The Autumn-ready treadmill walk is the essential exercise routine that fall calls for, courtesy of this summer's Brat trend.
Music Enhances Walking Workouts, According to NASM-Certified Personal Trainer Ellen Thompson
Walking workouts, often overlooked as a form of exercise, have been given a boost thanks to the suggestion of listening to music during these workouts. According to Ellen Thompson, a NASM-certified personal trainer, walking is indeed a workout.
Research suggests that listening to self-selected music (SSM) during walking workouts can significantly improve exercise ability. This is due to music's ability to increase motivation, reduce perceived exertion, and enhance endurance. Thompson does not suggest a specific pace for the walking workout, but encourages individuals to go at their own pace.
The benefits of music during walking workouts are numerous. It can positively affect affective responses during exercise, helping maintain higher intensities while preserving positive emotions. This contributes to improved endurance and workout performance. Additionally, music stimulates the motor cortex, synchronizing body movements to rhythm and beat, making walking workouts feel less tiring and more engaging.
A study by [1] found that individuals in exercise rehabilitation walked longer distances and reported lower ratings of perceived exertion when listening to music. This is likely due to music’s role in attentional reallocation—shifting focus away from physical discomfort.
Music also acts as a distraction from pain or fatigue experienced during exercise, supporting sustained physical activity by reducing attention to discomfort. This is backed by multiple studies in both healthy and clinical populations [1][2][3][5].
Allie Bennett, who has created a walking workout routine for the North America Sweat tour headlined by Charli XCX and Troye Sivan, suggests a specific walking workout playlist. The workout begins at a treadmill speed setting of 3.5mph for the song "What's the Time..." and increases speed with each track. The workout ends with the song "One of your Girls" as a cooldown.
The guide to the best workout earbuds, which includes three top picks, can be found online if you need new Bluetooth earbuds for this workout. Walking improves heart and blood circulation, helping burn calories with low impact on the body. The more effort put into walking, the greater the benefits to health will be.
Even a short walk can still burn some calories and work the heart harder. Compared to other forms of cardio, walking puts less stress on joints, making it an accessible workout option for many. Charli XCX's album Brat was the sound of summer 2024, and it seems that music plays a crucial role in enhancing the experience of walking workouts as well.
- According to Ellen Thompson, a NASM-certified personal trainer, fitness-and-exercise like walking workouts can be significantly improved by listening to self-selected music (SSM), as research suggests it can increase motivation, reduce perceived exertion, and enhance endurance.
- Studies have shown that music stimulates the motor cortex, synchronizing body movements to rhythm and beat, making fitness-and-exercise like walking workouts feel less tiring and more engaging.
- Listening to music during fitness-and-exercise like walking workouts can also positively affect affective responses, helping maintain higher intensities while preserving positive emotions, which contributes to improved endurance and workout performance.
- A research study found that individuals in exercise rehabilitation walked longer distances and reported lower ratings of perceived exertion when listening to music, likely due to music’s role in attentional reallocation—shifting focus away from physical discomfort, making it a useful distraction from pain or fatigue during exercise.
