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IF YOU'RE FAMILIAR with the Rocky boxing movie series starring Sylvester Stallone, I am willing to bet that one of the first things that comes to your mind when you think of the training montages is the music. "Gonna Fly Now," composed by Bill Conti, serves as the background music in portions of several of the movies when Rocky is fiercely training for upcoming fights. As the music builds and crescendos, we watch Rocky power through a variety of different exercise drills, from rope jumping and running to weight-lifting, speed bag practice and punching large slabs of meat in freezers. You can feel the struggle, perseverance and triumph within yourself, so much so that it might induce an immediate desire to work out. As a matter of fact, I am listening to it as I write this article. I'm just about ready to do 500 pull-ups and sprint through my hilly East Macon neighborhood with my weight vest. Go ahead — pull up "Gonna Fly Now." Listen to it and see how you feel! Music has a profound physiological impact on the human body that, if utilized, can have an equally profound impact on your fitness level. Let's face it: sometimes, you just don't feel like working out, even if you're a fitness head. But guess what? If you're ever going to optimize your health, you have to move, and when you're lacking in the motivation department, music will help you keep moving. For starters, music triggers the release of dopamine in your body. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that your body produces and that your nervous system uses to transmit messages between nerve cells. Specifically, dopamine is associated with feeling pleasure, focus and general enjoyment. This is why the right kind of music can get you really pumped up while working out, even as you experience bodily discomfort. Ever notice how "sad" music makes you sad and "happy" music makes you happy? When we listen to music, we often mirror the emotions that we hear in the songs. This is the reason why, whether you've realized this or not, almost every movie you've ever watched has music constantly playing in the background. Music helps us tap into our emotions, and there are certain chords, tempos and melodies that will help you feel encouraged and motivated while working out. Music affects our perception with time, and, when music is pleasant to us, we tend to perceive time as going faster. So, while hearing the right song during kickboxing class may not take the discomfort away, it might have you feeling the class wasn't as bad as you thought it would be because it seemed to go by more quickly. One more interesting thing to note is that music is used to treat a variety of psychiatric and neurological disorders specifically because of how it modulates activity in various brain structures, which include the amygdala (center for emotions and motivation), hypothalamus (produces hormones that regulate heart rate, temperature, hunger and mood) and hippocampus (important for memory, emotions and regulation of the hypothalamus). According to the late neurologist Oliver Sacks, the fact that music engages several parts of the brain at once makes it powerful for shaping our brains, including remembering things and making associations. The right music can literally help you associate a workout with pleasant feelings. Imagine that! What does all of this mean for you? Must you now learn "motivational" chords, tempos and melodies? Do you have to seek out tracks that have been scientifically proven to help people exercise? No way. Keep it simple. If you have some favorite tracks that make you want to move your feet, that motivate you and that make hard workouts seem easier, use those to help you maintain and power through your workout routine. The potential for music to help you rise above discomfort can be a game changer for transforming your health. FITNESS: Using music to supercharge your fitness BY SHAWN MCCLENDON Shawn McClendon is an ACE-certified personal trainer and owner of Back to Basics Health and Wholeness LLC, an organization dedicated to empowering people to take control of their health and avoid lifestyle disease. He hosts the health and wellness blog YourHealthAtTheCrossroads.com, conducts online fitness programs and has authored several health/fitness books. 122 maconmagazine.com | JUNE/JULY 2022