Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to assess the effects of listening to music
while warming-up on the diurnal variations of power output during the Wingate test.
12 physical education students underwent four Wingate tests at 07:00 and 17:00 h,
after 10 min of warm-up with and without listening to music. The warm-up consisted
of 10 min of pedalling at a constant pace of 60 rpm against a light load of 1 kg.
During the Wingate test, peak and mean power were measured. The main finding was that
peak and mean power improved from morning to afternoon after no music warm-up (p<0.001
and p<0.01, respectively). These diurnal variations disappeared for mean power and
persisted with an attenuated morning-evening difference (p<0.05) for peak power after
music warm-up. Moreover, peak and mean power were significantly higher after music
than no music warm-up during the two times of testing. Thus, as it is a legal method
and an additional aid, music should be used during warm-up before performing activities
requiring powerful lower limbs′ muscles contractions, especially in the morning competitive
events.
Key words
circadian rhythm - muscle power - warm-up - music
