Put another dead parrot on the barbie, mate!

Gretchen Reynolds' well-researched column in the New York Times on the motivational power of music when it comes to exercise has confirm three things. A) I already knew that and therefore I'm super smart. 2) Because I work in the fitness industry, I can now justify a new iPod as a tax write-off. C) Australians continue to be my second favorite people on earth.

The column centers around a study published last year showing that when people listened to faster music, it motivated them to increase the intensity of their workouts. Again, I'm not surprised that music fires people up, but I didn't expect tempo to matter that much, given I'm more inspired by the likes of Queen, Deep Purple, or AC/DC. For me, it's about intensity, not speed. That said, there was one unfortunate incident a couple months back involving that Bowflex spring and the neighbor's cat, which I blame entirely on the bass-and-drum techno song that came up on shuffle.

The cat healed. My iPod didn't - which, FYI, is why I need a new one.

But I digress. The article investigates the connection from several other angles, including this cool bit:

The neurologist and author Oliver Sacks has talked about personally experiencing the elemental power of music after he injured his leg mountain climbing and had to push himself slowly down the slope with his elbows. He told an interviewer: “Then I found the Volga Boatmen song going through my mind. I would make a big heave and a ho on each beat in the song. In this way, it seemed to me that I was being ‘music-ed’ down the mountain.”

If you're not familiar with the Volga Boatmen song, it's that ditty from Looney Tunes whenever someone has to lug something heavy. Glenn Miller also did a jazz version, but somehow I don't think that's what Sacks had in mind at the time - although technically, it has a faster tempo than the traditional version, so who knows...

The column also makes mention of a study out of Australia in which basketballers saw improved performance when they listened to upbeat music pre-game:

Just how music impacts the body during exercise, however, is only slowly being teased out by scientists. One study published last year found that basketball players prone to performing poorly under pressure during games were significantly better during high-pressure free-throw shooting if they first listened to catchy, upbeat music and lyrics (in this case, the Monty Python classic “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”). The music seemed to distract the players from themselves, from their audience and from thinking about the physical process of shooting, said Christopher Mesagno, a lecturer at the University of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia, and the study’s lead author. It freed the body to do what it knew how to do without interference from the brain. “The music was occupying attention that might have been misdirected otherwise,” Mr. Mesagno said.

Any other researcher on Earth would have picked We Will Rock You by Queen or Rock & Roll Part 2 by Gary Glitter but no, these were Australians so they picked Monty Python. Here are some sample lyrics from this apparently highly motivational song:

Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.

And that's why Australia is my second favorite nation. (The first being France because, as we all know, they wear no underpants and I respect that deeply.)