Why We Move to Grooves

Throughout history — and probably before that — human beings have created types of music that are meant to focus awareness and (somewhat paradoxically) induce trancelike states.

These types of music rarely take the form of three-minute pop songs. Popular music strongly emphasizes melody, both because it is lyric-oriented and because it relies on familiarity to capture public attention and dissemination.

Melody and lyrics require a kind of attention that is antithetical to a meditative, trance-like state. Trance-inducing music isn’t about melody, it’s about groove. Rhythm. A kind of mathematical pattern repetition that evolves slowly if at all.

We’re pattern-recognition creatures; it’s in our hard-wiring. To remove, or at least de-emphasize, the melodic component of music, to boil it down to its essence and concentrate on rhythmic pattern — on groove — is to invite the body to move in sync with those patterns. This is an ancient, primal experience, and music that invites it opens the mind and body to a primal and tribal experience that is shared in a place that possibly precedes language. In my experience there are few things more primal than being part of a big room full of people moving in rhythm to music.

The majority of exercise involves moving in rhythm. So it seems only natural that these movements be coordinated by music. The scientific term for matching movement to music is dancing.remember?

Given the above distinctions between melodic and pattern-oriented music, it’s only logical that repetitious movement be matched to pattern-oriented music. When the body is moving in rhythm and the mind is not distracted by the familiarity of melody or lyrics, but rather meditatively “in the moment,” the mind is not distanced from the body but immersed in it, occupied with it. The pattern-oriented music acts as a bridge between mind and body.

Let’s go a step further

Trance-oriented music has evolved over literally millennia to very efficiently help achieve this state. Modern electronic dance music incorporated the lessons from these types of music and developed a type of pattern-oriented music that was designed to fit seamlessly into a larger, longer sequence of other such compositions, providing entire nights of dance music that are, in a very real since, a gradual modification of a starting groove that doesn’t ever stop.

The ability to mix and record at very specific speeds (beats per minute) enables a perfect marriage of exercise (dance, remember?) and music, with the mix acting as the go-between uniting body and mind.

There’s nothing mystical about any of this. If your attention is involved in relatively repetitious music, you aren’t as concerned with fatigue or resource depletion. Naturally you don’t want to ignore these things, but neither do you want awareness of them to be at the forefront of your experience.

Yoga does something similar by putting the focus on breathing. If you’re hyperfocused on your breath, you aren’t thinking how much this damned pose hurts or how much better it would be to sit down to a terrific dinner right now. And a focus on breathing keeps your attention on a crucial component of the practice — the rate at which you’re consuming and burning up oxygen. So the breathing and the focus are as much a part of the workout as the movements themselves.

Groove-oriented music in a run or workout plays a role similar to breathing in yoga: The pattern-heavy grooves give your mind a focus point, and the steady tempo gives your body a constant rate at which to move. This regulates energy expenditure and makes the workout vastly more efficient.

Here’s the important thing: The music isn’t a distraction from the workout. It’s an integral component of the workout.

A lot of people look for distractions when they work out. They watch tv or read on the treadmill, listen to audiobooks or news while they’re running, etc. But these things are meant to occupy your mind, distracting you from the discomfort of the workout. As distractions, they keep you from paying attention to your body — the energy it’s expending, the efficiency and economy of good form. Not only are you less involved in your workout, you aren’t working out as well as you might. Your body’s trying to burn calories and develop strength and endurance, and yet you aren’t involved in the process!

The point with the Podrunner running mixes is to give you a partner that helps you literally pace yourself without separating your self from your body. The music acts as a mediator between mind and body. It’s the breath in your yoga practice. The whole point is to “be here now.”

Even without all this trance-y theorizing, there’s strong evidence supporting fixed-BPM (beats per minute) music as a training tool, by virtue of the steady tempo regulating pace and energy expenditure. You don’t want to burn out too quickly, and you don’t want to slow up without realizing it because you’re tiring. So the music serves as a metronome for your body. Even a hardcore competitive runner who wouldn’t dream of competing while listening to music can benefit, simply because it conditions the body to work at a consistent pace — a winning strategy for any distance runner. A steady pace is even more important from a fitness standpoint.

The vast majority of my listener emails consists of people telling me they’ve worked out longer, gone farther, reduced run time, lost weight, and/or achieved personal bests — with no change in their routine other than adding Podrunner. Some of it is that trance-state thing, and some of it is just that they’ve got a metronome for their stride, which makes their workout more efficient.

I firmly believe that the kind of music Podrunner features plays a major role in this as well. Because — even apart from psychological theorizing and energy-efficiency studies —  the music is wikked kewl.