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There are many quotes waxing lyrical about the importance of music. Music and life are intertwined in a constant dance between the artist and the listener. As a listener rather than an artist, music has been a mainstay and a huge part of my life since I was a small boy taping Top of The Pops and the Sunday UK charts on cassette and listening back through the week until the next installment. It was my and my brother's Sunday ritual. Our church. Now as I reach 45, music is a constant in our house and my 3 children now have rhythm, beat and soul within them.
“None but ourselves can free our minds.” — Bob Marley, Redemption Song
During my formative years whilst growing up in Bradford, Yorkshire I was lucky to have a family who loved music. My brother Matthew was a huge influence on my musical tastes whilst in my teens. I bought vinyl and CDs, danced at clubs like the famous Hacienda in Manchester, and raved at festivals in the UK and around the world. Music plays a huge part in my life and I don’t know what I would do without it. Only this weekend I spent time in Berlin dancing until the early hours to the beat of techno and electronica with friends.
What better feeling is there in the world when you are lost in the music? It’s even better when you know how to use your breath to take the experience even further.
Many physical aspects of humans revolve around rhythm and beats. Think about the heartbeat and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Both are intertwined and linked to health and wellness and can be manipulated to make us feel, move, perform, and recover in a certain way. There is a link between the ANS and music as we interact with music at behavioral, emotional, and physiological levels both consciously and unconsciously. It was said 100 years ago that the ANS provides the body with a tool to enable it to ‘soak-up’ music that reverberates to changes in consciousness. Years before, classical Greek philosophers talked about music and recreational sports to be the foundations of health and wellbeing.
Experiments have been made on humans to explore how the musical aspect of pitch, tempo, and beat trigger emotional and behavioral responses, as well as reactions in the physical and nervous systems. We all know how music can evoke a response to both our physical and mental reactions. The question is how music directly affects our breathing and nervous system. Without scientific technical equipment to hand, I made an experiment this weekend on myself. As a Breathing and Wellness Coach, I made a small experiment whilst in Berlin with the use of a Garmin Forerunner 255 music.
“Music is Life, Life is Music” — Gilles Peterson, BBC 6 Music
I have recently seen a lowering in my Heart Rate Variation (HRV) due to overworking both mentally and physically. I wanted to see how music and a trip to Berlin’s nightclubs (Bar Ohm, Berghain, and Panorama bar) could have an effect on my HRV. Heart Rate Variability is determined by the time between heartbeats, known as RR intervals.
WHOOP the tech company that specialises in HRV tools explains it as this, ‘These periods of time between successive heartbeats are known as RR intervals (named for the heartbeat’s R-phase, the spikes you see on an EKG), measured in milliseconds. WHOOP calculates HRV using RM, the root mean square of successive differences between heartbeats’.
In layman’s terms, HRV is measured as high being good and low being bad. A balanced HRV is preferable and as changeable and variable is healthy here, the more coherent the fluctuations are in speed and intensity, the healthier you are likely to be both physically and mentally.
Whilst in the clubs and having the thought of mind to feel and connect with myself at varying periods of the night I would monitor my heart rate (HR), breathing cadence, and HRV. I kept my HR at a steady 90-100bmp and my breathing cadence at 10-12 breaths per minute, whilst dancing and ensured I drank enough water to stay hydrated. During the night (12.00 pm to 09.00 am I saw an increase in my HRV from 45 to 47. The same day after a much-needed sleep I recorded my HRV at 50 and in a ‘balanced and good’ place for my age. That’s an 11.1% increase from my previous 3-week average recording of 45. It was fascinating to see this change occur in such a short space of time (24 hours). There were possibly a number of aspects at play here, me being away in a new city, my connection to friends, and of course music. I was putting my body under stress whilst dancing and being awake when I should have been asleep, resting, and recovering. Therefore, I’d like to say this change was down to the music and my absolute love of it. Try and remember this when you don’t feel your best and you feel you need to connect with yourself and others through music. Go and do it.
Music and singing have been found to reduce tension, increase energy and improve mood. Located at the back of the throat are the vocal cords which are directly connected to the vagus nerve. Vagal tone can be increased by singing regularly.
One particular study showed that a short session of listening to music could bring about measurable cardiovascular and respiratory effects. The level of arousal was determined by the tempo of the music. The taste of music was irrelevant as it changes from one person to the next, however, slow music from a variety of genres reduced cardiorespiratory responses.
Pauses in the music or silence between tracks produced a higher level of relaxation and activation on the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) which is the side of the ANS often referred to as the ‘rest and digest’ tone. This suggests that breaks in music may provide potential health benefits due to the alternation of arousal and relaxation. The study concluded that music can benefit our health and wellbeing through the induction of the PNS and reduction of the Sympathetic Nervous System which in turn can be useful in the management of cardiovascular disease.
As a breathing coach, I’m always aware of how I feel and how I can tap into the adjustable and responsive ANS. I’m a person who prefers to downregulate and breathe with 6 breaths per minute for the majority of the day with small active pushes of hyperventilative breathing to increase energy, focus, and productivity when I call upon it. Fast cyclic breathing just for 30 seconds can have a profound and noticeable effect on your physical and mental consciousness and teamed with music is the perfect partnership if you really want to feel the direction you wish to head in.
Prior to exercise or performance, I prefer to head into some electronic-based sounds found in my Spotify playlist- The Breath Coach ‘Upregulate’ along with some faster hyperventilative breathing and some medium to strong breath-holds. If I’m looking to downregulate and recover after exercise or a stressful situation I’ll slow things right down to 6 breaths per minute with some short 3 to 5-second breath-holds whilst listening to my Spotify playlist- The Breath Coach ‘Downregulate’.
As a qualified Advanced Oxygen Advantage Instructor I can provide you with the tools to take your health, wellbeing, and performance to the next level. Join me on my course and upcoming workshops to find out how you can feel supercharged and perform at your best. Simply book a Free 15-Minute Consultation to find out how I can help you achieve your goals. There will be music involved. That’s for sure.
