Jamie Tanata

Personal motivation is sometimes just not enough when it comes to exercising or getting ready for a game.

Music has been linked to an impact on people’s brain when being physically active. Music tapes have been tapped into the market that are proven to enhance any workout.

Music is music when it comes to working out.

Whinston Kaleimanmhu, 22, history and sociology double major said it is more than a mental motivation when exercising or practicing for the game.

“Music definitely helps take you to the next level.”

Kaleimanmhu, an offensive guard for SDSU football, practices year round and daily during the football season. He uses music to get himself into the game mode listening to everything from P.O.D, reggae and the Dixie Chicks before a game. Kaleimanmhu said the SDSU band can even get him fired up for a game.

“I listen to jazz to get fired up for a game,” Thomas Higbee, 21 of Brooklyn Park, Minn, also an offensive lineman for SDSU said.

The ability to experience and react to music is deeply embedded in the biology of the nervous system, and different networks of neurons are activated when music is heard. While no single set of cells are devoted to the brain’s task of processing music, most of it is processed in the brain’s right hemisphere.

Research has shown that music can affect levels of various hormones in the body, as well as trigger release of endorphins. Robert Zatorre, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, said when testing parts of the brain many areas of the brain that process emotion seemed to light up with activity when a subject would hear music.

“Music helps you concentrate on what you’re doing, and more or less take your mind off things,” Delynda Brink, a student athletic trainer, said.

She said depending on the type of athlete, every sport has their own CD to listen to before the game.

Brink said that it helps athletes, “put their mind on what they want to do, and gets them into the game.”

On the other hand, some people prefer not to listen to music while they workout or get ready for a game.

“The only time I listen to music is when I lift weights at the HPER. You have to concentrate a lot of times, and noise is a distraction if you want to be able to succeed,” Phil Remington, 20, wildlife and fisheries sciences major, said.

Remington usually works out twice a week lifting weights, running or playing basketball.

“When I’m playing basketball I get distracted by the noise and the music.”

Jessica Vandenberg, 18, pre-pharmacy major, thinks music helps motivate athletes to work harder. She also said music contributes to mental motivation.

“I think you still need some mental motivation, but at the same time music really helps you work hard,” Vandenberg said.

While mental motivation can help contribute to an athlete’s success, there are other factors that can pump them up for the game.

“Depends on the person,” she said, “Some people use mental motivation, music, or some people get pumped up from the crowd.”

#1.887585:1888291918.jpg:musicjock.jpg:Josh Heikens, a fifth year senior math major, adjusts his headphones before going into the weightroom. Some studies show music triggers the release of endorphins by the brain. Endorphins enhance the immune system and increase blood flow. :