Listening to Music While Exercising Boosts Brain Power
 
Research has shown that listening to music while exercising not only improves mood, but may also boost cognitive levels. An example of this was seen in higher scores among cardiac rehabilitation patients on verbal fluency tests. The study looked at the effects of music combined with short-term exercise and found that people diagnosed with coronary artery disease had enhanced brainpower after listening to music while exercising.

Participants of the study included 33 men and women who had undergone bypass surgery, angioplasty or cardiac catherization and were in the final weeks of their cardiac rehabilitation. Each of the participants were required to take a verbal fluency test before and after two separate sessions of working out on a treadmill for 30 minutes at a time. The workouts were scheduled one week apart and one took place with classical music playing in the background.

The study also had the participants fill out a 30-item checklist, which included adjectives to describe the patient’s current mood, before and after exercising as a way to assess their anxiety and depression levels. The study concluded that participants claimed they felt better both emotionally and mentally after exercising regardless if they listened to music or not.

However, signs of improvement in the verbal fluency areas were more than doubled after listening to music compared to that of the non-music session.

EurekAlert! March 23, 2004

Dr. Mercola's Comment:
Listening to music is a great way to make exercising more enjoyable. Digital audio players are an excellent way to do this. It’s wonderful to be able to exercise and have an essentially unlimited supply of music or audio lectures to listen to--very stress relieving!

Studies have shown that exercising alone has the capability to increase the speed of the decision-making process. Listening to music while exercising can provide some spice to otherwise mundane exercise routines and can also increase the duration of exercise due to its motivating effect.

Now, these studies are showing that listening to music while exercising is linked to improvements in verbal fluency. Committing yourself to a regular exercise routine is just as important as following a nutritious eating program. Taking into consideration these positive benefits from music and exercising, I would encourage those working out at their local gyms to add a little music to their workout routine.

If you are still looking for additional ways to keep your mind sharp especially as you get older, eating blueberries and taking a high-quality fish oil or cod liver oil are both excellent sources to improving cognitive development.
 
From:   http://www.mercola.com/2004/apr/10/music_exercise.htm
where there are links to further articles