Sunday, January 8, 2012

Where is the music ?

The 2012 January Tennismadesimple winter session is off to a good start.  .Wow !! I've filled my Sunday 8 am cardio tennis class for 5 weeks. Yes ...I'm good at convincing my clients to wake up early, for a high energy , calorie burning, music blasting tennis workout!
This class is in it's third year. Everything is going smoothly. Got lesson plans , footwork ladder, and the boombox...(it's no fun without this).  Being late is not an option so I leave plenty of prep time. My alarm clock rings , and I'm right on schedule. After loading my ball cart I'm off. Upon arrival, I realize the boombox was left home and there will be no music.
My clients were very understanding , but I know they really look forward to playing to the beat ....

It took me a long time to become a Cardio Tennis music lover. There were two issues that needed to be resolved. 1) Don't tennis players require silence to concentrate ? 2) How could I instruct with blasting music ?. After teaching my first music filled class (summer 2010), the opposite was true. It turns out everyone played a better,  more relaxed game. Plus, when I need to instruct out loud, the remote allows me to regulate the volume.The $500 Bose boombox was a great investment. The joy it brings,priceless !

Luckily, this post does have a happy ending. 15 minutes into the class, a women's boot camp was starting, next door. So we had music after all !

Music does work wonders for any workout activity.  It lifts you up, relaxes your blood vessels, lowers your blood pressure and releases endorphins & oxytocin. But don't just take my word for it .After some online research, here are my favorite quotes from the experts:

 1) Music can lower your perception of effort by as much as 10 percent by tricking your mind into feeling less fatigued during a workout and also encouraging positive thoughts (Karageorghi)

2). As the researchers wrote, when “the music was played faster, the participants chose to accept, and even prefer, a greater degree of effort.” (2010 British researchers study)

3) “Humans and song birds” are the only creatures “that automatically feel the beat” of a song.( Nina Kraus,  professor of neurobiology at Northwestern University in Illinois)

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