The characteristics and effects of motivational music in exercise settings: the possible influence of gender, age, frequency of attendance, and time of attendance.

AIM: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the characteristics and effects of motivational music in British gymnasia. The secondary purpose was to determine whether the characteristics and effects of motivational music were invariant in relation to gender, age, frequency of gymnasium attendance, and the time of day at which exercise participants attended gymnasia. METHODS: Participants (n=532) from 29 David Lloyd Leisure exercise facilities across Britain responded to a questionnaire that was designed to assess music preferences during exercise via 2 open-ended questions and 1 scaled-response item. RESULTS: A content analysis of the questionnaire data yielded 45 analytic properties that were grouped into the following categories: specific music factors, general music factors, music programme factors, delivery factors, televisual factors, personal factors, contextual factors, and psychophysical response factors. The relative incidence of these analytic properties across gender groups (male/female), age groups (16-26 y, 27-34 y, 35-45 y, 46+ y), frequency of attendance groups (low, medium, high), and time of attendance groups (morning, afternoon, evening) was tested by use of chi(2) analyses. Of the personal variables tested, age exerted the greatest influence on musical preference during exercise; older participants expressed a preference for quieter, slower, and generally less overtly stimulative music. CONCLUSION: Music programmes that are prescribed to accompany exercise should be varied in terms of musical idiom and date of release. Such programmes will account for the preferences of different groups of exercise participants that attend gymnasia at different times of the day. Further, the music chosen should be characterised by a strong rhythmical component.

Circadian effects on the acute responses of salivary cortisol and IgA in well trained swimmers.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether time of day significantly affects salivary cortisol and IgA levels before and after submaximal swimming. METHODS: Fourteen male competitive swimmers (mean (SD) age 18 (3.2) years) volunteered to participate in the study. In a fully randomised, cross over design, each subject performed 5 x 400 m front crawl at 85 (1.2)% of their seasonal best time (277 (16) seconds), with one minute rest between each 400 m, at 0600 and 1800 hours on two separate days. Timed, unstimulated saliva samples were collected before and after exercise. Saliva samples were analysed for cortisol and IgA by radioimmunoassay and single radial immunodiffusion respectively. RESULTS: Significant time of day effects (am and pm respectively) were observed in IgA concentration (0.396 (0.179) v 0.322 (0.105) mg/ml, p<0.05), IgA secretory rate (0.109 (0.081) v 0.144 (0.083) mg/min, p<0.01), and saliva flow rate (0.31 (0.23) v 0.46 (0.22) ml/min, p<0.001) before exercise (all values mean (SD)). Differences in cortisol levels before exercise (1.09 (0.56) v 0.67 (0.94) microg/dl) approached significance (p = 0.059). The exercise protocol did not significantly affect IgA concentration and secretory rate (p>0.05) but, in comparison with values before exercise, caused significant alterations in cortisol (p<0.01) and saliva flow rate (p<0.01). There was no significant interaction effect of time of day by exercise on any salivary variables measured (p>0.05). However, most of the values of the salivary variables before exercise were significantly inversely related to their exercise induced response (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: These results suggest a significant circadian variation in the variables measured before exercise, without showing a significant effect on their acute responses to exercise.