Abstract
The aim of this study was to see if muscular endurance was affected when completing a one minute sit up curl test when using self selected music. 205 undergraduate sport science students did as many sit ups as they could during a one minute sit up curl test, using a random cross over design. Mean with music was 40 and standard deviation was 8, while mean without music was 40 and standard deviation is 8; there was no significant difference. There was no significant difference with music when compared to without music (t = 1.201, p = 0.231), therefore in this study listening to self selected music did not affect muscular endurance. All participants were put into a random cross over design to make sure the groups were chosen at random, to avoid any normalities in the results.
Introduction
The topic of study is around the effects self selected music has on muscular endurance task. Music can affect performance differently depending upon what type of music it can be or the rhythm and tempo. Muscular endurance plays a pivotal role in all sports as well as being a contributing factor towards success of certain athletes. Every individual’s muscular endurance varies, due to training. Depending on how a person trains will depend on their muscular endurance. Training with music may help with the increase in muscular endurance for athletes, this is a reason for this study to be conducted in order to see if music does work in helping to increase the results of exercise.
Previous research has shown music has affected performance during training or before exercise. Crust (2004) conducted an experiment to see if the effects of music before exercise can be carried over and help influence tasks involving maximal strength. The results from this experiment have shown being exposed to music prior to the task did not have any carry on effects, however listening to music during the task showed endurance times were increased.
In addition, another study was done under Becker, et al. (1994) that showed music before a 2-minute stationary bike ride increased performance during training. The results from this task showed that music affected the stationary bike performance as distance which was ridden was great with exposure to both music conditions. Previous studies have shown results where music increases performance. For example, Crust & Clough (2007) experiment showed participants were able to endure an isometric-endurance task longer by 11% when listening too motivational music, rather than no music during performance.
According to recent evidence which has been produced by researchers, music has the ability to capture an individual attention, trigger emotions and regulate moods (Karageorghis & Priest, 2012). This assertion would then show and improvement in capability and results during exercise, that has been performed with music as music helps improve attitude, stimuli and results of performance, leading to an increase in results. This would lead to an increase in muscular endurance, as well as other performance increase.
This study is relevant to conduct in order to show a sufficient amount of evidence to see if music does effect performance during exercise for muscular endurance for athletes. The aim of this study whether or not muscular endurance is affected during a sit up crunch when being performed with and without self selected music in 1-minute over a period of two weeks.
Method
Participants
162 sport science students consented to taking part in the study that had been approved by the St Mary’s University Ethics Committee. The means and standard deviations of the 205 undergraduate students were stature (M) 1.75 ± 0.09, body mass (kg) 73.5 ± 16 & age (years) 19 ± 2 respectively. They were put into groups using a random cross over design.
Procedure
All participants performed a sit up test on two occasions a week apart, once with self selected music and the other without self selected music. Students bought their own music on their mobile phones with a pair of headphones to listen to when performing the sit up test. The participants had to do as many sit ups as they could within one minute with and without music. Before attempting the task, each individual had to take part in a warm up, the warm up consisted of: – 60 second jog on the spot, 10 squats, 20 seconds pogo jumping, 5 slow practice sit ups and an active recovery of a 2-minute walk; after every task, there was a 30 second rest. Every participant had 10 seconds before the start of the test to set up, and those performing with music, to set up their music.
The technique in order to classify a sit up as a sit up was: the participant had to lie on there back, knees at a 90-degree angle, hands crossed over chest, use core to help sit up, to sit up at a 90-degree angle and for shoulders to touch the ground.
The group consisted of 3 people; 1 person was performing the task, another person was timing and the remaining person was the one counting the sit ups as well as stepping on the performers feet.
The test was performed over two-week period. In one week half the people in a group did the task with their music while the other half of the group performed the ask without music. Onto the second week off the test, the participants within the group swapped round, so the performers who did the task previously with music now did it without music and the same happened with the other people; they now performed with music.
Data Analysis
Data was analysed using the Paired T-test, on the IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). There was no significant difference as the p value was over 0.005.
Results
The results of the two sessions that where held during the two-week period show that there was no significant difference (t = 1.201, p = 0.231) as the values were not under 0.005.
Figure 1 below shows there was no significant difference with and without self selected music (t = 1.201, p = 0.231).
Figure 1. Comparison of mean number of sit ups in undergraduate students with and without self selected music.
Discussion
The aim of this study was to compare the number of sit ups which can be performed with and without self selected music. There was no significant difference shown in the results. The mean curl up for the undergraduate students performing the task with music was 40, whereas the mean curl up without music was 40. Overall the standard deviations when performing with and without music was 8. These were the results over the two-week period, therefore showing music doesn’t have any short term effects on muscular endurance. There was no significant difference with music when compared to without music (t = 1.201, p = 0.231). These results indicated that self selected music does not have an impact on muscular endurance when performing a simple sit up curl test.
The differences in results may be down to the music that was used, due to rhythm, tempo, while also being self selected. Other studies have shown that when being exposed to asynchronous music, no significant differences have been shown (Schwartz, Fernhall, & Plowman, 1990). Evidence has been shown that results from Crust’s (2004) test have provided the evidence that exposure to music during, rather than prior, had a greater effect on the trials.
Compared to other studies like Crust (2004) and Becker, et al. (1994) this study does not provide any evidence that music has effected the results of a sit up curl test, as the mean and standard deviations were identical. The participants only had 10 seconds of exposure to music before they begun there 1-minute task, therefore showing that due to not having enough prior exposure to music may have affected the outcome of the results. In other studies, such as Becker, et al. (1994) their participants were subjected to listen to music before they begun there two-minute bike ride, which led to an increase in performance and results. Similarities on the other hand were the timing periods as not many tasks conducted by other researchers
The limitations of this trial where the timing period, as the test was only conducted over two weeks and different fitness levels of the participants. Different fitness levels would lead to different results, therefor showing varied outcomes.
The results from the test that has been conducted has differed very much from other experiments. The results from this task have been identical to each other, showing that music does not have an effect on muscular endurance. However, a majority of experiments completed have shown that there has been no significant difference; just like in Crust (2004).
Conclusion
There was no significant difference, possible because the task was not long enough or the self selected music was not picked well. Results may have differed if the test was carried out for longer period rather than two weeks or by doing a certain amount of sit up and seeing how long it took to complete. Overall, this task has shown that music does not affect muscular endurance during a 1-minute sit up curl test.