Weightlifting and background music

When it comes to training, music selection is a ciritically important part of training.  There have even been Japanese studies that showed that listening to bad music will lower your testerone levels.  Females do best listening to music of their choice while men do best with none.

For weghtlifting, sometimes you need background music. It can help judge the space of time between sets, it helps keep the energy in the room--But, could you be listening to music that's hurting your sports performance?

All too often, novice lifters and cross fitters come to the Risto Sports High performance training center listening to death metal, attacking the bar like they are "ripping the head off a lion".  Sometimes this results in a badass looking lift--- most of the time it results in an ugly missed lift.

How the professionals train ...

Let me tell you  story.  Once upon a time, I was training at the Olympic Trianing Center in East Germany. It was located in Frankfurt Am Der Oder, across the river form Slubice, Poland.   The first day I trained there,  I was surrounded by lifters dressed like urban metalheads- lots of mohawks, boots, chains. When they turned on the radio, I was expecting some sort of heay metal that hearkened back to the days of the Scorpions or even suggested German metal band Rammestein. 

Was this what they listened to?

Nope.

They listened to Kelly Clarkson and a terrible dance remix of the Killers.

Similarly, when training in the halls of Slavia in Bulgaria, the world champions listened to Bulgarian pop music.

Further, if you have ever watched training videos of Ilya Ilyin, he's mostly listening to something that can be found on BPM.

Finally, the champions and Olympic medalists who have trained at Risto Sports with me- Diego Salazar, Maryam Usman, Carlos Andica, Luz Mercedes Acosta, Yoni Andica - usually listened to upbeat music or none at all.

Relax just do it, when you gonna get to it

-Frankie Goes to Hollywood

In other words, the best lifters in the world do not listen to music that creates a negative or aggressive emotional response.  This ties back to the ANS.  Weightlifting uses the parasympathetic nervous system- a good lift is done on reflexes, not ponderous thinking of the central nervous system.  A lifter needs to be able to focus and zone out the background.  Lifting with anger and aggression causes the lifter to tighten up. Thinking angry thoughts to hit a big lift can cause the lifter to, well, overthink the lift. 

So, next workout, put on some Swedish House Mafia, relax, and let something really heavy fly overhead.