[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]he connection between humans and rhythmic beats is intrinsic to our nature. It’s evident when people unwittingly start tapping their foot to the rhythm of a song. Start moving their body to the pulse of a track. The way music modifies and induces human behavior is striking, and reaches beyond some romantic notion. Mattias Stanghed, founder of the music-syncing app Spring Moves, speaks passionately of this connection when describing his work, noting it begins almost at our inception, in the womb of our mothers.
Spring Moves wants to harness music’s influence on the human psyche to help athletes reach their highest potential. The fitness startup was founded a little over two years ago, after Stanghed unintentionally synced three songs with the same beats per minute (BPM) for a casual, routine run. It was afterward, feeling more euphoric and elated than usual, that Stanghed noticed the coincidence: “… I did a lot of research and realized that this was something that was relatively well understood in sort of sports medicine and exercise physiology, that if you synchronize your running to music you’re actually running better, easier.”
From this revelation, Spring Moves was created to help athletes effortlessly sync BPM to their individual cadence and exercise of choice. The app is a well-designed and easy-to-use tool for athletes to sync BPM to their pace, refine playlists by genre and even artist, essentially curating the perfect workout playlist.
The Spring Moves’ website quotes numerous studies that speak to the advantages of “rhythm based movement” conducted by universities around the world, whose results demonstrate music’s capability to mask perceived exertion. But it wasn’t enough for Stanghed and his team to simply accept prior research. The group behind the app decided to take the initial steps to conduct their own research, and as an informal start, they’re beginning with themselves as subjects.
Stanghed, along with Gabriel Wurzel, the company’s User Experience Designer, and Josef Saouan, Marketing Strategist & Head of Community, decided to conduct an informal study at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.
For each runner, they are testing three conditions to see how things like blood lactate level and oxygen consumption fluctuate. The testing variables include running in silence, while listening to synchronized music and while listening to the sort of standard workout mix a normal streaming service such as Pandora might provide.
Wurzel describes the straightforward method:
“… you find your cadence on a treadmill and then you sprint with three different music conditions. So it’s running to the beat, then just listening to regular workout music and then just running with no music. Looking at how your performance changes with these three different conditions.”
While the results will be telling, the three recognize that this is not the most unbiased and random sample group. They are clear in the fact that they work for a music-syncing app, and furthermore all love to run with music, something that isn’t necessarily universal. At the moment, they’re more interested in learning about the process of conducting a study of this nature. Their intention is to get a feel for best practices and to learn about different methodologies of research before committing to a formal study. Plus, for three guys who love to run, it’s a lot of fun.
At the time of publication, research was still underway, so the team was unable to speak to the results of their preliminary study. However, they did suggest that based on the data they’ve gathered so far, things are looking very much in favor of the studies they’ve based their work off of. For detailed results of their research, check out the Spring Moves blog where they will dedicate a post to the results.
No research is needed to tell you that Stanghed and his team are the real deal. This zealous group is meticulously developing their passion into helping others become better runners and athletes. Keep an eye out for the results of their study, and for bigger things to come from Spring Moves.
Writer : Lindsay Novis
