Powerlifting and music

I have a friend who is in pains to decide exactly what he wants with his double career: he is a Physical Educator, Strength Training specialist (note that in Brazil this doesn’t exist legally, there is no accreditation actually) and a musician (and sings in a rock band). One of the things I tried to suggest was making a compromise and bringing both interests together. I thought about the “musical cultures” in sports, for example.

Our sport, powerlifting, is very strict about its musical associations: heavy metal, hard rock and some urban sounds. This is it. Last year I have been to a meet in Rio where a small town team brought a “cheering committee” with drums and honks. The rest of the athletes were outraged. There was a typical clash of cultures at this moment.

The “focusing” sound, however, is quite different from athlete to athlete. Although we all like our meets with hard rock playing on the back, many of us use our mp3’s with completely different musical material.

These are some interesting links I found and decided to share. Have fun

http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/music-sport-and-exercise-update-research-and-application
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Jan01/Sport_and_Music.htm
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/episodes/2007/08/12
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2006/1743577.htm
http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2008/11/06/sports/1_music_081106.txt
http://books.google.com/books?id=MWnr5W0PPEgC&pg=PA1&dq=music+and+sport&lr=&hl=pt-BR