How Does Music Affect Your Brain During Exercise?

I have a nerdy confession: my fastest Peloton ride to date was to the Hamilton soundtrack. One of my favorite runs in recent memory was a slow 45-minute trot to Lily Allen’s new album, West End Girl. And during my longest run—13.1 miles—I ditched my headphones and listened to the sounds of nature around me.

It’s well documented that music, or lack thereof, can have a profound impact on your workouts. While the effects largely hinge upon your tastes and the type of activity you’re doing (and we get all into that below), a well-crafted playlist can transform your mood, endurance, and performance.

Three Things That Happen in Your Brain When You Work Out to Music

I chatted with experts about what occurs physiologically when we listen to music during exercise. Here’s what they had to say.

1. Your Motor System Syncs with the Beat

When you throw on your favorite tune, part of your brain—the auditory cortex—automatically picks up on both the tempo and beat and starts to synchronize to them, according to Christopher Ballmann, an exercise physiologist and associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. As a result, you may suddenly find yourself jogging, breathing, or pedaling to the beat, according to a 2020 review. “We want to move to music,” says Renate Tsuyako Rohlfing, a music psychotherapist, pianist, and associate professor with the Music and Health Institute at Berklee College of Music.

Synchronizing to music increases speed, boosts endurance, and lowers oxygen consumption, research shows. A quick caveat: this doesn’t occur with all types of physical activity, but it predominantly occurs with rhythmic exercises where you can pace yourself (think: running, cycling, or rowing), says Ballmann.

2. Your Pain Tolerance Increases

Music is also a potent distractor. According to Ballmann, research shows that music pulls your attention away from your body sensations and toward the lyrics, vocals, and instrumental sounds. “As a result, you don’t perceive the discomfort of exercise as intensely,” he says. If you aren’t as focused on how out of breath you are or how your legs are aching, you’ll be more comfortable, he adds, and can go longer and harder.

3. Your Mood Changes

You may also notice that your mind starts to match the vibe of the playlist you’re listening to, according to Rohlfing. She adds that, for example, if you’re working out to upbeat tracks, you may start to feel more positive, energized, and motivated. Rohlfing says this is because music causes your body to release dopamine and oxytocin—two “feel-good” hormones known to be mood boosters.

Throw in the fact that exercise amps up the production of endorphins, neurotransmitters that increase feelings of happiness and lessen pain, and you can see why music and exercise, together, can do wonders for your mood, says Rohlfing. An added bonus: music can ease performance anxiety, which may prove useful when you’re stretching or warming up prior to a big event, she says.

What Happens When a Song Comes on That You Don’t Like?

Through his research on music and exercise responses, Ballmann has discovered that people’s athletic performance suffers when they listen to songs they’re not into—plus their motivation and enjoyment decline.

The same 2020 review mentioned earlier explained that blood flow efficiency dropped by six percent when people listened to anxiety-inducing music, like heavy metal, per study participants’ music tastes (whereas it increased by 26 percent when they listened to music they liked). A 2025 study noted that asynchronous music (you don’t sync up to the beat) can make you move less efficiently.

After all, if you aren’t into the songs, they’re not going to do as good a job taking your mind off discomfort you may be feeling, says Jessica Grahn, a cognitive neuroscientist who studies music and movement at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. “If it’s hard to ignore and it’s not the right kind of music to exercise to, then it could definitely have a negative effect,” she says.

I can relate: I usually jog to soft indie rock, but when a modern pop song comes on, I run faster than I intend to and lose my breath. I find the tunes grating and oftentimes wind up taking a break.

Scientists Say This Music Boosts Performance and Motivation

As for the kind of music that will reliably up your game? The music you love.“Your preference to whatever you’re listening to is the most important thing in determining whether or not it will actually help you during exercise,” says Ballmann. Your favorite music tends to heighten your sympathetic responses, which raises your heart rate, boosts the amount of oxygen your body consumes, and helps your muscles take on more force, he adds.

It can also be extremely motivating, increasing the amount of effort you exert along with your enjoyment of the activity, says Ballmann. “People are able to go a little bit longer and push a little bit harder,” says Grahn.

How to Pair Music to Your Workouts

If you, like me, are into all kinds of musical genres and physical activities, then you’ll want to be strategic about the kind of songs you play during different workouts. As Ballmann told me, “It’s all about what your goal is.”

The Best Music for High-Intensity Workouts

If you’re doing a quick burst of movement—like a sprint or resistance-based training—a high-energy song (tunes with a beat of about 120 bpm) will be most effective at activating your fight or flight response and leveling up your performance, Ballmann says. It may help to blast it—evidence suggests louder music can increase arousal and stimulation, ultimately benefiting your performance.

The Best Music for Endurance Training

But high-energy music is actually not the ideal type of track for endurance events, such as a marathon or even a short race, where you need to give it your absolute all, notes Ballmann. In a quick, high-stakes race, this kind of music could actually decrease performance, he adds.

“When you are going all out max effort, you’re not pacing, you don’t want to pace, you want to just go,” says Ballmann. With longer events, these high-energy pump-up songs could actually lead to greater fatigue later on because you could cause you to burn through all of your energy early on, says Ballmann.

As for what may work best during these activities? Music that helps you keep pace with the activity. “Tempo and music choice need to be individualized,” says Ballmann. It all depends on your desired speed, the kind of activity, and the type of music that resonates with you.

Choose Music with the Appropriate Beats Per Minute

In general, you want to “pick whatever is going to engage and distract you a little bit so you don’t have to think of the discomfort of exercise,” says Ballmann. For those rhythmic exercises (your runs and bike rides), songs with roughly 120 to 160 beats per minute (bpm) will keep you moving, according to Gahn. You can simply Google a song’s bpm—or you can set a timer for 30 seconds, listen to a song, count the number of beats, then multiply that times two. That’s your bpm, says Gahn.

“One more thing: many find the sounds of nature to be incredibly soothing, so if you’re looking to relax and decompress on your next jog or hike, consider leaving the headphones at home,” says Rehlfing.

How music affects your workout hinges on your personal preferences. It’s very individualistic—“if that’s with music, great, but if that’s without music, that’s great too,” says Ballmann. My takeaway? If I’m trying to set a PR, I should throw Hamilton on—even if it is incredibly dorky.

What’s your go-to workout song when you’re looking for some extra motivation? Let us know in the comments!