The Effect of Listening to Brain Waves’ Relaxing and Exciting Music during Intense Endurance Training on Blood Cortisol Levels of Adult Men

Saeed Rahmaty¹, Pooneh Dehghan^2, , Keivan Khoramipour¹ and Mostafa Saboory¹

¹Department of Sports and Physical Education, Tehran University

²Imaging Department, Taleghani Hospital Research Development Unit, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences

Cite this paper

Saeed Rahmaty, Pooneh Dehghan, Keivan Khoramipour and Mostafa Saboory. The Effect of Listening to Brain Waves’ Relaxing and Exciting Music during Intense Endurance Training on Blood Cortisol Levels of Adult Men. American Journal of Sports Science and Medicine. 2015; 3(4):77-81. doi: 10.12691/AJSSM-3-4-2

Abstract

Objectives: Listening to music during exercise could be used to counteract reduced immune function in endurance athletes. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of listening to music, with relaxing and stimulating effect on the brain waves, during intense endurance exercise on blood cortisol levels of adult men. Methods: In this study, eight healthy men (n=8) with mean age of (23.25±1.83 years) were asked to perform four different protocols in a crossover design, after pre-test determination of their cortisol levels. Protocols included: intense endurance training (control) (A), intense endurance training with relaxing music (B), intense endurance training with exciting music (C), and intense endurance training with music stimulating their brain waves in four non-consecutive days (D). Their post-test cortisol levels were determined. To analyze data, the statistical tests ANOVA R.M and LSD were used. Results: A significant increase was observed in cortisol levels in protocols A and B, compared to pre-test (P≤0.05). While changes of the other two protocols, C and D, were not significant. (P>0.05). Conclusion: The findings show that listening to exciting music and music stimulating brain waves counteracts cortisol rise during intense endurance exercise.

Keywords

Keywords: hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, immune system, vitality, stress

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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