” Under-performing

Feelings and thoughts hindering performance “miserable, tired, anxious, angry” Thoughts “I will work harder” “I will use bigger gears” Under-performing Disengage with feelings and thoughts. Interpreting feeling differently

Music The rhythmical qualities of music can be used as an analogue for skills needed to maintain endurance performance thereby distracting an athlete’s attention from sensations of fatigue (Karageorghis & Terry, 1997; Karageorghis et al., in press)

Applied Uses of Music Lane (2008) used music as a strategy to condition certain psychological responses among professional boxers. Athletes self-selected up-beat songs with considerable personal meaning when an increase in vigour and excitement was the goal. When relaxation was the goal, boxer selected sedative music characterised by a slow tempo.

Purpose Explore the use of music listening to maintain positive psychological states during long-duration and high-intensity exercise.

Case Study Male participant with significant experience of competing in endurance sport; 5 marathons; 20+ triathlon/duathlon; 16 mile swim. Participant competed in 18 endurance events from March until October 2008 including marathon (1), 30km (1) half-marathon (2), 10km (7), 5 mile (3), 5km (2), and duathlon (2) Age group winner in 2 events; finish position in top 10% each time.

Methods Music used as a strategy for desired pacing (Bishop, in press; Karageorghis et al., 1999; 2006) Music self-selected and used within training and competition. Emotion profiling conducted (see Lane, 2007) Mood and training diaries reported over a 150 day period; reporting factors associated with emotional responses. Mood and physiological responses to exercise assessed in performance tests and in races

Results and Discussion

Emotion profiling (see Lane, 2007)

Training

Music selection Matching the music to the goal Song selected based on personal meaning and tempo (Karageorghis et al. 1999; Hewston et al., in press) Music practised on treadmill to develop relationship with listening to music, desired heart rate and running speed. Imagery used to strengthen music-emotion link and develop strategy if technology failed

Music selection for a 40 min race and warm-up Song Time Group Passiondale 08:27 Iron Maiden Irish Blood, English Heart 02:37 Morrissey Stan 06:44 Eminem War Pigs 07:57 Black Sabbath A New England 02:15 Billy Bragg The Myth of Trust 02:54 Summertime 02:56 Billie Holiday Heaven And Hell 06:54 Stay Clean 02:40 Motörhead Overkill 05:13 Iron Horse /Born To Lose 05:23 Decontrol 02:36 Discharge A Hell on Earth 01:52 Hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing 01:31 Warm up activities Jogging Intervals Stretching

Music and long duration cycling Selection of motivating music; well established music-exercise link Music to sustain pace; moderate tempo; moderate personal meaning Music to raise arousal levels; fast tempo; strong personal meaning

Emotional responses over time across races

Applied implications Music was helpful for developing a pacing strategy. Beliefs on likely emotional response and desired emotional response were facilitated using music. The process of selecting songs for desired emotional states contributed to careful training and race preparation, which might explain the results.

Conclusions Music is associated with predictable emotional responses Music can be inculcated into training to support obtaining desired psychological states Experimental research is needed to determine directions to music-emotions relationships and effectiveness of music above, or in conjunctions other interventions